Woelk: Sophomores Bey, Wright Have Fueled Buffs' Resurgence
February 14, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — If there has been one defining turning point for the Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball team this year, it came on Jan. 31.
That is the night the Buffs let a second half lead slip away for the second straight game, coming up on the short end of a 76-74 decision to Oregon State at home. The loss, coming on the heels of a second-half slip at Stanford, dropped CU to 2-6 in Pac-12 play.
It could have marked the beginning of the end for a young team that was struggling to find its footing.
Instead, it was the beginning of a resurgence that has already rewritten the CU history books — and has the potential to be even more.
Since that night against the Beavers, the Buffs haven't lost. Tad Boyle's crew has put together four straight wins, a stretch that includes a Los Angeles road sweep, bookended by a pair of wins over two of the more talented teams in the league. It is the longest win streak ever by the Buffs in regular season Pac-12 play, and the longest overall since the 2005-06 Colorado team won five consecutive Big 12 games.
Now, the Buffs — 15-9 overall and 6-6 in Pac-12 play — are in position to claim a top-four league finish, something they have not done since joining the conference in the 2011-12 season.
The Buffs believe they are in this position because they never lost faith in themselves, and their coach never lost faith in them.
"It started with Coach Boyle," CU point guard McKinley Wright IV said after Wednesday's 77-73 win over Arizona State. "He told us he will never give up on us and that he loves us. When you hear that from your head coach, it gives us the confidence to go out and do our thing. We've just been trying to win ever since then and that's what we've been doing."
Indeed, Boyle's confidence in his young Buffs never seemed to wane, even after the disappointing back-to-back losses that dropped CU to 2-6 in league play. He continued to insist that the Buffs could still "make some noise" in league play, and over the last four games, his unwavering faith has yielded results.
"We said this going back to even before the Oregon State game," Boyle said Wednesday night. "We said the two things we are going to focus on are getting better every day, and figuring out how to win the next game. And it's almost like when I said that to them and put it in those terms, it's almost like a calm came over them."
Over the course of their recent win streak, a number of Buffs have delivered clutch performances. But the two steadiest have been Wright and fellow sophomore Tyler Bey.
Bey, in particular, has been a beast since the Oregon State game — and that should also come as no surprise. It was against OSU that Bey found himself on the bench for the majority of the second half. He finished the game with just four points and four rebounds in 18 minutes of play — the fewest minutes for him in a game this year outside of seven against Air Force, when he suffered a shoulder injury early in the game.
"I just didn't think Tyler was giving us much tonight," Boyle said after the OSU game. "He's a good player, but I thought defensively and rebounding he wasn't the same Tyler Bey I've expected to see and we've expected to see. …We need Tyler to play better. We need everybody to play better."
Bey took the message to heart, and since then has been a dominant player. In CU's four-game win streak, he has posted three double-doubles while averaging 16.7 points, 11 rebounds and nearly 29 minutes per game while shooting .641 from the field (25-for-39). The stretch includes a career-high 17 rebounds against Arizona State and a career-high 27 points against Oregon.
"I was really disappointed in myself," Bey said of the Oregon State game. "That game made me want to take my game to the level I was looking for. I was really frustrated and I honestly don't want to feel like that again. … It was a wakeup call. I want to step up as much as I can for this team."
Bey has certainly done that, becoming a force on both ends of the floor. While his potential has been known to Buffs fans who follow the team closely, his last four games have turned that potential into production — and the entire Pac-12 is taking notice.
"There is a reason that McKinley Wright was going to be a possible player of the year candidate coming into the season and Tyler Bey," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said after Wednesday's game. "Those two sophomores —  whoa, they got something good with those two. Twenty-two points and seventeen rebounds (Bey's numbers) … when you have those kind of guys putting out those kind of performances then you are going to get the results you got."
Indeed, Wright has also been a major catalyst behind the Buffs' recent resurgence. While he has upped his game since returning from a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the first game of his college career (Jan. 20 at Utah), he has taken it to another level over the last four games.
In the current win streak, he has averaged 16.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.25 assists and just 2.25 turnovers. He has also averaged nearly 34 minutes per game on the floor, despite the lingering shoulder injury.
"(Bey) and McKinley were warriors tonight," Boyle said after the ASU win. "Obviously McKinley with the ball late and Tyler rebounding the ball, those two kids are special. They're really separating themselves in terms of what they can do to help this team win."
Colorado's win streak is by no means a two-man effort. The Buffs are getting crucial production from their entire starting five, as well as their bench. D'Shawn Schwartz had back-to-back double-figure scoring games in the wins over UCLA and USC; Shane Gatling had a career-high 28 points at UCLA and had nine points against Arizona State, including seven in CU's decisive second-half comeback; and Lucas Siewert has averaged more than 8 points and five rebounds in the four-game stretch.
Meanwhile, reserve big man Evan Battey has had some key moments, including eight points and two rebounds in the first half against ASU before leaving with back spasms; as well as 14 points and six rebounds at USC.
"We've got a lot of weapons on this team," Boyle said. "We may not be the deepest team. … We're not as deep as we thought we would be when this season started, but we're figuring out a way and these guys just keep battling and keep fighting. As a coach you want to see improvement daily, weekly, monthly, and I think we're starting to see that."
BUFFS BITS: The Buffs did not practice Thursday, and will return to the floor Friday to begin preparation for Sunday's game against Arizona. … After Wednesday's game, Boyle said Battey would receive treatment for his back over the next three days and they were hopeful that he would be available for Sunday's game.
REUNION WEEKEND: The Buffs will continue their tradition of hosting a former coach and players from that era for a reunion this weekend. Up this year is the Ricardo Patton era. Patton, currently an assistant for Rodney Billups at Denver, was Colorado's head coach from 1996-2007. He compiled a 184-160 record in his tenure — the second-most wins in CU history, trailing only Sox Walseth's 261 victories — and he took his teams to two NCAA Tournament appearances. Patton will be on hand for this weekend's reunion, along with a number of his former players, including Chauncey Billups.
The reunions have been an important part of Boyle's drive to honor CU's basketball tradition and engage former players and coaches with the program.
"This is about honoring the past and honoring the players that played for Ricardo and everybody in that era," he said. "It's also for every Colorado basketball player to come back, but especially for him and his staff and his era. … He has a lot of time invested in this place. A lot of blood, sweat and tears so to speak. It will be great to have Coach Patton back and all those who played for him."
UPCOMING: The Buffs will play four of their remaining six regular season conference games at home, beginning with Sunday's 6 p.m. matchup with Arizona at the CU Events Center.
Colorado then hits the road next week for games at Washington State (Wednesday, 8 p.m.) and Washington (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.), before wrapping up the season with three straight home games: Utah (March 2), UCLA (March 7) and USC (March 9).
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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