Buffs Need Battey's Emotional Edge

BOULDER — When Colorado's Evan Battey looked at the box score after Saturday's 75-54 loss to Arizona, he knew he wouldn't like what he saw. The CU sophomore finished with just one rebound and no points — only the second time in his career (first this year) that he has been held scoreless and the first time this season he has had just one rebound.

But there was something even bigger missing from Battey's game, something that has become an integral part of the Buffaloes this season:

Energy and emotion. While junior point guard McKinley Wright no doubt still holds the keys to the Colorado attack, Battey's seemingly unlimited energy has become an emotional cornerstone for the Buffs.

"Saturday, for whatever reason, I didn't bring that," Battey said Tuesday after an extra 20 minutes of individual work following CU's practice. "That's on me. That's my job as a leader on this team and I let my team down and let myself down."

Battey, of course, had plenty of help in that area against the Wildcats, as just about every Buff endured a sub-par performance.

But, as head coach Tad Boyle noted, the Buffs have become a team that feeds off of Battey's enthusiasm. They'll need that this week when they play host to Washington State on Thursday (8 p.m.) and Washington on Saturday (7 p.m.) at the CU Events Center.

"He's got to get back to the emotional, energy guy that Evan is," Boyle said. "He can't derive his emotion from scoring. He's got to derive his emotion from other things. Defending and rebounding, taking charges, some of the things Evan does a really good job of."

It is part of a Boyle foundational tenet, one of which he constantly reminds his team.

"What are you doing to help the team if you're not scoring?" Boyle said. "We know Evan can do a lot of things to help our team win that doesn't involve scoring. We want him to score, we want him to catch the ball on the block and do good things and get fouled or score buckets. But if that's not happening, he can still help us. Every single one of our guys has to think that way."

Battey vowed it is something he will address. He is still fourth on the team in scoring (9.1 ppg) and second in rebounding (6.5 rpg), but he also knows he must bring that emotion that his teammates feed upon.

"I'm that guy and my teammates depend on me for that," Battey said. "I've had that role everywhere I've played. But it's magnified in some circumstances. When we're on the road or in a tight ballgame, that energy has to come from somewhere. Our guys were looking at me for that energy and I didn't have it. That's up to me to figure out how to fix it."

GUARD REBOUNDING: After five CU guards combined for just five rebounds in the loss at Arizona, Boyle has challenged his guards to significantly improve those numbers.

"A lot of it is technique," Boyle said. "Rebounding is a mentality. It's like defense. Defense is a mentality. It doesn't take a lot of skill, but it takes a lot of heart and determination and toughness. I'm just trying to challenge our guys and hopefully they'll rise to it."

Boyle also had a talk this week with Wright, who is averaging 5.3 rebounds per game this year, but had just three at Arizona.

"I've taken a step back there in that area of my game," Wright said. "It's something I've got to do better. I have to get back to the way I was my freshman year and be hungry on the offensive glass and defensive glass."

Wright's season rebounding average is actually the best of his three years in Boulder. But, he said, he needs to refocus more energy on that aspect of his game.

"I got in the mode where I was just relying on Tyler (Bey) and Evan," Wright said. "I'll admit it. Those guys rebound the ball like crazy so I had gotten to that point where I said 'OK, they're going to go get it.' I've come to the realization that it's not going to happen all the time. They're going to see matchups just as big and athletic as they are and our guards have to do a better job coming in and helping."

FIRST LOOK WSU — The Cougars, under the direction of first-year head coach Kyle Smith, are coming off a weekend sweep of the Oregon schools that started with a 72-61 win over Oregon and finished with an 89-76 victory over Oregon State.

WSU sophomore forward CJ Elleby was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for his effort in the sweep, as he had a 25-point, 14-rebound double-double against the Ducks, then scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win over Oregon State.

The 6-foot-6 Elleby leads WSU and is fifth in the conference scoring race (18.9 ppg) and also averages a team-leading 7.2 rebounds and 1.63 steals per game. Junior guard Isaac Bonton, who had 34 points (including four 3-pointers), eight rebounds and eight assists against OSU, is averaging 14.6 points per game.

The win over Oregon State was WSU's 12th of the season, surpassing last year's season total of 11.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu

Players Mentioned

Evan Battey

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