Colorado University Athletics
Woelk: Buffs Have Chance To Build From Recent Wins
January 29, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — If you are a Colorado basketball fan, you most likely have two questions in mind as you look back on Saturday night's 74-65 CU win over No. 10 Oregon.
The first is one CU fans were asking all night as the game unfolded: where has this team been all season — in particular a defense that forced 16 turnovers while harassing and haranguing a top-10 team into one of its worst shooting nights of the season?
Colorado coach Tad Boyle was asked that question after the game.
"We haven't seen it," Boyle said. "(But) maybe the guys said 'enough is enough.'"
But fact is, asking such a question now is basically a fruitless endeavor. What's done is done. Playing the "what if" game — for instance, what if the Buffs could have come up with just one more defensive stop in four of the conference games they lost in the final minute — is little more than an invitation to consume antacids at a dangerous rate.
Such questions are better left to coaches, who at least get paid to reflect on such matters.
But the question Colorado fans are asking today — along with CU coaches, players and anyone else connected to the team — is where do the Buffs go from here, with the Pac-12 season now at the halfway point? Was Saturday night an aberration, a once-in-a-season display? Or was it an indication that a team that has admittedly underperformed to this point is ready to make a late-season run?
Boyle was also asked such a question Saturday night. His response was exactly what you would expect from a man whose team is still just 12-10 overall and 2-7 in Pac-12 play: a strong dose of reality.
"Let's just figure out how we win the next game," he said. "We've won two in a row. That's great, but it's about the next game. I'm not worried about streaks or runs, I just want these guys dialed in. We've got some guys who the end of their career is near, and hopefully they rise to the challenge."
Indeed, as we wrote a week ago, what happens to this team over the second half of the Pac-12 season — and beyond, if such a stretch comes about — is up to the Buffs' seniors.
Not that the Buffs modest two-game win streak hasn't been a total team effort. The wins over Oregon State and Oregon included some stellar moments from freshmen Bryce Peters, Deleon Brown and Lucas Siewert; the re-emergence of sophomore Thomas Akyazili; and maybe the best overall efforts of the season from juniors Dominique Collier and Tory Miller. They each played a role in the successful week.
But the home stretch of the season will still depend on the elder statesmen: Derrick White, Xavier Johnson, Wesley Gordon, Josh Fortune and George King. (I include King on the list because while he is a junior, he's in his fourth year in the program and is a strong influence on the fortunes of the Buffs.) If the seniors play like they did Saturday against the Ducks, with great "alertness, attentiveness and toughness" — Boyle's words — this is not yet a lost season.
One more quality that was on display Saturday? Throw unselfishness into the mix. The Buffs didn't care who scored as long as someone was putting the ball in the hoop. They rebounded — five different players grabbed at least four boards. They shared the ball — seven different players with at least one assist. And they took care of the ball, committing just 12 turnovers against a team that was forcing 15 per game.
The solid efforts against Oregon were many. While White's 23-point, five-rebound, four-assist and four-steal night no doubt commanded much of the attention, he had plenty of help. King had 13 points and eight boards and Johnson added 10 points and nine rebounds. Perhaps most lost in the shuffle was a workmanlike night from Gordon, who not only chipped in eight points and six rebounds, but also added four assists.
It was, without a doubt, Colorado's best effort of the season, with second best not even in the same neighborhood.
Still, it was just one game — and it brings us back to our starting point: where do the Buffs go from here?
"This could be how we turn it around," King said. "Going forward, looking at our schedule, we can beat anybody. But we have to consistently guard for 40 minutes. This is definitely how we can turn this ship around."
It is natural for the players — and fans, for that matter — to look ahead and see the possibility of good things. Five of the Buffs' remaining nine conference games are at home, where they've proven they can play at a high level. Of the four remaining road games, two are against teams currently at the bottom half of the conference standings.
And, as Boyle has pointed out more than once, there's nobody left on the schedule the Buffs can't beat — and nobody left who can't beat the Buffs.
But as Boyle has also pointed out on a regular basis, looking past anything more than the next game is a fool's errand. Gazing too far into the future usually leads to tripping over the obstacle directly ahead.
It's why the only thing on the Buffs' minds today should be Thursday's game at Stanford. It's the next step and the only one that matters.
Questions? Saturday's win over Oregon answered at least one. What we learned is that this team is capable of playing solid, consistent basketball for 40 minutes.
But what we still don't know is whether this team can be consistent for more than one game at a time.
That answer should come this week.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
