Buffs Get Some Needed Rest As They Prepare For Monday NIT Matchup With Norfolk State
March 21, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — A five-day stretch between NIT games comes at a good time for the Colorado Buffaloes.
The Buffs, who opened postseason play Tuesday with a 78-73 win over Dayton, don't play again until Monday, when they will host Norfolk State at 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center in what will be CU's last home appearance of the year.
The time between games gave players a full day off Wednesday and a light day Thursday, limited to watching film and individual work. Coming on the heels of a stretch in which they played four games in six days (three in the Pac-12 tournament), it means they have time to rest and recover before attempting to make one last stretch run that will hopefully include an NIT Final Four appearance and a trip to Madison Square Garden.
It also means some extra time for some ailing 22-12 Buffs to heal, beginning with forward Tyler Bey. The CU sophomore, the team's leading rebounder and tied for the team scoring lead, left Tuesday's game in the second half after getting tangled up under the basket. While examinations didn't reveal any structural damage and he returned to play, his ankle was sore that night and his knee was "really hurting" the next day.
But, after two days of treatment and rest, he said he hopes to practice Friday and is confident that he will be ready for Monday's game.
"It's been good," he said. "It's getting better every day. I'm doing treatment every day. … I'm going to be ready. I think I'm going to practice (Friday)."'
CU head coach Tad Boyle, who said the Buffs also have a couple players "under the weather," also said he expected Bey to be ready for Norfolk State, which advanced by winning at Alabama in overtime Wednesday.
In the interim, the Buffs will have what Boyle hopes will be short but productive practices.
"This is a hard time of year because practice-wise they've seen it all and done it all," Boyle said. "It's difficult to have longer practices. But when we're on the floor, we need to make sure we're crisp, make sure we're intense, make sure we're not taking steps backward."
That includes defense, something Boyle said slipped slightly against Dayton.
"I thought defensively after watching the Dayton film we took a step backward defensively from where we were in Las Vegas in those three games," Boyle said. "I thought our defense in Las Vegas was really good, I thought our rebounding was really good. But our defense took a step back against Dayton. Now Dayton had something to do with that, they're a very solid, efficient team. But we just watched some film with the guys to show them the difference … here's where we were in Las Vegas when we held every team we played to less than 40 percent. Here's 54 percent (against Dayton)."
Norfolk State (22-13) won the MEAC regular season title before falling to North Carolina Central in the MEAC tournament championship. That relegated the Spartans to the NIT, but they made the most of their opportunity Wednesday by knocking off No. 1 seed Alabama in the opening round.
"I can promise you this — we will not take Norfolk State lightly," Boyle said. "I've got great respect for them, especially what they did on the road at Alabama."
No matter what happens Monday, it will be the last home game of the year for Colorado. If the Buffs win, they will play the winner of the Texas-Xavier game on the winner's home floor. A loss, of course, would end CU's season.
Boyle and his players are happy to get one more game in the Events Center.
"I thought our fans for 9 o'clock on a Tuesday night, I thought they were terrific," Boyle said of Tuesday's game, which had an announced crowd of 3,091. "It gives them one more opportunity to come watch this team play. We know this is going to be our last game. If we're fortunate enough to move on, we know we're going to be either at Xavier or Texas. We're fortunate to be playing at home."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
