Colorado University Athletics
MBB Looking for Second Straight Conference Win, Hosts Baylor Tonight
TONIGHT: Colorado looks for their second consecutive win in Big 12 Conference play for the first time this season. Last year, CU engineered a pair of back-to-backs wins, both victories coming on the road first, then following with a home win. The Buffs are 7-1 at home this season and averaging a conference best and a fourth-best nationally 83.2 points per game. KKZN Radio 760-AM: Mark Johnson (p-b-p), Charles Johnson (analyst); Television: none.
CU vs. BAYLOR: The Buffaloes lead the all-time series with Bears holding an 11-5 advantage since play began in 1946. CU has won six of seven games in Boulder and have won three of its last four. Baylor defeated CU, 67-59 in Waco last year. The two schools played six times prior to 1981, since then CU is 7-3, including four victories in Boulder.
SCOUTING THE BEARS: Baylor has played only twice this season with losses at home to Texas Tech (79-61) and at Oklahoma State (66-48). There are only two seniors on the Bears roster that also includes six freshmen, three sophomores, and two juniors. Sophomore guard Aaron Bruce is the lone BU player averaging over double figures (15.5 ppg).
20/20 DEFENSE: Against Missouri, the Buffs allowed two 20-point scorers by an opponent for the first time this season. The last time an opponent had more than one player with 20 or more points against the Buffs was last season when Iowa State handed CU a home defeat, as Curtis Stinson (22), Will Blalock (20) and Tasheed Carr (20) reached the mark. Last season, CU allowed six different teams to account for at least two players with 20 or more points (four in conference play)...The Buffs were 1-5 in those games with the only win coming against Gardner-Webb.
NCAA STATS: As of Jan. 17, the Buffs are ranked among the best statistically in the 12 national team categories:
4th, Scoring Offense, 83.2
10th, Steals, 10.4
11th, Scoring Margin, 15.9
15th, Assists, 17.9
20th, Blocked Shots, 5.9
24th, 3-point FG Made, 8.5
49th, Field Goal %, .474
RICH FINDS HIS NICHE: Big 12 Player of the Week honoree Richard Roby had career highs in points (33) and field goals attempted (24) against Missouri. He also tied a career high with 11 field goals made (he also made 11 at Texas Tech last season en route to 29 points). Roby is the first CU standout to win Player of the Week accolades since David Harrison in 2003-04.
DOUBLE CLUTCH: In the last two games, Roby and Copeland have combined for more field goal attempts, field goals and points than the rest of their teammates combined. Against Kansas, Roby and Copeland connected on 14-of-30 (37 points) shots compared to 7-of-27 (26 points) for the rest of the team. At Missouri, the duo made good on 17-of-36 (48 points) shots compared to 9-of-25 (26 points) for the rest of the Buffs. Combining the last two games, Roby and Copeland have shot 31-of-66 and scored 85 points between them. The rest of the team has shot 16-of-52 and scored 52 points combined.
BUFF TIDBITS: With a career-high 33 points at Missouri, Richard Roby moved up five spots to 54th on the CU scoring list (717 pts.)...Despite not starting at Mizzou and at press time against Baylor, Marcus Hall leads the Big 12 in assist-turnover ratio again (2.67), while the team is first in scoring offense (83.2), steals (10.4), assist-turnover ratio (1.3), and 3-point FGs made (8.5)...Hall is sixth in the conference (all games) in assists...Roby has scored double figures in 17 of his 19 career conference games (the other two games he scored nine)...Of the nine national categories kept by the NCAA located on page 5, Roby leads CU in seven of the nine categories. The only exception are blocked shots (Andy Osborn) and assists (Hall)...Glean Eddy has 371 career rebounds, 42nd all-time at CU, while Copeland has 340 (48th)...Osborn has made at least one 3-pointer in 11 straight games (two a game)...Roby holds three of CU’s top scoring games this season (33, 29, 22)...In conference-only games, Roby (20.7), Copeland (14.3), Martane Freeman (10.3) lead CU...TEAM: CU won in Missouri for the first time since 1996-97 season and only the second time in Columbia since Jan. 15, 1973 (32 games)...CU won for the first time this season in three conference games after trailing at the half and won the battle on the boards for the first time in three games...The Buffs are shooting .603 from the free throw line since conference play began.
REBOUNDING BY COMMITTEE: No Buff pulled down over five rebounds against Missouri, yet CU still managed to out-rebound the Tigers 31-30. The last time CU out-rebounded an opponent without any single player registering more than five was at Texas Tech last season when the Buffs managed a 37-32 rebounding edge on the merits of five different players with exactly five rebounds. Eleven players recorded a rebound against Missouri (Glean Eddy, who played only one minute, is the only Buff not to pull down a board). This season, the Buffs have had at least 11 players record a rebound in 11 of their 14 contests...at least 10 players have recorded a rebound in 12 of their 14 contests.
SPREADING THE MINUTES: Head Coach Ricardo Patton hinted that he would shorten CU’s bench against Missouri after the home loss to Kansas; however for the first time this season, 10 different players logged at least 10 minutes of playing time in the contest.
TURNOVER BATTLE: The Buffs have committed fewer turnovers than their opponent in all three conference games this season. In 16 conference games last season?not including the tournament?the Buffs had fewer turnovers exactly half of the time. Surprisingly, CU was only 2-6 when turning the ball over less than the opponent.
SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK...3 is a magic number...3,6,9,12,15,18: Tonight’s lesson is a simple one for the Buffs, they love to shoot for the number three. After 14 games, CU is less than half way from breaking their school record of 223 treys set last year. Tonight they have 119-of-315, while last year’s total at this time was 85-of-249.
MORE BUFF Tidbits: Richard Roby’s game-high 33 points was the first time he led CU in scoring since Dec. 20 ... CU played with its third different starting lineup at Missouri as Roby and Chris Copeland are the only two players to start all 14 games ... Antoine McGee started at the point for the first time this season at Mizzou as did Martane Freeman, who made his first career start; Julius Ashby started for the first time as well ... Roby has led CU from the 3-point arc eight times this season ... CU’s nine-game winning streak was the longest in school history since the 1961-62 season when the Buffaloes won 12-straight ... CU has made a 3-pointer in 114-straight games (last time CU they didn’t was Jan. 16, 2002, Iowa State, W, 63-61) ... Roby collected his third career double-double versus Utah (19 pts., 10 rebs.) ... Andy Osborn collected his second career double-double at CU, 17 pts., 10 rebounds against Cal Poly (four at Loyola Marymount) ... Roby failed to make a 3-pointer against SSU, ending his streak of 30 games going back to last season ... On page 9, a handful of CU players are moving upward on career school lists ... Seniors Chris Copeland, Glean Eddy, Antoine McGee, and Jayson Obazuaye close out their final year in 2005-06. It’s also the first senior class under Head Coach Ricardo Patton that four players will have played their freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years at CU.
BIG 12 10TH ANNIVERSARY VOTING NOW OPEN: The Big 12 is celebrating its 10th anniversary this season and is selecting special teams to honor the top players in the first nine years of the conference.
Followers of the Big 12 can vote for the top five men’s basketball players in league annals by visiting the conference web site at www.big12sports.com. Click on the "Vote Now" button on the left side of the home page. Users may also go directly to the following link for voting information:
www.big12sports.com/10th-anniversary/
Winners will be announced live on the ESPN Plus Studio 66 halftime show in early February.
TOP 25 RANKINGS...almost: Hey, we’re STILL getting votes, 22 in the latest ESPN/USA Today poll (week 11). That means we’re the No. 29th ranked team nationally if the poll was 30 or more teams. The last time the Buffs were ranked in either poll came in 1997 at No. 24 (Associated Press). The others were 1969 (#18), 1963 (#10), 1962 (#9) and 1955 (#15).
THIS DATE IN HISTORY: CU is 6-8 on this date in history, however 5-4 at home. The Buffs last played on this date in 2003 and lost at Nebraska in overtime, 80-77.