Colorado University Athletics
No Panic In Boyle's Buffs After 1-2 Pac-12 Start
January 10, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — With 15 Pac-12 games to go — including a pair at home this week — the Colorado Buffaloes aren't ready to panic over a 1-2 start.
The way they see it, there's plenty of basketball yet to be played, especially in a conference that is giving every indication of being one that won't be decided until the final weeks, and one that is currently making a mockery of the preseason predictions.
“Arizona was picked to win the league and they're 1-2,” Buffs coach Tad Boyle said after Sunday's workout. “They lost a four-overtime game (Saturday at USC). How many chances did they have to win that game? Their season's not over at 1-2. We're not going to press the panic button.”
Indeed, after the first two weekends of play, the Pac-12 is by no means following the predicted form.
The only team unbeaten in conference play — 3-0 Washington — was picked 11th in the media preseason poll. Meanwhile, as Boyle note, preseason favorite Arizona is off to a 1-2 start and USC, picked 11th, is off to a 3-1 conference start.
In fact, four of the five teams that received at least one first-place vote in the preseason poll — Arizona, Cal, Utah, and UCLA — don't have a winning conference record after the first two weeks of play.
As Boyle has reminded his team, it's early. What's important now is learning from the last game — Friday's narrow 56-54 loss to Utah — and concentrating on winning the next one, Wednesday night's 9 p.m. home contest against Oregon State (ESPNU).
“That's all I'm concerned with,” Boyle said. “I don't care how many we've got at home, how many we've got on the road. Just win the next game. That's all I'm focused on, that's all I'm going to be focused on.”
And, while he wants his team to learn from the mistakes that made the difference between winning and losing against Utah, he doesn't want his team to dwell too much on the loss.
“What I don't want our guys to do is press the panic button and lose confidence,” Boyle said. “We're a confident bunch. These guys know they can play. They proved it early in the half. We just didn't prove it at the end of the game, and that's when you've got to prove it. You have to make the plays on offense and defense.”
That, Boyle said — the ability to make those plays down the stretch — isn't something that can be fully replicated in practice. There's only one way to learn those skills.
“There's no teacher like experience,” Boyle said. “Experience is the best teacher. What I try to do is hopefully short-circuit that process as best I can as a coach, but at the end of the day until they've been there, done that and have been in situations that are pressure-packed, they don't know how to react.”
Both of the Buffs' last two games have come down to the wire. A week ago, they hung on for a 56-55 win over Stanford. Friday, they dropped the two-point decision to the Utes.
“It's one game,” Boyle said. “Jakob Poertl made a great play to put them up two, George King made a great play to tie it up and (Lorenzo) Bonam made a great play to win it. … It's basketball. It's not the panic button.”
But one thing that has become apparent after the first two weeks of Pac-12 play is that the officiating — particularly in the paint — is going to be much different than what Colorado experienced in nonconference play. There was no better example than the Utah game, when the Buffs shot a grand total of four free throws in the entire contest — roughly 22 fewer than they averaged in nonconference play.
Neither was the Utah game a major anomaly. In three Pac-12 games, the Buffs have attempted an average of just 14 free throws per game, 12 fewer than they averaged in nonconference play.
“We haven't change our offensive philosophy at all,” Boyle said. “We haven't changed what we do offensively.”
But, he admitted, he and his staff will adjust to make sure their players are prepared for the difference, which so far has been more physical play underneath and fewer whistles. It means the Buffs must be better at the rim and not count on a foul call after a missed shot.
But more than anything, Boyle said, the Buffs have to continue to pursue the goal they set for themselves when the season began: improve every day.
“We have to learn from the things we're struggling with to get better at,” Boyle said. “We have to fix the problems that we have. And our margin for error shrinks significantly because we're playing against good teams.”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
