Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: CU Coaches Caravan Postcard - Day Four
May 16, 2013 | General, B.G. Brooks
LONE TREE - Linda Lappe still has a hard time blotting out the images of her Colorado women's basketball players being nudged (OK, that's probably too PC) out of the lane last season against California.
On several stops of this week's 2013 Colorado Coaches Caravan/State Stampede, Lappe has made specific references to CU's pair of losses to Cal, the Bears' physicality and the Buffs' inability to match it.
Lappe believes she signed a pair of answers in her 2013 recruiting class. She's telling CU fans that Zoe Beard-Fails and Briana Watts have the potential to help the Buffs match the Bears' brawn.
Some of that potential is found in Beard-Fails' and Watts' respective gene pools.
Beard-Fails' father, Steve, is a former Navy SEAL. Watts' dad, Walter, is a former three-sport (basketball, baseball, football) standout who in the early 1990s was termed a "XXXX-sized version of Bo Jackson" by a Salt Lake City newspaper.
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| Linda Lappe (right) battles Tad Boyle in the Safeway Bagging Challenge. |
Lappe characterized both fathers as "very, very intense guys" - and she's hoping their CU-bound daughters demonstrate that kind of grit on the basketball court.
Beard-Fails is a 6-1 power forward from Herndon, Va., Watts a 6-2 post from Fresno, Calif. Beard-Fails suffered a torn ACL in her junior season of high school, which Lappe said caused some recruiters "to back off of her."
But that created an in-road for Lappe and her staff. "We were able to get in kind of late," she said. "We enjoyed her personality, her work ethic, all of her intangibles."
That intensity her dad brought to his calling might have been evident in his daughter when she suffered her knee injury. She suffered the torn ACL, said Lappe, "diving on the floor and getting landed on and hit. You like the effort that she brings. We're excited about her and her ability to bring a certain level of toughness to our team."
Watts was the first of Lappe's four 2013 commits. She participated in the 2011 USA Basketball Women's U16 National Team Trials and, said her future coach, "has big strong hands, long arms, good feet ? and she plays bigger than 6-2."
Her dad, Walter, played basketball at Utah under the late Rick Majerus and had a short stint in pro baseball as a pitcher before settling into the NFL as a defensive end. At Utah, he was 6-7 and weighed anywhere from 265 to nearly 320 from his freshman to final seasons.
Current CU assistant coach Jonas Chatterton was familiar with Walter Watts in Salt Lake City and was excited about the prospect of helping recruit Watts' daughter "because he knew the family a little," Lappe said.
She called Briana "a player who's going to have to develop . . . get in shape." But here's what might accelerate that process both before Watts arrives in Boulder and after she settles in: "Her parents understand that. When we were visiting them, her dad probably said 150 times that 'we'll have to get her in shape; we'll have to work her hard.' I said we would have no problem doing that. You like to hear that from a parent."
Lappe said that parental influence is "what makes her special. She's had the right guidance; she's hearing the right things. She understands how hard it is to play college basketball and the work you have to go through."
Watts, said Lappe, "is really transforming her body. I think she's going to end up being a really good player for us ? it's just going to be how fast she can acclimate to everything that we do. But she'll provide a great amount of strength on the low block."
In time, being bounced around by the Bears and others in the Pac-12 Conference might not happen to the Buffs.
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| Coaches Caravan began Thursday with a trip to the Dish Network offices. |
Thursday's Caravan stops included Dish Network in Englewood, Bozarth Chevrolet in Lone Tree, lunch at Pasta Jay's in Lone Tree, Clear Channel in Denver and the Safeway at 9229 E. Lincoln Ave. in Lone Tree.
Hitting the highlights:
- Stop one Thursday featured a short visit for CU coaches Tad Boyle (men's basketball), Mike MacIntyre (football) and Lappe with Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen.
- At Ed Bozarth Chevrolet, the CU contingent wished Ed's son, Kent, a happy 34th birthday. Kent Bozarth earned his law degree from CU. Ed Bozarth called CU "the backbone of Colorado" and reminded his staff of Boyle's in-state roots (born in Pueblo, raised in Greeley) and those of CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn (Boulder).
- An off-season teaser for Buffs hoops fans: At almost every tour stop - Pasta Jay's in Lone Tree was No. 22 - Boyle has compared incoming freshman Jaron Hopkins (Mesa, Ariz.) to current Buffs guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Hopkins is 6-5 and supposedly as long and athletic as Dinwiddie, who has developed into one of the Pac-12's better guards. Just a little something to dream about through the summer months.
- Add Dinwiddie: On KOA Radio with the Double Daves (Logan, Krieger), Boyle said the Buffs will depend on their returning backcourt - Dinwiddie and Askia Booker - for leadership. Said Boyle: "They've got to take this team over."
- Boyle was a Lappe fan before her 2012-13 team earned CU's first women's NCAA Tournament berth in eight years. But here's what sealed his admiration for her accomplishments last season: "She didn't lose to any team she should have beaten." In Boyle's opinion - and he's excluding ski coach Richard Rokos and his NCAA champion outfit - Lappe is CU's coach of the year.
- Lappe's team will play non-conference home games in 2013-14 against Iowa and Illinois and travel to Louisville.
- Boyle's team has visits scheduled from Wyoming and Harvard, as well as a game against Oklahoma State on Dec. 20 in Las Vegas. His 2013-14 schedule hasn't been finalized, but he expects to have 31 regular-season games (counting those in the Pac-12).
- MacIntyre was asked by a patron at Pasta Jay's about his relationship with former CU players. "They've responded really well . . . I feel very good about it," he said, adding that former Buffs/NFL linebacker Chad Brown is scheduled to speak to the current Buffs when they return to campus on June 2.
- The day's final stop in Lone Tree featured the first CU Safeway Bagging Challenge, which could become an annual event. Kris Staaf, Safeway's director of public affairs, offered a credible play-by-play during competition that featured a first heat of Boyle vs. Lappe, then Bohn vs. MacIntyre. The $700 worth of food the foursome bagged went to the Douglas/Elbert Task Force.
- Points were awarded for speed, efficiency, TLC and use of one "green" bag. Boyle went methodical, nearly disregarding speed in favor of TLC points. Lappe committed a cardinal bagging sin, pairing soap and cereal. MacIntyre was reckless, losing TLC points for ripped bags but tying Bohn in the speed category. Bohn's strong suit: efficiency in "building the wall" in the bags.
- Final score: Bohn 17, MacIntyre 16, Lappe 14, Boyle 13. Bohn was proclaimed "Master Bagger," although MacIntyre raised objections about Safeway perhaps "letting the boss win." At least the afternoon didn't degenerate into a food fight.
For Friday's public tour stops visit CUBuffs.com/coachescaravan
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
