Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Boyle, Lappe Hope For A Day Of Good Hoops
December 06, 2013 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Tad Boyle and Linda Lappe believe their teams' best basketball is ahead of them. Which is very good news given their respective records - 8-1 for Boyle's Colorado men's team, 7-0 and a No. 11 national ranking for Lappe's women's squad.
But both coaches are hoping their "future is bright" forecasts come into play sooner rather than later . . . as in Saturday sooner for a hoops doubleheader at the Coors Events Center. Boyle's Buffs take on No. 6 Kansas at 1:20 p.m., with Lappe's team playing Illinois at 5 p.m.
Boyle and Lappe have potential attendance issues, and they're about as different as this week's temperatures on the Pearl Street Mall and those in Aruba.
Boyle knows the CEC will be brim full, maybe spilling beyond its record attendance of 11,708 for the Jayhawks' first visit since CU and KU were Big 12 buds (or something like that). Here's what Boyle doesn't know: Has his recent renovation of Buffs basketball created a scarcity of tickets for Jayhawks faithful who once pompously referred to the CEC as "Allen Fieldhouse West?" Have the demographics changed?
"We'll see," said Boyle, calling Saturday "the litmus test that I think our fans are either going to pass or fail . . . we won't know that until Saturday at 1:15 when we see the colors in here and see how many Kansas fans actually are here. They're crafty people; they've had to find alternative ways of getting in buildings and getting tickets.
"Our fans have not really ever been in a position where these tickets are in such high demand. So do they hold on to them . . . or if they can't make it, make sure their neighbors or family or business associates (use their tickets)? If CU fans are giving or selling their tickets to KU fans I'll be very disappointed. So we'll see."
LAPPE, MEANWHILE, HAS ANOTHER hugely different question: How much of the huge matinee crowd will hang in Boulder for her team's nightcap? (Remember: It's a "two-fer" - a ticket to the first game is good for admission to the second game.)
Last month, the CU athletic department offered students first crack at the coveted CU-KU tickets if they attended a late (8:30 p.m. tip) Wednesday night women's game against Iowa. Students eagerly responded; just under 2,000 tickets were distributed at game's end, with another 500 student tickets made available later. It would be, well, kind of nice if students reciprocated for this women's game with no dangled carrot. Just sayin' . . .
"The games are not close together (time-wise)," said Lappe, "but I hope people who come to Boulder for the men's game will stay around, go have dinner or shop, then hop on over to our game at 5. I hope we can get a good crowd. We're playing pretty well right now and I think we're a fun team to watch."
What Boyle's and Lappe's teams will face on the court Saturday is as dissimilar as their attendance questions. KU is typically KU, which is to say the Jayhawks are loaded. Or, as Boyle said, "reloaded . . . they don't rebuild, they reload - and if you ever need an example of that, this is the year."
When Bill Self lost key components of a KU team that rolled and rollicked past CU 90-54 last December in Lawrence, Boyle was tempted to breathe an initial sigh of relief looking ahead to Saturday's rematch. Then Self signed 2013's top high school prospect, Andrew Wiggins, and added McDonald's All-American Wayne Selden, Jr., and 7-footer Joel Embiid to the freshman class.
If there's a downside to KU's upscale roster, it's this: Self has only three seniors and only one of them - forward Tarik Black - averages significant minutes (12.5). The other two, Niko Roberts and Justin Wesley, are at 1.5 each.
"They lost a lot last year," Boyle said. "They're going through a growing phase, like anybody would (and) much like we are. They're still trying to find themselves, but they're extremely talented. They've got a system. Bill Self is one of the great coaches in the college game. They're going to be a team that gets better and better . . . but I look at the fact that we're 8-1 and we really haven't hit on all cylinders. We're going to need to have a great performance individually and collectively to have a chance to win."
BOYLE'S EMPHASIS TO HIS PLAYERS this week has been twofold: (1) KU loves to go inside and is very efficient in doing it, and (2) the Jayhawks historically have thrived on fast-break point off of turnovers.
"We talk about playing inside-out, Kansas is the epitome of that," Boyle said. "And we have to take care of the ball . . . turn it over against Kansas and it becomes a two-on-one, three-on-two dunk fest. We found that out in Allen Fieldhouse last year." (The Jayhawks scored 26 points off of 18 Buffs turnovers.)
Defensively, Boyle wants to make it difficult for KU to thrive inside. "We've got to exert over a 15-foot radius of the basket . . . we have to make them a jump-shooting team over a hand," he said. "They're capable of making jump shots if they're open, but we have to make them shoot over a hand and limit them to one shot . . . it's easier said than done."
The Jayhawks' lone loss was to Villanova (63-59) in last month's Battle4Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. They bounced back from that defeat with a 67-63 win against UTEP at the same event on Nov. 30 and haven't played since. Wiggins was held to six points in that game, but sophomore forward Perry Ellis - another McDonald's All-American - scored 19 and KU's backcourt of Selden and junior Naadir Tharpe combined for 25.
Depth is a bonus for KU: Self uses as many as a dozen players, and Boyle recognizes a collective effort is needed from the Buffs. "We need to have three to four guys playing well to beat KU," he said. "You're not going to do it with one or two guys. We've got capable players in our locker room. We just have to play well. We can't have subpar performances. Nothing is going to be given to us, we have to win this game. Kansas isn't going to beat themselves."
Lappe doesn't want to leave it to Illinois to do that, either. The Illini are 5-4, but have played a difficult non-conference schedule. Losses have been to Bradley, Arizona State, then-No. 11 North Carolina and Georgia Tech. The Illini lead the Big Ten is steals (12.7 a game), turnover margin (plus-6.0) and offensive rebounding (16.6 a game). They're also third in scoring (79.1 ppg).
ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, THE BUFFS rallied in the second half to win at Wyoming, 63-59. Lappe called it "definitely not the prettiest game, but good things came out of it. We really got tough down the stretch in a very tough place to play. Your ranking means nothing up there, or really anywhere."
But Illinois, she added, "is about as different as you can get from Wyoming." That would be deliberate as opposed to up-tempo; offensively, the Illini hope to set a fast pace with guards Amber Moore (18.0 ppg) and Ivory Crawford (13.6 ppg). Illinois uses a variety of defenses, which Lappe says will put pressure on her point guards to recognize and respond by getting the Buffs into the right sets.
Senior point Brittany Wilson, who scored a team-best 19 points at Wyoming, is "still bothered some" by a preseason leg injury but obviously is playing through any lingering pain. "We limit her in practice and don't overdo it with her," Lappe said. "But she's doing much better."
Rest for all arrives soon, with welcome breaks for Lappe's team as well as Boyle's. The women don't play until Thursday, Dec. 12 vs. Denver, while the men are off until Friday, Dec. 13 vs. Elon. But rest assured, Saturday's agenda doesn't include R&R for either team.
Said Boyle: "If these guys can't get ready for this game, they're in the wrong program. It's something you don't have to worry about."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
