Alexis Robinson (2) goes up for a shot last weekend against No. 10 Washington.
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
CU Looks To Bay Area Rematches Against No. 8 Stanford, Cal
February 09, 2017 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Buffs face Cardinal on Friday night, Bears on Sunday afternoon
BOULDER – When the Colorado women's basketball coaching staff needs to emphasize its point about focusing and competing for a full 40 minutes, Exhibits A and B are this weekend's Pac-12 Conference opponents.
On Friday, Jan. 13, the Buffaloes were beaten 65-53 in the Coors Events Center by then-No. 24 California. Two days later – Sunday, Jan. 15 – in the same venue, the Buffs fell to then-No. 13 Stanford, 84-70.
In both of those games, CU was ahead at halftime – 34-25 against Cal and 42-41 against Stanford.
The rematches are this weekend in the Bay Area, with the Buffs playing the Cardinal on Friday night (9 p.m. MST) and the Golden Bears on Sunday (4 p.m. MST). Both games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast on ESPN radio, 1600 am.
Since their meeting last month in Boulder, Stanford has risen to No. 8 while Cal has dropped out of the Top 25. But last weekend's and Monday night's Pac-12 games didn't reflect that movement.
The Cardinal (20-4 overall, 10-2 Pac-12) saw a seven-game winning streak broken on Monday night in a home loss to No. 15 UCLA. Meanwhile, after the Bears (17-7, 5-7) left Boulder on Jan. 13 they lost four of their next seven games and exited the weekly polls.
Yet two of Cal's three 'W's in that seven-game span have come in the last three games – with the most recent win being an upset last Saturday of then-No. 13 UCLA.
Regardless of their Bay Area opponents' fortunes over the past week and their success in Boulder, the Buffs (13-10, 3-9) continue to look within for fundamental improvement as the key to finishing strong in conference play.
Associate head coach Toriano Towns – "Coach T" to his boss, head coach/wife JR Payne, and their players – said a season-long philosophy of attending to details is still in play:
"You spend telling players it's not any singular play, you're not going to make a big play that's going to win the game for you. It's the compilation, the accumulation of all the details, the little moments throughout the course of the game – did you win the 50-50 balls, did you box out when you were supposed to, did you knock down your free throws, did you make layups when you were supposed to, did you execute offensively, were you sound in your defensive assignments? Those are the things that will carry you a long way. Sometimes when you have a young team they look at macro – the big picture – rather than micro."
IT'S THE SMALL THINGS and the consistency in doing them that has made Stanford one of the college game's premier teams under Tara Vanderveer, who last week won her 1,000th career game.
"Stanford is Stanford, probably the most consistent team in our league, very steady, they don't beat themselves," Towns said. "And that's a testament to Tara and her staff: you don't win a thousand games by luck or just by showing up."
The Buffs are coming off a weekend home split against Washington State and Washington. They rallied from a 17-point third-quarter deficit to defeat WSU 70-58 before coming up short – 79-75 – two days later against No. 10 UW.
Sophomore guard Alexis Robinson said that split reaffirmed to the Buffs what Payne, Towns and their staff has been wanting since practice began – "That our energy has to stay at a high level, which always is a key for us, and that we have to be competitive throughout the whole game."
Cal and Stanford played to their respective size advantages in Boulder, and Towns expects no change in that strategy this weekend. Stanford's 6-3 Erica McCall in No. 6 in the Pac-12 in scoring (16.0 ppg) and No. 7 in rebounding (8.2 rpg). Cal's 6-4 Kristine Anigwe is No. 2 in the league in scoring (22.0 ppg) and No. 3 in rebounding (9.8 rpg).
Limited to four points in the first half last month at the CEC, Anigwe scored 25 in the second. "We did a good job on her in the first half and then they made a real concerted effort to get the ball in to her in the second half," Towns said. "We also were a little stagnant offensively and kind of gave them the run they needed to take the lead in the second half."
Behind Anigwe, who finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds, Cal outscored CU 19-1 to open the third quarter, overcoming the Buffs' nine-point halftime lead.
Against Stanford, CU was victimized as much by the perimeter shooting of Karlie Samuelson (20 points) and the overall scoring of Brittany McPhee (18) as McCall's inside work (12). That balance speaks to the consistency Towns said the Cardinal regularly displays.
But if they wanted, the Buffs could take some solace in their 70 points against the Cardinal; it was the highest total Stanford had yielded to that point of the season in regulation play.
Robinson, who is averaging 10.6 points a game in conference play, said the Buffs "taking the momentum into the second half and playing all four quarters will be key to winning both of these games" in the Bay Area.
TOWNS HOPES LESSONS TAKEN from Cal's and Stanford's visits to Boulder last month won't be forgotten.
"When you have a young ball club or one that's learning how to win, the first takeaway is that you can be competitive," he said. "We were competitive in both games, we led in both games. Sometimes with a young team, when you're leading you're surprised.
"We've got to play 40 minutes . . . we've been battling consistency all year; we're trying to hammer that point home – doing your job for 40 minutes, your job in a three-hour practice and making sure you're focused in and execute every possession of every drill. That won't change going into this week."
Does he see it registering with the Buffs?
"Some days we do," he said. "Those are the nuts and bolts of winning. Those aren't SportsCenter highlights. That's not sexy for this younger generation. It's one of the things that's made Stanford so good; they do the little things. We preach that – it's not the big things it's the little things. If we can do that we can take care of us and give ourselves a great shot."
Of CU's six remaining regular-season games, four are on the road. The Buffs return to the CEC on Friday, Feb. 17 to play Oregon State and Oregon on Sunday, Feb. 19. They close the regular season with games at Washington on Thursday, Feb. 23 and at Washington State on Saturday, Feb. 25. The Pac-12 Tournament is March 2-5 in Seattle.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
On Friday, Jan. 13, the Buffaloes were beaten 65-53 in the Coors Events Center by then-No. 24 California. Two days later – Sunday, Jan. 15 – in the same venue, the Buffs fell to then-No. 13 Stanford, 84-70.
In both of those games, CU was ahead at halftime – 34-25 against Cal and 42-41 against Stanford.
The rematches are this weekend in the Bay Area, with the Buffs playing the Cardinal on Friday night (9 p.m. MST) and the Golden Bears on Sunday (4 p.m. MST). Both games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast on ESPN radio, 1600 am.
Since their meeting last month in Boulder, Stanford has risen to No. 8 while Cal has dropped out of the Top 25. But last weekend's and Monday night's Pac-12 games didn't reflect that movement.
The Cardinal (20-4 overall, 10-2 Pac-12) saw a seven-game winning streak broken on Monday night in a home loss to No. 15 UCLA. Meanwhile, after the Bears (17-7, 5-7) left Boulder on Jan. 13 they lost four of their next seven games and exited the weekly polls.
Yet two of Cal's three 'W's in that seven-game span have come in the last three games – with the most recent win being an upset last Saturday of then-No. 13 UCLA.
Regardless of their Bay Area opponents' fortunes over the past week and their success in Boulder, the Buffs (13-10, 3-9) continue to look within for fundamental improvement as the key to finishing strong in conference play.
Associate head coach Toriano Towns – "Coach T" to his boss, head coach/wife JR Payne, and their players – said a season-long philosophy of attending to details is still in play:
"You spend telling players it's not any singular play, you're not going to make a big play that's going to win the game for you. It's the compilation, the accumulation of all the details, the little moments throughout the course of the game – did you win the 50-50 balls, did you box out when you were supposed to, did you knock down your free throws, did you make layups when you were supposed to, did you execute offensively, were you sound in your defensive assignments? Those are the things that will carry you a long way. Sometimes when you have a young team they look at macro – the big picture – rather than micro."
IT'S THE SMALL THINGS and the consistency in doing them that has made Stanford one of the college game's premier teams under Tara Vanderveer, who last week won her 1,000th career game.
"Stanford is Stanford, probably the most consistent team in our league, very steady, they don't beat themselves," Towns said. "And that's a testament to Tara and her staff: you don't win a thousand games by luck or just by showing up."
The Buffs are coming off a weekend home split against Washington State and Washington. They rallied from a 17-point third-quarter deficit to defeat WSU 70-58 before coming up short – 79-75 – two days later against No. 10 UW.
Sophomore guard Alexis Robinson said that split reaffirmed to the Buffs what Payne, Towns and their staff has been wanting since practice began – "That our energy has to stay at a high level, which always is a key for us, and that we have to be competitive throughout the whole game."
Cal and Stanford played to their respective size advantages in Boulder, and Towns expects no change in that strategy this weekend. Stanford's 6-3 Erica McCall in No. 6 in the Pac-12 in scoring (16.0 ppg) and No. 7 in rebounding (8.2 rpg). Cal's 6-4 Kristine Anigwe is No. 2 in the league in scoring (22.0 ppg) and No. 3 in rebounding (9.8 rpg).
Limited to four points in the first half last month at the CEC, Anigwe scored 25 in the second. "We did a good job on her in the first half and then they made a real concerted effort to get the ball in to her in the second half," Towns said. "We also were a little stagnant offensively and kind of gave them the run they needed to take the lead in the second half."
Behind Anigwe, who finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds, Cal outscored CU 19-1 to open the third quarter, overcoming the Buffs' nine-point halftime lead.
Against Stanford, CU was victimized as much by the perimeter shooting of Karlie Samuelson (20 points) and the overall scoring of Brittany McPhee (18) as McCall's inside work (12). That balance speaks to the consistency Towns said the Cardinal regularly displays.
But if they wanted, the Buffs could take some solace in their 70 points against the Cardinal; it was the highest total Stanford had yielded to that point of the season in regulation play.
Robinson, who is averaging 10.6 points a game in conference play, said the Buffs "taking the momentum into the second half and playing all four quarters will be key to winning both of these games" in the Bay Area.
TOWNS HOPES LESSONS TAKEN from Cal's and Stanford's visits to Boulder last month won't be forgotten.
"When you have a young ball club or one that's learning how to win, the first takeaway is that you can be competitive," he said. "We were competitive in both games, we led in both games. Sometimes with a young team, when you're leading you're surprised.
"We've got to play 40 minutes . . . we've been battling consistency all year; we're trying to hammer that point home – doing your job for 40 minutes, your job in a three-hour practice and making sure you're focused in and execute every possession of every drill. That won't change going into this week."
Does he see it registering with the Buffs?
"Some days we do," he said. "Those are the nuts and bolts of winning. Those aren't SportsCenter highlights. That's not sexy for this younger generation. It's one of the things that's made Stanford so good; they do the little things. We preach that – it's not the big things it's the little things. If we can do that we can take care of us and give ourselves a great shot."
Of CU's six remaining regular-season games, four are on the road. The Buffs return to the CEC on Friday, Feb. 17 to play Oregon State and Oregon on Sunday, Feb. 19. They close the regular season with games at Washington on Thursday, Feb. 23 and at Washington State on Saturday, Feb. 25. The Pac-12 Tournament is March 2-5 in Seattle.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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