Colorado University Athletics
Woelk: Buffs' Recent Roll Has Been A True Team Effort
February 10, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — The resurgence of the Colorado men's basketball team over the last 10 days has truly been a team effort.
In their current three-game win streak, the Buffs have been led in scoring by three different players. Sophomore Tyler Bey had a career-high 27 points in CU's win over Oregon, junior Shane Gatling followed that up with a career-high 28 in the win over UCLA, and sophomore McKinley Wright IV tallied 20 in Saturday's LA sweep-clinching win over USC.
But it has been more than just the leading scorers who have made the difference in CU's recent push. The Buffs have gotten contributions from all seven of their regular rotation players in key areas.
Sophomore D'Shawn Schwartz had an outstanding Los Angeles trip, averaging 14 points and four rebounds in the two games. Freshman Evan Battey had 14-point, six-rebound night at USC. Junior Lucas Siewert scored in double figures in two of CU's latest three wins while averaging more than five rebounds in the stretch, and sophomore Daylen Kountz had an 11-point night against Oregon.
Meanwhile, every Buff has pitched in with some solid defense. Battey tortured USC's Nick Rakocevic all night long, helping to hold him to eight points — half his season average. Battey also did a solid job on UCLA's Moses Brown down the stretch in the win at Pauley Pavilion, while Bey was a defensive stalwart in all three games, as were Wright and Schwartz.
Simply, the Buffs have been getting contributions from everyone, and most importantly, in crucial situations.
But, while the resurgence has no doubt been a team effort, it is also quite clear that it is Wright who is the straw that stirs the drink. When the sophomore point guard plays well, his effort, energy and focus run through the team — and he has been playing extremely well of late despite a shoulder injury.
Since returning to the lineup after missing a game with the injury, Wright has averaged 13.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and just two turnovers per game in a stretch that has seen the Buffs go 4-2. But in the last three games, he's been even better, particularly in the rebounding department (6.0 per game) and assist-to-turnovers ratio (4.3 assists per game, 1.7 turnovers).
Wright credits the recent surge to a team meeting after CU's loss to Oregon State. In the meeting, Wright said, he urged his teammates not to give up on each another.
But his teammates also had some advice for him as well.
"My teammates just told me to be more aggressive," Wright said. "They told me in order for us to win, I have to be able to make plays. Every one of them, when I called the team meeting, they told me I had to play better, that I had to step it up."
Boyle, meanwhile, also deserves plenty of credit for the recent turnaround. In the loss to Oregon State, he sent a message by using an ineffective Bey for just seven minutes in the second half. The missive was clear: if you can't contribute, there's room on the bench.
Since then, Bey has averaged 15 points and nine rebounds in three wins.
But Boyle has also managed to impart to his team the importance of mental toughness, a commodity that can't be measured — and can't be installed in the game plan. Rather, it is a mentality that has to be adopted and embraced by the players, then displayed in crucial situations.
The Buffs have done just that in their recent streak. The team that let halftime leads slip away in back-to-back losses to Stanford and Oregon State just two weeks ago has now come back from second-half deficits in consecutive games to win — both on the road.
With five of their seven remaining regular season games at home, beginning with Wednesday's 8:30 matchup with Arizona State, the Buffs have a legitimate chance to make a push for a top-four Pac-12 finish. Currently in eighth place with a 5-6 league record, CU is still just two games away from a three-team pack in second place, and four of CU's remaining games are against team currently ahead of them in the standings.
Of course, counting on anything — even homecourt advantage — is a fool's errand in today's Pac-12, where logic and conventional wisdom seem to have taken a season-long hiatus.
There may be no better example than CU's next opponent, Arizona State. Last week, the Sun Devils lost at home to the league's 11th-place team — Washington State — then knocked off league-leading Washington a few days later, handing the Huskies their first conference loss of the season.
That's the way it has been all season in the conference, with the Buffs by no means immune to the roller-coaster ride. The Buffs are just 2-2 at home in conference play, but are a respectable 3-4 on the road. (That, however, doesn't hold a candle to Utah's home-road anomaly. The Utes are 5-1 in conference road games this year and just 2-3 at home.)
What does it all mean?
For starters, it means the young Buffs should be entertaining down the stretch. Nobody is expecting them to run the table, but if they keep playing the way they have played over the last 10 days, they could put together several more wins down the stretch and hit a top-four finish.
If they do that, they would definitely have a puncher's chance in the Pac-12 tournament (and we all know it's been done before).
But maybe most importantly, it means that this year's team — despite injuries and other issues that have depleted depth — is growing up in a hurry and gaining valuable experience and confidence.
Then, when you figure that every player in uniform over the last three games should be back next year — plus some additional help — both the short-term and long-term prospects for Colorado basketball are looking quite good.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
