Colorado University Athletics
Redshirt freshman Monica Burich has come back strong from ACL injury.
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Brooks: Burich, Buffs’ Interior Players Face Pair of Large Challenges
January 12, 2017 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Weekend visitors – No. 24 Cal, No. 13 Stanford – feature strong frontcourt performers
BOULDER – The fork in Monica Burich's road at Roseville (Minn.) Area High School featured signposts marked "basketball" and "'volleyball." Either direction probably would have led her toward success, but she chose basketball – and that led her to the University of Colorado.
Now a redshirt freshman after spending the 2015-16 season rehabbing an ACL injury suffered preseason work, Burich believes the physical part of her recovery is complete and the mental part is very close to that.
She's not sporting the cumbersome brace that was required in early practices after her return and is only wearing a strap on her left knee to combat tendinitis.
"I'm all good," Burich said before a practice earlier this week.
The Buffs need her to be that good – and then some. Pac-12 Conference play began on Dec. 30 with a loss at USC (79-54). Two defeats and a win have followed, making CU 1-3 with a pair of ranked teams – No. 24 Cal (13-3, 1-3) and No. 13 Stanford (13-3, 3-1) – visiting the Coors Events Center this weekend.
The Buffs (11-4 overall) take on the Golden Bears on Friday night (7 p.m., Pac-12 Plus) and the Cardinal on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). Although coach JR Payne describes the 6-2 Burich as a "tweener," Burich will be among the players that CU likely will count on to rebound and defend against Cal's and Stanford's strong inside presences.
"The biggest thing with Monica is mentality," Payne said. "The kids she's playing against are bigger and stronger, more physical. But that doesn't necessarily mean that she can't be successful in this game against bigger, stronger, more physical kids. It's a mindset; she has to be determined enough that even though you outweigh me by 40 pounds I'm still going to battle and compete, use my length, use the things I do have on you and find a way to be successful."
THE BEARS' 6-4 KRISTINE ANIGWE is No. 2 in the Pac-12 in scoring (23.3 ppg) and No. 3 in rebounding (9.9 rpg). Anigwe scored a school-record 50 points, tying a conference single-game mark, on Dec. 6 in a 97-73 rout of Sacramento State. Anigwe is also second in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (64.2) and eighth in blocked shots (1.8).
Anigwe is Friday night's challenge; Sunday afternoon's is 6-3 Erica McCall, who is sixth in the conference in both scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg). McCall finished strong for Stanford last season, averaging 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in the Cardinal's final 10 games.
Burich might or might not be matched individually against either Anigwe or McCall, but she's sure to rub elbows, hips, etc., with both in the paint. And that's where Payne wants Burich and her teammates to be more fundamentally sound, specifically in boxing out.
"I'm going up against some pretty strong players (and) I need to be consistent at that," Burich admitted. "And offensive rebounding – that's one of my biggest things to work on."
Payne sees Burich, who averaged just under 19 points in high school, as having the "length to play inside but she's thin still. She's basically a freshman . . . she needs to get stronger to be able to compete inside.
"She can shoot the ball, so she can stretch the defense against bigger post players. But she has to compete in her rebounding and get better from a defensive standpoint."
Burich was reared in an athletic family. She described her father (Bob) as a devoted pickup hoops player, but her mother (Kristin) played basketball and competed in track and field (high jump) at Jamestown (N.D.) College. Older sister Janae played hoops at North Dakota State and older brother Jordan is a senior playing at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
"I kind of grew up in the gym," Monica said, adding that she didn't begin playing volleyball until the seventh grade but took to it so well that she was named the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Player of The Year in 2014.
"I loved it and loved playing multiple sports . . . I had so much fun playing volleyball and had a lot of success at it," she said. "But ultimately I wanted to play basketball because I thought I could be more effective at it at the collegiate level. I definitely miss volleyball, but basketball is where I was meant to be."
THROUGH 15 GAMES, BURICH IS averaging 6.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16.1 minutes. She's made seven 3-pointers in 22 attempts and is one of the Buffs' top free throw shooters (13-of-14, 92.9 percent). Her 20 steals also put her among the team leaders.
"I think I'm doing OK (but) I still have a lot of work to do, cleaning up some stuff," Burich said "Coaches have been supportive and helping me out."
The Buffs opened the season 10-0 and were ranked as high as No. 15 before losing at home to Wyoming then dropping their first two Pac-12 games at USC and UCLA. While seeing positives as the season progresses, Burich said inconsistency "is still a big thing for us; we can do a lot of good things but we have lapses. Inconsistency and execution are still things we need to keep working on."
Payne's pair of immediate and long-term needs for her team: discipline and toughness. "At times we're really tough and play hard and show some discipline but we're nowhere near where we need to be," she said.
And she offered an intriguing observation about her team's 10-0 start: "Honestly, I think our success early has hurt us a little bit in that regard. Against really good teams – which is who we're facing every night – you have to be tough. You have to. Everyone else is tough and they're also three inches taller and more athletic."
As she and her staff prepared the Buffs for this weekend's pair of ranked visitors, one of the priorities was to be rebounding and accountability for what Burich listed as a personal shortcoming.
"Not that you can get every (rebound) but you can box out every time," Payne said. Or you go to the glass every time – things like that. Those are the things that we can do better so we're going to focus on controlling the 'control-ables' and doing your job.
"There are no nights off (in the Pac-12). I think we'll see – win, lose or draw – that we're going to continue to do a better job in that area."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Now a redshirt freshman after spending the 2015-16 season rehabbing an ACL injury suffered preseason work, Burich believes the physical part of her recovery is complete and the mental part is very close to that.
She's not sporting the cumbersome brace that was required in early practices after her return and is only wearing a strap on her left knee to combat tendinitis.
"I'm all good," Burich said before a practice earlier this week.
The Buffs need her to be that good – and then some. Pac-12 Conference play began on Dec. 30 with a loss at USC (79-54). Two defeats and a win have followed, making CU 1-3 with a pair of ranked teams – No. 24 Cal (13-3, 1-3) and No. 13 Stanford (13-3, 3-1) – visiting the Coors Events Center this weekend.
The Buffs (11-4 overall) take on the Golden Bears on Friday night (7 p.m., Pac-12 Plus) and the Cardinal on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). Although coach JR Payne describes the 6-2 Burich as a "tweener," Burich will be among the players that CU likely will count on to rebound and defend against Cal's and Stanford's strong inside presences.
"The biggest thing with Monica is mentality," Payne said. "The kids she's playing against are bigger and stronger, more physical. But that doesn't necessarily mean that she can't be successful in this game against bigger, stronger, more physical kids. It's a mindset; she has to be determined enough that even though you outweigh me by 40 pounds I'm still going to battle and compete, use my length, use the things I do have on you and find a way to be successful."
THE BEARS' 6-4 KRISTINE ANIGWE is No. 2 in the Pac-12 in scoring (23.3 ppg) and No. 3 in rebounding (9.9 rpg). Anigwe scored a school-record 50 points, tying a conference single-game mark, on Dec. 6 in a 97-73 rout of Sacramento State. Anigwe is also second in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (64.2) and eighth in blocked shots (1.8).
Anigwe is Friday night's challenge; Sunday afternoon's is 6-3 Erica McCall, who is sixth in the conference in both scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg). McCall finished strong for Stanford last season, averaging 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in the Cardinal's final 10 games.
Burich might or might not be matched individually against either Anigwe or McCall, but she's sure to rub elbows, hips, etc., with both in the paint. And that's where Payne wants Burich and her teammates to be more fundamentally sound, specifically in boxing out.
"I'm going up against some pretty strong players (and) I need to be consistent at that," Burich admitted. "And offensive rebounding – that's one of my biggest things to work on."
Payne sees Burich, who averaged just under 19 points in high school, as having the "length to play inside but she's thin still. She's basically a freshman . . . she needs to get stronger to be able to compete inside.
"She can shoot the ball, so she can stretch the defense against bigger post players. But she has to compete in her rebounding and get better from a defensive standpoint."
Burich was reared in an athletic family. She described her father (Bob) as a devoted pickup hoops player, but her mother (Kristin) played basketball and competed in track and field (high jump) at Jamestown (N.D.) College. Older sister Janae played hoops at North Dakota State and older brother Jordan is a senior playing at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
"I kind of grew up in the gym," Monica said, adding that she didn't begin playing volleyball until the seventh grade but took to it so well that she was named the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Player of The Year in 2014.
"I loved it and loved playing multiple sports . . . I had so much fun playing volleyball and had a lot of success at it," she said. "But ultimately I wanted to play basketball because I thought I could be more effective at it at the collegiate level. I definitely miss volleyball, but basketball is where I was meant to be."
THROUGH 15 GAMES, BURICH IS averaging 6.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16.1 minutes. She's made seven 3-pointers in 22 attempts and is one of the Buffs' top free throw shooters (13-of-14, 92.9 percent). Her 20 steals also put her among the team leaders.
"I think I'm doing OK (but) I still have a lot of work to do, cleaning up some stuff," Burich said "Coaches have been supportive and helping me out."
The Buffs opened the season 10-0 and were ranked as high as No. 15 before losing at home to Wyoming then dropping their first two Pac-12 games at USC and UCLA. While seeing positives as the season progresses, Burich said inconsistency "is still a big thing for us; we can do a lot of good things but we have lapses. Inconsistency and execution are still things we need to keep working on."
Payne's pair of immediate and long-term needs for her team: discipline and toughness. "At times we're really tough and play hard and show some discipline but we're nowhere near where we need to be," she said.
And she offered an intriguing observation about her team's 10-0 start: "Honestly, I think our success early has hurt us a little bit in that regard. Against really good teams – which is who we're facing every night – you have to be tough. You have to. Everyone else is tough and they're also three inches taller and more athletic."
As she and her staff prepared the Buffs for this weekend's pair of ranked visitors, one of the priorities was to be rebounding and accountability for what Burich listed as a personal shortcoming.
"Not that you can get every (rebound) but you can box out every time," Payne said. Or you go to the glass every time – things like that. Those are the things that we can do better so we're going to focus on controlling the 'control-ables' and doing your job.
"There are no nights off (in the Pac-12). I think we'll see – win, lose or draw – that we're going to continue to do a better job in that area."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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