Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Boyle's, Lappe's Teams Savor Holiday Break
January 03, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
If there ever was a place in your heart for basketball at any level - organized, backyard, rec-center pick up, whatever - you know that gyms at this time of year usually are full, and staying on the court for two or three straight games is a treasure.
Holiday break is for hoops, and at the level once played, now coached, by Tad Boyle and Linda Lappe, it really is a choice time to be involved. Or as Lappe described it to me a couple of days ago, "It's definitely a dream time for a coaching staff."
Here's why: At Colorado, which employs Boyle and Lappe, fall classes ended after semester finals before Christmas. Spring semester classes don't begin until Jan. 17. You're talking about roughly a month of pure hoops, concentrated practice time with games sprinkled in.
Of course, how concentrated (and demanding) the practices are depends on the players' performances and the coaches' eagerness to see them improve - which as expected is always off the charts.
Boyle recounted a personal story of his playing days at Kansas, when then-Jayhawks coach Larry Brown sometimes wasn't satisfied during the holiday break with one or two daily practices.
"Occasionally we had three - morning, noon, night," Boyle recalled. "I remember thinking the start of the second semester and chemistry class never looked so good."
He was joking . . . I think.
Lappe laughed when I recounted Boyle's story for her.
"I don't think any student-athlete is ready for classes to start," she said. "I know I wasn't . . . the majority would rather be in the gym than studying for tests."
So it is with CU seniors Austin Dufault and Julie Seabrook. Their holiday time in the gym, time with teammates, is precious.
"It's great," Dufault said. "Coach mentioned in the locker room when break started that for the next few weeks, we're pretty much professional basketball players. What we have to worry about it practicing, working on our games, resting and eating right. It's such a great time of year.
"There's something special about it . . . nobody's on campus right now except for this group of guys. We're around each other so much, we hang out more, we work on our games together. It's really a good time for teams to mesh, to come together."
Added Seabrook: "I love this time of year; it allows us to spend even more time together as a team, to bond. There's no one else in town and you're focus is on basketball . . . I think of it more like a summer league. It's really a great time to not to have to focus on anything else."
Boyle's and Lappe's teams took a short break over Christmas weekend, then returned for practices. Their practice schedules have been measured (I don't think there have been any three-a-days) but the work has been intense.
For the most part, Boyle has conducted routine morning drills, then had his team return in the afternoon for "game-speed" shooting work. Lappe's routine has been similar, and Seabrook said her second-year coach's approach appears to be more calculated this season.
"One great thing about her," Seabrook said, "she's been in our shoes. She knows how to push us. Last year was a little tough during Christmas break. This year, there's a good balance."
And there's a good reason. Seabrook and the Buffs are 12-0, only the second time in program history that's happened. They opened Pac-12 Conference play last weekend with a stirring win at Utah, rallying from a 10-point deficit in the second half to win by six and remain the league's only unbeaten team.
But their schedule isn't cutting them any slack. Lappe takes them back on the road this week for games at Washington (Thursday) and Washington State (Saturday). When they finally return to the Coors Events Center on Jan. 12, their "welcome home" party is catching California on that Thursday night, then No. 4 Stanford on Saturday.
The extra holiday practice time, said Lappe, is helping the Buffs prepare for that stretch. One of the benefits before the Utah trip was in "getting up so many extra shots," she noted. "And we shot 10-for-21 from three range (vs. Utah) . . . if you want to be a great player it just takes some extra time to accomplish it. There's so many good things that have come from this time."
There are challenges, too. CU's dorms shut down over the break, forcing freshman/sophomore student-athletes into other housing. But that issue is solvable.
Dufault and his buds also opened Pac-12 competition impressively on Saturday, demolishing Utah 73-33 at the Events Center. It was the lowest total by a CU opponent since the building opened for the 1979-80 season.
The men's front-end conference schedule is more favorable than the women's, keeping them at home this Thursday and Saturday against UW and WSU, respectively. Thursday's tip for a game Boyle has underscored as being very large for his team is at 7 p.m. Saturday's tip is at 2 p.m. (Tickets, with prices starting at $10, can be purchased at CUBuffs.com/tickets or by calling 303-49-BUFFS.)
Following their destruction of the Utes, Boyle said he saw signs of the Buffs "getting it" defensively and focusing on possession-by-possession stops instead of "scoreboard watching" when they had rolled to a large lead - as they did in a what would become a five-point win against Texas Southern. In the game prior to the league opener, CU held New Orleans to 34 points and now ranks fourth in the conference in scoring defense (61.2 points a game).
The extended break, said Dufault, has been tailor made for the Buffs to focus on playing the kind of defense Boyle demands.
"As a team, we needed to continue to work on the defensive end," Dufault said. "We finished out the last two games pretty well. We need to continue to focus on that; these next games coming up are going to get tougher and tougher."
But here's the good part: The Buffs' men and women have had an extended, concentrated period to try and get their games in order. Nothing against attending class and getting an education - fairly important factors for being in Boulder - but odds are high that Dufault spoke for the majority of CU's hoopsters when he said, "I wish it could be like this for the whole year, to be honest with you. Not that I don't like going to class or anything like that, but I'd rather be in the gym all day working out.
"I love working on my game, I love playing the game. If I could be in the gym a couple of times a day without going to class, I'd be fine with it."
At this time of year on college campuses, I'm pretty sure that sentiment runs nationwide and always has . . . or maybe Boyle really did want to jump into that second-semester chemistry class. I'll have to get back to you on that.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
