Buffs Plan To Make Sure Defense Travels To Pac-12 Tournament
March 09, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — It's a basketball maxim that "defense travels."
On a day when Colorado's Tyler Bey was named the Pac-12's Defensive Player of the Year and teammate McKinley Wright IV was named to the conference's all-defensive team, the Buffaloes began preparations for this week's conference tournament in Las Vegas — and they vowed to take their defense with them.
The 21-10 Buffs, the tourney's sixth seed, face 11th-seeded Washington State (15-16) on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. (MT) at T-Mobile Arena.
Defense has always been a cornerstone of Tad Boyle's CU teams, and this year was no different for the vast majority of the season. After 14 conference games, Colorado led the Pac-12 in scoring defense, giving up just 64.0 points per game.
But that defense hit a rough spot down the stretch, one very big reason CU finished the regular season with a four-game losing streak, dropping from the top to the middle of the standings in just two weeks. In those four losses, CU yielded an average of 73 points per game.
Wright, who was also named first team all-conference for the second year in a row, said the Buffs have to regain that defensive edge in Las Vegas.
"Starting with us two, we have to turn it up," Wright said after Monday's practice. "I made the defensive team, (Bey) won defensive player of the year. We're going to go out and showcase that we can defend at a high level and get the other guys to go with us."
The Buffs are no strangers to solid defensive efforts in Las Vegas. Earlier this year, they won the MGM Main Event at T-Mobile by knocking off Wyoming and Clemson. CU overcame a 15-point first half to beat Wyoming, 56-41, then beat Clemson two nights later, 71-67. The Buffs held the Cowboys to 31.9 percent shooting, then limited the Tigers to 40.8 percent shooting.
"At that point in time, our defense was good enough against Wyoming to keep us in the game until our offense got going a little bit in the second half," Boyle said. "Our defense was good enough to win that game when we weren't at our best offensively. Clemson, the same thing. We guarded Clemson very, very well and it allowed us to win a championship in that building."
In Monday's film session, the Buffs watched clips of outstanding offensive and defensive possessions this season. Wright said it served as a good reminder.
"We've seen film of how good we can be," Wright said. "We all believe in each other and we know that we can get this thing turned back around in the right direction."
At the same time CU's defense struggled in the last four games, CU's shooting also took a hiatus. The team that led the conference in field goal percentage and 3-point shooting for 14 conference games saw both numbers drop during the losing streak — especially from long distance. After shooting .382 percent from beyond the arc for nearly two months of Pac-12 play, the Buffs dropped to just 26.7 percent over the last four games.
"When you aren't shooting the ball from the perimeter, you have to find other ways to score," Boyle said. "That's the difference between being a shooter and being a scorer. Guys that are shooters and don't shoot the ball well, they're done. To be an effective scorer, if you're not shooting the ball well, you get to the free throw line. Shot fake and drive. Get a pull-up, get to the rim, finish, get a dunk. I think you have to find other ways to be effective when the jump shot's not going in. I've talked to each one of our guys about that."
But no matter what, the Buffs have to be able to depend on their defense.
"We're going to hopefully learn from the past and the biggest thing I want to learn from is the fact that our defense and our rebounding has got to be good enough to win a game in Las Vegas when we're not shooting the ball well," Boyle said. "That might be on Wednesday night. It might be, if we're lucky enough to advance, on Thursday night. At some point, you're going to have to rely on that if we want to win a Pac-12 championship."
BROADCAST CREW: Thursday's game will be televised by the Pac-12 Network with Ted Robinson, Bill Walton and Lewis Johnson. The radio broadcast will be carried by 850 AM and 94.1 FM with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
