Colorado University Athletics
Lappe Moves Past 100, Prepares For Kentucky
November 21, 2015 | Women's Basketball
BOULDER - There wasn't time to celebrate Thursday night after Colorado smoked the Northern Colorado Bears, 63-41. It was Buffs' coach Linda Lappe's 100th career win at CU, but with practice the next day and a visit to No. 13 Kentucky on Sunday, Colorado had look ahead.
So Lappe gave herself about half an hour to enjoy the victory, as she always does, then it was on to the Wildcats. Her players and assistants gave her low-key congratulations, but, like their leader, they didn't make a big deal out of it.
“Nice win, coach,” assistant coach Kelly Rae Finley said.
“Good game, coach,” echoed senior forward Jamee Swan.
Lappe patted Swan hard on the back. “You, good game,” she said.
“Thanks, coach.”
Finley and Swan have each been with Lappe for four years. Finley played at Colorado State while Lappe was an assistant coach there; even then, she thought Lappe would make a good head coach. Finley coached at Harvard after she graduated from CSU but didn't hesitate when Lappe offered her a gig at Colorado four years ago.
“Coach Lappe is very, very dedicated to her craft,” Finley said. “I don't know of anybody who's more passionate about their job. She loves her kids, she wants to help her players be the best version of themselves. I think that's something that's very, very cool, very unique. She has a tireless work ethic. It's hard to match.”
Swan believed in Lappe from the start, when the coach sold her star on her vision for the program, and stuck with her as she developed into one of the Pac-12 best post players. After Swan's sophomore year, Lappe told her that she would finally become the player she was supposed to be, then pushed her to her breaking point and beyond. The next year, Swan led Colorado in points and rebounds.
“It was hard. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was real hard,” Swan said. “Every day was a struggle, but once I finally opened my eyes and realized that this was gonna make me better, it became easier and easier. Now, I feel like her and I have a level of respect for one another. She could tell me anything and I could look at her and say, 'Okay, coach. I know what you mean.'”
That means no fanfare about 100 — no tweeting about it, either — and a quick turnaround to Kentucky. The Wildcats have thus far been dominant; they've sandwiched 33-point and 55-point blowout wins around an overtime victory over No. 15 Arizona State. They're averaging 10 steals and 84 points per game, and they have five players averaging double-digit scoring.
“Kentucky's very good in transition, they're fast, quick, so we have to really neutralize them in transition,” Lappe said. “Rebounding's gonna be a big key to that as well.”
It would also help the Buffs to put together a cohesive performance on both sides of the ball. A week ago, against Loyola Marymount, their offense fired on all cylinders; freshman point guard Kennedy Leonard dropped 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds, fellow freshman Alexis Robinson had 13 points, seven dimes and seven boards and Colorado shot 53 percent from deep.
Despite that, Loyola Marymount scored 81 points went to the free-throw line 45 times. Three Buffs fouled out. Against UNC, conversely, Colorado's defense was a vice but its offense stagnated. The Buffs held the Bears to 22 percent shooting and just 14 percent from deep, but they shot only 20 percent from downtown themselves and committed 20 turnovers.
“We've been watching a lot of film, and we saw some spacing issues,” Lappe said. “We got pretty sloppy with some cuts and some passes and turned the ball over way too many times. Probably half of those were unforced. I really liked our defensive focus, and quite frankly, we worked a lot on defense leading up to UNC. I knew we would score enough to win if we played solid defense.”
In 2012, Lappe's Buffs upset another highly ranked team from Kentucky — then-No. 8 Louisville — and that game kicked off a season that ended in an NCAA Tournament appearance and put Colorado in the top 25 poll for 25 straight weeks.
Such a win Sunday could signal that the Buffs, despite relying heavily on three freshmen, are a contender in the Pac-12. If Colorado pulls off the upset, victory number 101 might be even better than 100. But Lappe won't bask in that, either; she'll give herself about 30 minutes, then move on to UMass, the Buffs' opponent on Black Friday. Because every win is great, but there's always a better one — the next one.
