Former Buffs Star Roberson Says CU Can 'Make Some Noise' Down Stretch
February 26, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — A former Colorado basketball star who knows a thing or two about the subject said Tuesday he believes the Buffaloes can "make some noise" down the stretch this season.
Andre Roberson is certainly familiar with what it takes.
Roberson, a key part of the 2011-12 Buffs who won four games in a row to win the first Pac-12 tournament, was in Boulder on Tuesday to catch the Buffs' practice. Roberson and his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates were in Denver to take on the Nuggets in an evening game at the Pepsi Center, so Roberson took the opportunity to visit his old stomping grounds.
"I see the potential," said Roberson, who has been sidelined all season with a knee injury. "They know what it takes now, obviously, to string wins together. They know what it takes to win and I think they can make some noise."
Roberson and former CU teammate Nate Tomlinson — also a key cog in that memorable 2012 conference tournament run and now part of CU's staff — spent some time together during Tuesday's practice. After two days in a row off, Colorado got back to the business of preparing for Saturday's key Pac-12 home game with Utah (4 p.m.).
Roberson played three years in Boulder. A freshman on Tad Boyle's first CU team — which advanced to the NIT Final Four after an NCAA Tournament snub — he moved into a starting role as a sophomore to help the Buffs to the Pac-12 tourney title and a first-round win over UNLV in the NCAA Tournament. Roberson finished the season averaging 11.6 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, the third-best rebounding average in the nation.
"We didn't want to go home," Roberson said. "We wanted to make our seniors proud and go to the tournament. We got snubbed the year before and knowing that would be the only way we could do it, we kind of had that on our agenda the whole time."
The four wins in four days in Los Angeles hasn't been matched by any Pac-12 team since. The Buffs opened with a win over Utah, then knocked off Oregon and Cal before beating Arizona in the championship game.
"To me, it seemed like we had a rivalry with every school we played that year," Roberson said of CU's first season in the Pac-12 after leaving the Big 12. "It was kind of personal. It was always close. Utah, Cal, Arizona obviously. The games were kind of personal to us. That kind of gave us a little bit more edge to beat those people. The ultimate goal was to get us to the tournament and make some noise, for sure."
A year later, Roberson averaged another double-double — 10.9 points and 11.2 rebounds (second in the nation) — and the Buffs again earned an NCAA Tournament berth. He was named first team All-Pac-12 as well as the conference's defensive player of the year, and he opted to leave school a year early. He was selected in the first round of the NBA Draft by Minnesota, and traded to Oklahoma City later that night. He quickly became a defensive mainstay for the Thunder until being sidelined near the end of last season by the knee injury.
Roberson has done his best to keep up with the Buffs. He has a particular interest in watching CU sophomore Tyler Bey, a player whose physical build and style of play has earned him favorable comparisons to Roberson.
"He's an athletic freak," Roberson said. "Gets out and runs, got a good head on his shoulders, a humble kid. Kind of like me my sophomore year — trying to figure it out and put the pieces together. The only way you can do that is going out there and feeding yourself to the wolves, going out there and fighting every night and getting experience."
While Roberson was a capable scorer at CU, it was his rebounding prowess and defensive skills that earned him the attention of NBA scouts. Never the biggest player on the floor, the 6-foot-7 Roberson nevertheless owned the boards.
"You have to go out there and want it, to be honest," Roberson said of rebounding. "Size doesn't really matter. Heart, obviously. Whoever wants to go get it, whoever has the will to go get it, is going to get it."
Roberson was not among the most highly recruited players, something he said may have actually helped in the long run as it put a permanent chip on his shoulder in college.
"Tad's a great coach," he said. "He recruited me here and I wanted to play for that guy."
His advice to Bey, he said, is to, "Continue to work hard every day, come in with the attitude of going out there and taking down the best, whoever it is — whether it's the best in practice or the best on the next team or the best team. … That's the only you can gain or get the full experience, is going out there and competing every night at a high level and knowing you gave it your all."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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