Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Buffs Toughen Up For Hard-To-Figure Huskies
January 04, 2012 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Boyle's Colorado basketball team is expecting a grueling, combative game against a very physical, very athletic, get-to-the-rim, go-get-the-ball opponent.
Thus the "fun drill" that concluded Wednesday morning's workout.
All you need to know is that it featured a player taking a charge, the same guy getting up, then screeching to the floor after a loose ball, then going for a layup against a couple of staffers delivering body blows with huge pads. Hit the layup or not, the hits kept on coming.
A fun time was had by all - or most. Good training for the Huskies, said senior Carlon Brown: "They're some strong athletic guys who get after it offensively and defensively, so we can't look for excuses or expect the refs to bail us out with fouls. We've just got to play and be tough on every possession."
A grinning Boyle called the exercise his "get-tough drill," and he underscored Brown's observations about UW. "It's going to be physical, and in conference play you have to elevate yourself," Boyle said. "You have to play with pride and toughness - it doesn't matter if we're playing Washington on Thursday or Washington State on Saturday.
"We're going to have to take charges, we're going to have to dive on the floor for loose balls, we've got to finish in contact."
Merely finishing wasn't a Buffs strong suit three games ago. Their 56-51 win against Texas Southern was a classic tale of two halves - one impressive, one unimpressive by CU. But out of that came what Boyle termed a wakeup call that must be placed and answered by the players.
"I equated it to last year's team," he said. "Until the players decide, 'OK, something needs to change here,' a coach is like a broken record and you're just beating a dead horse. But when the players decide that's enough . . . that Texas Southern game, the diversity between the first and second halves was so great that our players were like, 'we're sick of this.' When they decide that and do something about it, that's when things change."
In their next two games - blowout wins in which they held New Orleans to 34 points and Utah to 33 - the Buffs "put two halves together and we haven't let up, we've played our game - not our opponent," Boyle said. "We always talk about playing possessions, not the scoreboard unless it's the last minute of the half or the last two or three minutes of the game."
Brown said after the near-debacle against Texas Southern, he and his teammates learned a lesson "as far as not taking teams for granted. We had that team beat in the first half, but in the second half we came out and laid an egg - or whatever you want to call it. Ever since that day, we knew we had to play our game and not play the competition. Ever since then we've been doing that; hopefully we can do it the rest of the season."
There will be no taking UW for granted on Thursday night (7 p.m., ROOT Sports). The Huskies have been sporadic, but when they've been on they've been impressive. They're 8-1 at home, with the lone loss a 92-73 beat down by - don't rub your eyes - South Dakota State. But since then, they've won three straight, including a pair of Pac-12 Conference games (Oregon State, Oregon). Two of their five losses were by eight points combined to now-No. 20 Marquette (79-77) and now-No. 5 Duke (86-80) in Madison Square Garden.
Did we say sporadic?
Thursday night's visit to the Events Center marks U-Dub's first true road game of the season and first in Pac-12 competition. When the Huskies deplane, Brown isn't expecting the bunch that didn't show up against South Dakota State. UW leads the league in rebounding (40.2, 13.5 offensive) and blocked shots (5.08) and is second in scoring (80.6 points) and three-point field goal percentage (38.5).
The Buffs' board work (38.5 a game) puts them right behind the Huskies - and you know the importance Boyle places on rebounding and defense. In this game, he said, "We have to exert control of the paint, basically a 15-foot radius to the basket we have to control that if we want to be successful. If we let them get in there, their size and athletic ability can take over. Rebounding is key for this game."
CU has the league's top rebounder in 6-7 sophomore Andre Roberson, who's averaging 12.0. UW's Aziz N'Diaye, a 7-foot, 260-pound junior, is No. 2 at 8.2 and averages just under two (1.91) blocked shots. The Huskies, said Brown, "are athletic guys who can jump out of the gym. They'll snatch some boards you don't think normal people can get. For us, nothing's changed; defense and rebounding are going to stay the same (on Boyle's priority list) and we just have to look at it like Washington is a good team - but we're a good team, too. We showed it, we're capable of it, now we just have to do it."
After CU shut down Utah 73-33 in both teams' Pac-12 opener, Boyle termed Thursday night's game a "measuring stick" for the Buffs. Brown agreed that it could be, but said that by itself wasn't fueling him.
"We're just looking at it as another game at home that we can take care of," he said. "If we put too much (emphasis) on it or play too low it's not going to allow us to play our game. So that's the main thing - focusing on what we have to do offensively and defensively.
"If we get caught up in preseason picks or what other teams around the league think about us, we're going to get caught in the maze. Stay ourselves, play our game and don't worry about outside things that don't mean anything when we're out here practicing. We just have to play our game and let the game speak for itself."
A win Thursday night would speak volumes, but the Buffs already know that.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
