Brooks: Boyle Says Buffs' Identity Is There - Just Reclaim It

SEATTLE – It's never too late to reboot, reset and reclaim your true identity – or so hoped Colorado coach Tad Boyle the day after his basketball team offered a subpar impersonation of itself.

Lacking consistency almost top to bottom in the lineup – Josh Scott in the middle was the exception – the Buffs squandered a Wednesday night opportunity against youthful Washington that Boyle genuinely believed could be a make-up 'W' for their home loss against Utah.

Instead, the Buffs gave the appearance of freshmen and the Huskies – their starting lineup consists of one senior and four first-year players – resembled the vets. They stayed pretty much in control throughout a 95-83 win.

The loss pulled CU back down to .500 in the Pac-12 Conference and put the Buffs squarely in the midst of the muck, as Boyle likes to say. Sitting at 3-3 through six conference games is hardly reason for a panic attack, but Boyle's prescription to prevent that is more hustle, more consistency in almost every area and, of course, a quick return to his foundational principles of defense and rebounding – his program's ID.

"We've had it at times," Boyle said Thursday afternoon after his team's work in a UW practice gym. "We've shown over the course of 19 games now, in 16 of 19 we've come out on top in rebounding . . . we've got an identity in rebounding.

"Now the three games we've been outrebounded we've lost all three of them. So it's about reclaiming that. Defensively at home against Utah and Oregon State we've shown some identity but we certainly don't have it on the perimeter. We just don't."

Bolstering his point, the Buffs are next-to-last in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage defense (36.7 percent), having allowed 125-of-341 trey attempts. Boyle reiterated that a lockdown perimeter stopper such as Andre Roberson or Spencer Dinwiddie has been absent from his roster since that pair left. What's more, the willingness of someone to work hard enough to develop those traits has been absent too.

"I try to be one of those coaches who calls it like I see it," Boyle said. "I'm not going to BS and beat around the bush. I'm not saying it's any one guy but we don't have a defensive stopper. It showed last night when they're starting backcourt got 50 points. It's pretty evident."

After the Buffs' performance – especially in the first half – at Alaska Airlines Arena, he was dismayed to the point of considering reduced minutes for any player who hung his head after a turnover and loped back to the defensive end.

"Decreasing minutes for some, increasing for others," he said. "When it comes to consistency and production, sometimes as a coach it's who do you play? Is the determination based on the games or how they practice? Practices are the same way; some guys have good practices, then a bad practice . . . it's just like that. You just try to ride the hand that's hot when it's hot."

He recalled one possession when freshman guard Thomas Akyazili committed a turnover – he had two of CU's 16 – near the baseline but sprinted to the other end in time to bump UW's 6-9 Marquese Chriss out of the lane and prevent a layup. Akyazili was whistled for a foul but it was worth it to Boyle.

He said Akyazili "looked like he was shot out of a cannon the way he sprinted the floor . . . I see other guys just as fast but they weren't sprinting. It's like, 'whoa, why is that? Is part of it because he's just made a mistake and wants to make up for it?'

"That's the kind of kid he is. But the rest of them, when they turn it over, their heads go down . . . it's not good enough – not against a Washington team that's going to pass, pass, dunk. They're pretty athletic in case we didn't figure it out."

Boyle said teams' margins of error on the road against talented opponents become so small that hustle plays have to be made: "I'm not saying we didn't hustle, but there were possessions when it was really there and others where it wasn't. It's got to be constant."

THE YOUTH OF UW: The Huskies' four freshman starters totaled 45 points, 19 rebounds (UW had a 39-34 edge) and seven blocked shots (UW had 15, the most ever by a CU opponent).

Boyle knew they were athletic and talented, so his only surprise was how consistent the youngsters were for 40 minutes. "The consistency they've shown in recent games were their inconsistencies (earlier)," he said. "But I don't think they had many last night. And Andrew Andrews (33 points) just controlled the whole thing. They're a good team. If they play like that they're going to be a handful.

"We get another crack at them at home – that's the good news. The bad news is if we win that game we're in contention for first place. Now we're back in the muck of the middle of the league."

CU and UCLA are tied for fourth, trailing UW (5-1), USC (4-1), with Arizona, Oregon and Stanford at 3-2 and in a three-way tie for third. Washington State, the Buffs' opponent Saturday night in Pullman (7 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks) is tied with Arizona State for last place at 1-4.

DISECCTING THE REBOUNDING: UW's five board edge doesn't seem like much, and Boyle took more notice of the Huskies' 15 offensive rebounds. He pointed to a pair of board fundamentals – boxing out and effort – as being key, and said the Buffs should shoulder the blame for the Huskies' board edge:

"If you box out, get guys on your back we'll get those rebounds. But we didn't. To me the 15 offensive rebounds were on us, not them. Generally speaking when they shoot the ball we're between them and the basket, which means we have the advantage. We have to box them out and create space to get those rebounds. There might be one or two they get because of their length, but there's not 15. To me, it's all on us."

SCOTT ON TURNING IT OVER: The Buffs committed 12 of Wednesday night's 16 turnovers in the first half, helping put them behind 47-33 at intermission.

Scott, who recorded his fifth consecutive double-double (18 points, 12 rebounds), said the key to cutting down or eliminating the mistakes is "ownership; you've got to learn from your mistakes. I don't think we've learned yet.

"Certain guys turn the ball over (too much) for the amount of time they're playing. Even myself – I do that. It's on everybody. We've got to do better, and you do that by watching the film and putting in the work."

CU's guards accounted for half of the 16, with each of the foursome committing two each.

THE PLAN FOR PULLMAN: After staying Thursday night in Seattle, the Buffs will fly charter to Pullman on Friday afternoon and are scheduled for a late practice (5:45-8 p.m.) in WSU's Beasley Coliseum.

Boyle said he and his staff concentrated more Thursday on fixing the Buffs rather than prepping for the Cougars, who play Utah in Beasley Coliseum on Thursday night. After watching that game, Boyle and his assistants turn their attention to WSU.

The CU traveling party is scheduled to leave Pullman post-game Saturday night, with a tentative arrival time on campus at 12:15 a.m. Sunday.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU