Saturday, November 24
USAFA, CO
4:00 PM
Colorado
at
Air Force
Tyler Bey leads Colorado in rebounding (9.7 rpg) and blocked shots (3.0 bpg)
Photo by: Joel Broida
Buffaloes Travel To Face Air Force Saturday
November 23, 2018 | Men's Basketball
Colorado travels to face Air Force on Saturday, Nov. 24, at Clune Arena on the campus of the United State Air Force Academy.
GAMETIME: 4 p.m. MSTÂ
Radio: 760 AM KDSP (Jerry Schemmel, Scott Wilke)
TV: AT&T Sports Net (Kyle Huson, Joe Cravens, Taylor McGregor)
Listen Online: CUBuffs.com, TuneIn
Sattelite: XM: 392, Internet: 991
Live Statistics: CUBuffs.com
THE BUFFALOES: Colorado is 2-1 after dropping its first road contest of the season, a 70-64 decision at San Diego on Nov. 20. The Buffaloes will be looking to snap a six-game skid in true road games Saturday at Air Force. The loss also ended an eight-game overall winning streak in the month of November for Colorado.
On offense, the Buffaloes have shot just under 50 percent over the first two games, including 40 percent from 3-point range. Colorado's 81.0 points per game currently ranks fourth on the early season Pac-12 charts. Defensively, Colorado is allowing 72 points per game while opponents are shooting 41 percent from the field. The Buffaloes rank second in the Pac-12 in both field goal and 3-point percentage.
Sophomore McKinley Wright IV leads Colorado at 14.7 points and  a Pac-12 best 5.7 assists per game. Wright had 14 points and season-bests with seven rebounds and six assists against San Diego. He has scored in double-figures in 30 of 35 games and has logged at least five assists in 25 of those outings.
Senior guard Namon Wright is second on the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game while shooting 55 percent from the field. He had 25 points in the opener, his most in a Colorado uniform. Wright scored 28 points against Florida as a freshman at Missouri on Feb. 24, 2015. Wright is hitting 50 percent from 3-point range (6-12) ranking fifth on the early season Pac-12 leaderboard.
Sophomore Tyler Bey leads Colorado at 9.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game while ranking fourth in scoring at 10.3 points an outing. He had a career-high five blocked shots in the loss to San Diego, the most by a Buffalo since Wesley Gordon had five at Washington in January 2017. Â Bey's 9.8 rebounds per game currently rank fifth on the Pac-12 leaderboard while his 7.3 defensive boards per game rank third.
Junior forward Lucas Siewert is averaging 11.3 points while hitting 56.5 percent from the field (13 of 23) and 63.6 percent from 3-point range (7 of 11). Siewert scored 16 points against Omaha, just one shy of his career best. He matched his personal best with four 3-pointers against the Mavericks. Siewert ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage and second in 3-point accuracy. Dating back to last season, Siewert has made 25 of his last 45 from 3-point range (.556).
Sophomore wing D'Shawn Schwartz is averaging 7.5 points and is second on the team in rebounds at 4.5 per game. He made a strong season debut against Omaha. Schwartz registered career highs with 15 points and seven rebounds. He was 6 of 10 from the field, hitting a pair of 3-pointers. For Schwartz, it was his third career game in double figures.
Freshman forward Evan Battey is averaging 8.7 points and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 46 percent. He had a game-high 18 points with four rebounds at San Diego. Battey is playing his first meaningful regular season games since his junior year of high school in the spring of 2016. He had eight points on 3 of 6 shooting with one rebound, steal, block and assist in his collegiate debut vs. Drake.
Junior guard Shane Gatling has started his first three games for the Buffaloes, averaging 8.0 points per contest. Gatling scored eight points, hitting 2 of 3 from 3-point range, against San Diego. He is second on the team in free throws made and attempted, hitting 11 of 15 through three games.
Sophomore forward Alexander Strating had four points and three rebounds in 18 minutes against Drake. Strating appeared in just five games for a total of seven minutes as a redshirt freshman in 2017-18.
Daylen Kountz and Eli Parquet, members of Colorado's 2018 signing class, had solid collegiate debuts. Kountz had nine points and dished out four assists. Parquet had five points and grabbed three rebounds. Sophomore Aidan McQuade and freshman Benan Ersek, both walk-ons, saw their first action in the closing minutes.
Colorado's Tad Boyle marked his 400th game as an NCAA Division I head coach in the win over Omaha. He is 224-177 (.559) in his 13th year overall as a collegiate head coach, the last nine with the Buffaloes.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: Air Force is 2-3 overall, coming off a 1-2 trip to the Bimini Jam in the Bahamas. Saturday will mark just the second home game for the Falcons. Air Force's lone home contest was a 90-65 win over Johnson & Wales on Nov. 6. Â The Falcons are averaging 69.2 points on 47.7 shooting. Defensively, Air Force has allowed opponents 68.0 points per game while shooting 42 percent.
Junior guard Sid Tomes leads Air Force at 12.0 points and 2.8 assists per game. Junior forward Ryan Swan tops the Falcons in rebounding at 7.6 per game while ranking second in scoring at 11.6 points an outing. Swan, whose sister Jamee was a four-year letterwinner for the Colorado's women's basketball team, from 2012-16, has made 54 percent of his shots and leads Air Force with four steals. Junior forward Lavelle Scottie is Air Force's third double-figure scorer at 11.0 points per game and is second in rebounding at 5.2 boards per contest.
Dave Pilipovich is in his seventh season as the head coach at Air Force with a record of 86-116.
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SERIES RECORDS: This will be the 28th meeting between Colorado and Air Force with the Buffaloes holding a commanding 24-3 lead in the series. Colorado has won the last eight, including an 81-69 decision in Boulder on Nov. 26, 2017. Two of Air Force's three wins in the series have come at the Academy (2-11), the last a 75-56 decision on Nov. 30, 1977.Â
NONCONFERENCE NUMBERS: Colorado is 78-27 (.743) in nonconference regular season games under head coach Tad Boyle including a mark of 31-10 (.756) over the past three-plus seasons. The Buffaloes were 8-4 during the non-league slate in 2017-18.Â
Colorado's best nonconference record under Boyle is 11-2, achieved twice. First in 2013-14 and then again in 2015-16. Both seasons ended with NCAA Tournament berths. Boyle also had an 11-win nonconference schedule in 2009-10, his first year at Colorado, as the Buffaloes were 11-4 before beginning their final season in the Big 12 Conference.
ROAD BUFFS: Colorado will play three true road games during the nonconference schedule in 2018-19, and potentially a fourth. After opening with two at home, Colorado plays back-to-back at San Diego (Nov. 20) and Air Force (Nov. 24) and then next month heads to New Mexico (Dec. 11).
Colorado is one of just 15 schools from the Power 5 and Big East Conferences to have at least three true road games scheduled before conference play. Stanford leads everyone with four.
If Colorado and Hawai'i have the same result in their respective first round games at the Diamond Head Classic, then the Buffaloes will meet the Warriors on their home floor and join Stanford with a fourth road game.Â
WRIGHT ALREADY MOVING UP IN CAREER ASSISTS: Sophomore McKinley Wright IV had 175 assists in 32 games as a freshman which not only set Colorado's freshman record for assists in a season but was the second-best overall season mark in team history since the category became an official statistic in 1974-75.
With 192 assists he is already 28th on CU's career charts, needing eight to become the 28th player in team history with 200.
Colorado Career Assists:
Rk.   Player   Years   Assists
25.   James Wright   2001-03   208
   Jacques Tuz   1977-82   208
27.   Antoine McGee   2002-06   200
28.   McKinley Wright IV   2017-present   192
Wright's 5.5 assists per game in 2017-18 ranked as the seventh-best single-season average in team history. His current pace, still at 5.5 per game, would put him atop list for career average at Colorado. Billy Law currently holds that mark at 5.3 per game from 1990-92.
Wright had three double-figure assists games in 2017-18, each resulting in points-assists double-doubles (30 pts, 11 asst vs. South Dakota State; 16 pts, 10 asst vs. Arizona; 20 pts, 11 asst vs. Arizona State). Â His three points-assists double-doubles tied the school single-season record previously set by Jay Humphries (1982-83 and '83-84) and Toney Ellis (1976-77). Humphries holds the career mark in that category with six.
Wright's three games with 10-plus assists are tied with Law for fifth in a Colorado career. Humphries holds the record with seven from 1980-84.
Games With Double-Digit Assists:
1. Jay Humphries (1980-84)Â Â Â 7
2. Mike Reid (1982-86)Â Â Â Â Â Â 6
  Jose Winston (1998-01)      6
4. Chauncey Billups (1995-97)Â Â Â 5
5. McKinley Wright IV (2017-pre)Â Â Â 3
  Billy Law (1990-92)      3
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GAMETIME: 4 p.m. MSTÂ
Radio: 760 AM KDSP (Jerry Schemmel, Scott Wilke)
TV: AT&T Sports Net (Kyle Huson, Joe Cravens, Taylor McGregor)
Listen Online: CUBuffs.com, TuneIn
Sattelite: XM: 392, Internet: 991
Live Statistics: CUBuffs.com
THE BUFFALOES: Colorado is 2-1 after dropping its first road contest of the season, a 70-64 decision at San Diego on Nov. 20. The Buffaloes will be looking to snap a six-game skid in true road games Saturday at Air Force. The loss also ended an eight-game overall winning streak in the month of November for Colorado.
On offense, the Buffaloes have shot just under 50 percent over the first two games, including 40 percent from 3-point range. Colorado's 81.0 points per game currently ranks fourth on the early season Pac-12 charts. Defensively, Colorado is allowing 72 points per game while opponents are shooting 41 percent from the field. The Buffaloes rank second in the Pac-12 in both field goal and 3-point percentage.
Sophomore McKinley Wright IV leads Colorado at 14.7 points and  a Pac-12 best 5.7 assists per game. Wright had 14 points and season-bests with seven rebounds and six assists against San Diego. He has scored in double-figures in 30 of 35 games and has logged at least five assists in 25 of those outings.
Senior guard Namon Wright is second on the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game while shooting 55 percent from the field. He had 25 points in the opener, his most in a Colorado uniform. Wright scored 28 points against Florida as a freshman at Missouri on Feb. 24, 2015. Wright is hitting 50 percent from 3-point range (6-12) ranking fifth on the early season Pac-12 leaderboard.
Sophomore Tyler Bey leads Colorado at 9.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game while ranking fourth in scoring at 10.3 points an outing. He had a career-high five blocked shots in the loss to San Diego, the most by a Buffalo since Wesley Gordon had five at Washington in January 2017. Â Bey's 9.8 rebounds per game currently rank fifth on the Pac-12 leaderboard while his 7.3 defensive boards per game rank third.
Junior forward Lucas Siewert is averaging 11.3 points while hitting 56.5 percent from the field (13 of 23) and 63.6 percent from 3-point range (7 of 11). Siewert scored 16 points against Omaha, just one shy of his career best. He matched his personal best with four 3-pointers against the Mavericks. Siewert ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage and second in 3-point accuracy. Dating back to last season, Siewert has made 25 of his last 45 from 3-point range (.556).
Sophomore wing D'Shawn Schwartz is averaging 7.5 points and is second on the team in rebounds at 4.5 per game. He made a strong season debut against Omaha. Schwartz registered career highs with 15 points and seven rebounds. He was 6 of 10 from the field, hitting a pair of 3-pointers. For Schwartz, it was his third career game in double figures.
Freshman forward Evan Battey is averaging 8.7 points and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 46 percent. He had a game-high 18 points with four rebounds at San Diego. Battey is playing his first meaningful regular season games since his junior year of high school in the spring of 2016. He had eight points on 3 of 6 shooting with one rebound, steal, block and assist in his collegiate debut vs. Drake.
Junior guard Shane Gatling has started his first three games for the Buffaloes, averaging 8.0 points per contest. Gatling scored eight points, hitting 2 of 3 from 3-point range, against San Diego. He is second on the team in free throws made and attempted, hitting 11 of 15 through three games.
Sophomore forward Alexander Strating had four points and three rebounds in 18 minutes against Drake. Strating appeared in just five games for a total of seven minutes as a redshirt freshman in 2017-18.
Daylen Kountz and Eli Parquet, members of Colorado's 2018 signing class, had solid collegiate debuts. Kountz had nine points and dished out four assists. Parquet had five points and grabbed three rebounds. Sophomore Aidan McQuade and freshman Benan Ersek, both walk-ons, saw their first action in the closing minutes.
Colorado's Tad Boyle marked his 400th game as an NCAA Division I head coach in the win over Omaha. He is 224-177 (.559) in his 13th year overall as a collegiate head coach, the last nine with the Buffaloes.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: Air Force is 2-3 overall, coming off a 1-2 trip to the Bimini Jam in the Bahamas. Saturday will mark just the second home game for the Falcons. Air Force's lone home contest was a 90-65 win over Johnson & Wales on Nov. 6. Â The Falcons are averaging 69.2 points on 47.7 shooting. Defensively, Air Force has allowed opponents 68.0 points per game while shooting 42 percent.
Junior guard Sid Tomes leads Air Force at 12.0 points and 2.8 assists per game. Junior forward Ryan Swan tops the Falcons in rebounding at 7.6 per game while ranking second in scoring at 11.6 points an outing. Swan, whose sister Jamee was a four-year letterwinner for the Colorado's women's basketball team, from 2012-16, has made 54 percent of his shots and leads Air Force with four steals. Junior forward Lavelle Scottie is Air Force's third double-figure scorer at 11.0 points per game and is second in rebounding at 5.2 boards per contest.
Dave Pilipovich is in his seventh season as the head coach at Air Force with a record of 86-116.
Â
SERIES RECORDS: This will be the 28th meeting between Colorado and Air Force with the Buffaloes holding a commanding 24-3 lead in the series. Colorado has won the last eight, including an 81-69 decision in Boulder on Nov. 26, 2017. Two of Air Force's three wins in the series have come at the Academy (2-11), the last a 75-56 decision on Nov. 30, 1977.Â
NONCONFERENCE NUMBERS: Colorado is 78-27 (.743) in nonconference regular season games under head coach Tad Boyle including a mark of 31-10 (.756) over the past three-plus seasons. The Buffaloes were 8-4 during the non-league slate in 2017-18.Â
Colorado's best nonconference record under Boyle is 11-2, achieved twice. First in 2013-14 and then again in 2015-16. Both seasons ended with NCAA Tournament berths. Boyle also had an 11-win nonconference schedule in 2009-10, his first year at Colorado, as the Buffaloes were 11-4 before beginning their final season in the Big 12 Conference.
ROAD BUFFS: Colorado will play three true road games during the nonconference schedule in 2018-19, and potentially a fourth. After opening with two at home, Colorado plays back-to-back at San Diego (Nov. 20) and Air Force (Nov. 24) and then next month heads to New Mexico (Dec. 11).
Colorado is one of just 15 schools from the Power 5 and Big East Conferences to have at least three true road games scheduled before conference play. Stanford leads everyone with four.
If Colorado and Hawai'i have the same result in their respective first round games at the Diamond Head Classic, then the Buffaloes will meet the Warriors on their home floor and join Stanford with a fourth road game.Â
WRIGHT ALREADY MOVING UP IN CAREER ASSISTS: Sophomore McKinley Wright IV had 175 assists in 32 games as a freshman which not only set Colorado's freshman record for assists in a season but was the second-best overall season mark in team history since the category became an official statistic in 1974-75.
With 192 assists he is already 28th on CU's career charts, needing eight to become the 28th player in team history with 200.
Colorado Career Assists:
Rk.   Player   Years   Assists
25.   James Wright   2001-03   208
   Jacques Tuz   1977-82   208
27.   Antoine McGee   2002-06   200
28.   McKinley Wright IV   2017-present   192
Wright's 5.5 assists per game in 2017-18 ranked as the seventh-best single-season average in team history. His current pace, still at 5.5 per game, would put him atop list for career average at Colorado. Billy Law currently holds that mark at 5.3 per game from 1990-92.
Wright had three double-figure assists games in 2017-18, each resulting in points-assists double-doubles (30 pts, 11 asst vs. South Dakota State; 16 pts, 10 asst vs. Arizona; 20 pts, 11 asst vs. Arizona State). Â His three points-assists double-doubles tied the school single-season record previously set by Jay Humphries (1982-83 and '83-84) and Toney Ellis (1976-77). Humphries holds the career mark in that category with six.
Wright's three games with 10-plus assists are tied with Law for fifth in a Colorado career. Humphries holds the record with seven from 1980-84.
Games With Double-Digit Assists:
1. Jay Humphries (1980-84)Â Â Â 7
2. Mike Reid (1982-86)Â Â Â Â Â Â 6
  Jose Winston (1998-01)      6
4. Chauncey Billups (1995-97)Â Â Â 5
5. McKinley Wright IV (2017-pre)Â Â Â 3
  Billy Law (1990-92)      3
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