Boyle Excited As Energetic Buffs Open Practice For 2018-19 Campaign
October 02, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — After just one practice, it is easy to know this much about the 2018-19 Colorado Buffaloes: they are young, eager, energetic and talented.
Now, the question is how quickly CU coach Tad Boyle and his staff can take all the pieces of that Buffs puzzle and turn them into a competitive Pac-12 team.
Boyle opened his ninth year at the CU helm Tuesday morning with the first practice of the season. The Buffs will have roughly a month to prepare for their Nov. 3 exhibition contest with Colorado Mines, then another 10 days to get ready for the season opener, a Nov. 13 home affair against Drake.
That the Buffs are young is an understatement — nine of the 13 scholarship players on the roster are freshmen or sophomores, along with three juniors and just one senior.
But it is by no means an inexperienced group. The Buffs return three players with at least 21 starts last season, all sophomores: McKinley Wright IV (31), Dallas Walton (25) and Tyler Bey (21). Â Meanwhile, other returnees who had significant roles last year include senior Namon Wright (13 starts, 22.9 minutes per game), juniors Lucas Siewert (18.4 minutes per game) and Deleon Brown (18.2 minutes), and sophomore D'Shawn Schwartz (13.1 minutes).
There will also be some new faces who will be expected to contribute immediately, a group that includes junior college transfer Shane Gatling and redshirt freshman Evan Battey; as well as sophomore returnee Alexander Strating and incoming freshmen Daylen Kountz, Jakub Dombek and Eli Parquet.
"As you look at this team, there's a lot of pieces," Boyle said. "It's just trying to figure out what their roles are going to be. We're going to figure that out as these 30 practices unfold."
The Buffs do indeed have potential at every position — but it all starts with Wright, who took over the starting point guard role last season as a true freshman and established himself as the team leader almost as quickly. The 6-foot-0, 194-pound Wright led the team in scoring (14.2 points per game), assists (175) and steals (31), was third on the team in rebounding (4.7 rpg), and was an all-Pac-12 Freshman Team selection as well as an honorable mention all-conference and honorable mention all-defensive team choice.
He'll be expected to be better this year.
"I've told all these sophomores they're not freshmen anymore," Boyle said. "I'm going to coach them a little harder, expect a little bit more from them because the freshman mistakes are in the past. Now it's time to not make those. Nobody's going to play perfect, nobody's going to play flawless basketball. But I'm really stressing to McKinley, take care of the ball, cut those turnovers down, make everybody else better."
Walton, Siewert and Battey give the Buffs some substantial size up front. The 7-foot-0 Walton has beefed up to nearly 240 pounds, giving him the size and strength to do battle with Pac-12 big men. The 6-10 Siewert, who had some big performances down the stretch last year, has also added some muscle to his frame; while Battey will bring a unique skill set to the front court — the size (6-foot-8, 264 pounds) to hold his own in the paint and the quickness and ball-handling skills of a wing.
Battey may indeed be the X-factor for the Buffs — particularly since no one has seen him play since his junior year in high school. He sat out last season as an NCAA-mandated redshirt and was then unable to even practice after suffering a stroke in December.
But after a solid offseason, he is now healthy and practicing full speed — and shows all the promise of being a difference maker on the floor.
"The country will see Evan soon," McKinley Wright said. "He's going to wake the nation up. … He can dribble, he can pass, he can shoot, run the floor, he can guard one through five. I've never seen somebody his size be able to guard a point guard. High praise for Evan. He's going to be fun."
The Buffs should also have plenty of playmakers on the wings. Namon Wright showed flashes of being a solid contributor a year ago, averaging 9.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in conference play, which Schwartz also came on down the stretch with some promising moments.
Brown, meanwhile, will add depth at both guard spots, and his versatility will be a key. "He's had a really good fall," Boyle said.
The Buffs shouldn't be lacking when it comes to long-range shooting. Both Wright and Bey worked on their 3-point shots in the offseason, but the Buffs' key weapon from beyond the arc may be Gatling. An NJCAA Division I All-American last year, Gatling hit 102 3-pointers for Indian Hills CC en route to being named the Region XI Player of the year.
As for Tuesday's first practice? Boyle said there's plenty of work to be done.
"This is fun, this is what you shoot for — the offseason is officially over," he said. "Now it's 2018-19 and see what this team can do. It's a new year, a new team. … Our effort today was unbelievable. Our intensity was good. (But) we have a long ways to go in terms of fundamentals of the game. You can tell our skill work is not quite where it needs to be. So we're going to have to adjust our practices and put some time in on working on passing and catching and dribbling and shooting, handling the ball."
NO NCAA EXPERIENCE: For the first time since Boyle's second year at the helm — the 2011-12 season — there is not a player on CU's roster with any NCAA Tournament experience.
The Buffs earned an NCAA berth in Boyle's second year (2012), then added tourney trips in 2013, 2014 and 2016. But with the graduation of George King and Dom Collier last year, there are no current Buffs who have played in an NCAA Tournament game.
Boyle believes that should be motivation for this year's team.
"To me, that would say our guys should have unbelievable hunger and thirst to do that, especially guys like Namon Wright and Deleon Brown and Lucas Siewert," Boyle said. "Now they're upperclassmen. The time is running out on those guys. That's a goal we always have with this program —but the fact that we don't have anybody that's played in it should give them added drive to get there."
GOOD OMEN? If you're looking for a little portent of good fortune, try this:
In 1996, Colorado opened the season with an 82-80 overtime win against Drake. That began a campaign that produced a second-place finish in the Big 12 and an NCAA Tournament berth that included an opening win over Bobby Knight's Indiana team.
The point guard on that team? Sophomore Chauncey Billups.
This year — for the first time since 1996 — the Buffs again open the season again vs. Drake. The point guard on this team? McKinley Wright IV, who last year began drawing plenty of comparisons to Billups.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
Â
