Brooks: Lappe's Buffs Believe Non-League Work Sharpened Them

BOULDER – In college basketball, January normally signals the beginning of conference play and a fresh start. The Colorado women's team is looking forward to both.

CU begins Pac-12 competition this weekend one game below .500. But Linda Lappe's young Buffaloes seem confident that their 5-6 record merely reflects the difficulty of their non-league schedule – and certainly not their outlook for the Pac-12.

After a bumpy ride through November and December with the nation's 57th toughest schedule, the Buffs are the only Pac-12 team to enter league play with a losing record. Kentucky, Missouri and Florida – an SEC threesome responsible for three of CU's six losses – are a combined 34-1, with Kentucky ranked No. 7, Missouri No. 23 and Florida receiving votes.

“Not a good job scheduling,” Lappe said the other day with a grin that slid toward a grimace. “But a really good job in preparing our team for what they're going to see. I don't know that we'll see anything better than what we've seen . . . there's not one (Pac-12) team I feel like is better than Kentucky, Florida.

“A lot of times when we get to conference we're kind of shell-shocked and it takes us a game or two to really get up to the speed and physicality of the game. That's not going to be us; we've already been there and played those teams.”

That degree of difficulty and any edge it might bring the Buffs will be tested immediately when they open their conference schedule against Washington (Saturday, 1 p.m., Coors Events Center). Washington State visits the CEC two nights later (Monday, 8 p.m.). Both games will be televised on the Pac-12 networks.

After playing two at home, the Buffs play their next four on the road. But Lappe predictably is in a one-at-a-time mode and focused on UW, which improved to 10-2 by winning at Washington State 79-64 on Tuesday night. WSU dropped to 9-3.

Being battle-tested for the Pac-12's opening tip should be of particular benefit to Lappe's five underclassmen, a group that includes three freshmen – guards Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson, forward Makenzie Ellis – who see significant playing time. They'll need their non-conference experience against heavyweights: The Pac-12 currently has five ranked teams (No. 10 Oregon State, No. 11 Stanford, No. 17 Arizona State, No. 19 California, No. 21 UCLA) and another two (undefeated USC and Oregon) receiving votes. The Trojans are a theoretical No. 26.

“We've faced some tough opponents – three SEC teams – and because of that, they gave us looks as to what we're going to see in the Pac-12,” junior forward Lauren Huggins said. “But I think going into conference it's going to have to be one game at a time. We have to be confident in what we bring to the table.”

Junior wing Haley Smith contends that her freshmen teammates have moved past that first-year classification – at least in hoops: “They're seasoned now, they're no longer freshmen (and) they have to play like that. This is the second season, they're all veterans now. They know what they're supposed to do. We're ready.”

IT'S THE RIGHT ATTITUDE AND AN EVEN rosier forecast, but Lappe is cautious about just how seasoned her first-year threesome can be after only 11 games.

“They definitely have a lot of experience, but it's just different (in conference play),” she said. “We still have to teach a lot of different scenarios. I don't think they play like freshmen, but game management-wise, understanding the importance of runs for example, they're still freshmen.

“They have to understand that runs are part of the game. The other team goes on a run, we go on a run . . . they have to understand that nothing is falling out of the sky. It's OK, no big deal. Get stops and move on. A veteran team understands that.”

Ironically, her chief exhibit is UW. Recalling the Huskies' visit to South Dakota in mid-December, Lappe tells of the home team going on a 20-4 run that could have demoralized U-Dub. It didn't; the veteran Huskies regrouped and rallied for a 77-64 win.

“A veteran teams figures it out and stops it (a run),” Lappe said. “A veteran team knows the importance of getting a good shot, a stop. Right now I'm having to tell our team that. It's got to be more of the players on the floor doing that . . . I'm not sure if we'll get there this year in terms of having those freshmen on the floor, but they're learning.”

Among UW's returnees is junior guard Kelsey Plum, who led the Pac-12 in scoring last season (22.6 ppg) and was five points better than that through 11 non-conference games. Her 27.6 point average leads the Pac-12, with teammate Talia Walton No. 7 at 17.7 points a game.

Plus, Plum has feasted on the Buffs, averaging 27.3 points in four meetings – all UW wins – with a high game of 35 in her first encounter with CU two seasons ago. She opened league play with 33 points on Tuesday night at Wazzu.

The Huskies' roster includes four juniors and three seniors; the Buffs' roster features only one senior – forward Jamee Swan – and two other juniors besides Huggins and Smith. CU and California are the Pac-12's youngest teams, and relatively speaking, the Golden Bears' roster almost reads a day-care center's roll. It features two juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen. No seniors.

“Us and Cal are the youngest teams in the league, no doubt,” Lappe said before adding, “We just have to learn fast and not use youth as an excuse. People don't care about that; we have to be ready to bring it. Our learning curve has to be really high right now, and it is. I see us getting better every week. We just have to continue that.”

Said Huggins: “I know a lot of people talk about us being a young team, but that's not going to hold us back in any sense. We need to make sure everyone is comfortable and bought into the grit and determination it's going to take to win games.”

Huggins, whose overall game has expanded beyond being a catch-and-shoot, 3-point specialist, believes this Buffs team is near the top of the most cohesive squads she's played on.

“We have fun together and it makes playing together that much more enjoyable,” she said. “You can trust your teammates – you know that.”

But as conference play begins, Lappe would like to see that cohesion go up several degrees and the Buffs “really understand what cohesive means. There are spurts where I see a very cohesive team – but that's when things are going great.

“We're working on what happens when there's adversity. Right now we don't handle it very well. Don't handle it together as a team, and you have to do that. It's most important that when you have (adversity) you come together as a team. Everybody can be positive when things are good.

“This team needs to understand that. Sometimes that's the mark of a young team – it's one play, let it go. Get it back on defense, on offense, and move on. Learn from it and continue to move on. Don't let one (bad) play turn into four, five or six bad plays. We've got to be able to stop runs a lot faster than we're stopping them.”

CU FINISHED 15-17 OVERALL LAST SEASON, and its 6-12 (T-ninth) conference record was the third such mark in four Pac-12 seasons. The Buffs' four-year record as Pac-12 members is 31-41.

Last season's final two wins came in the Pac-12's postseason tournament, with the most memorable of those W's a 68-65 upset of top tournament seed and No. 8 ranked Oregon in the quarterfinals in Seattle.

That was nearly 10 months ago, but the afterglow still hasn't completely faded for the Buffs who were a part of it.

“The veterans who were there remember how it felt afterwards, how good it was,” Smith said. “We try to remember and tell the freshmen about it, use it as a tool as what it can be like. Although it was a while ago, it still fuels us. We're still excited about how it happened and believe it can happen again.”

Huggins, Smith and Lappe are in agreement that there have been subtle shifts in Pac-12 women's hoops since CU began competing in the conference in 2011. Stanford is still, well, Stanford; since 2000, the Cardinal has won or shared 14 regular-season league championships (11 won outright).

But the Cardinal has been challenged in recent seasons. Oregon State and Arizona State appear capable of doing that this season, with USC, Oregon, UCLA and Washington poised to keep things interesting through early March.

The Beavers – the defending regular-season champs – were the media's preseason choice to repeat, with ASU and Stanford Nos. 2-3, respectively.

“It's a lot tougher now from top to bottom than when we came in,” Lappe said. “You always look at the bottom few teams and how good they are. That's what makes the conference really good – there's nobody you can count on as a win every single night.”

Huggins and Smith also sense that overall balance and want the Buffs to play well enough to maintain their part in it. Smith foresees “a really good year for the Pac-12 in general and as far as postseason and the number of teams going to the (NCAA) tournament. It seems to be a higher excitement level in the conference.”

“The competition has ratcheted up and on any given day any team can beat any other team,” Huggins said. “I think we've become one of the powerhouse conferences. It's something I'm excited to be a part of.”

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU