Colorado University Athletics

"White Out" Set for MBB Against Mizzou

"White Out" Set for MBB Against Mizzou
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mbb notes vs. Missouri

ON TAP: Colorado (9-9, 1-3 Big 12) vs. Missouri Tigers (11-8, 1-3 Big 12)

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2:01 p.m. (Mountain)

Arena: Coors Events Center (11,064)

Television: ESPN Plus (Altitude Sports & Entertainment)

Announcers: Dave Armstrong, Bob Sundvold

Radio: KKZN 760 and Sirius Channel 126: Mark Johnson, Charles Johnson

 

FOR STARTERS (individual): Richard Roby is averaging 13.7 ppg. and 3.3 rpg. in three home games against Mizzou on 13-of-34, .382 shooting (a pair of 15-point efforts), in Columbia Roby averages 18.3 ppg. ? Marcus Hall has led the team in assists five of the last six games (5.2 apg.) ? In his last four Big 12 games, Cory Higgins is shooting .533 from the field (16-of-30) with 11.5 ppg., 4.8 rpg. and eight 3-pointers; Roby is 17.8 ppg., 6.5 rpg.. 532 FG%; Xavier Silas: 11.5 ppg., 5.3 rpg. ? Roby has led CU in scoring nine times, six  of them over 20 points (22.2 ppg. average); Roby has also led on the boards eight times (8.9 rpg.) ? Hall, Higgins and Roby have started every game (18) ? Hall, Higgins, Knutson and Thorne II are the only players with more assists than turnovers.

 

FOR STARTERS (team): In four conference games, the Buffs are shooting .458 from the field and committing 12.5 turnovers a game (4th in the Big 12-only games) ? CU has won nine games this season surpassing last year’s total of seven. In nine victories, CU is shooting .498 from the field and averaging 68.6 ppg. and allowing 52.7 ppg. ? CU is 5-1 when shooting over 50 percent from the field ? After 18 games, CU starters are out-scoring the opponent starters by an average of a 52.3-to-45.4 margin; however the opponent bench is out-scoring CU by an average of 17-to-12 ? CU made a first-half best seven 3-pointers at Texas and tied a season-best 17 made free throws against Kansas State.

 

CU v. MIZZOU: The Tigers hold an 89-54 advantage in the series dating back to 1936 and have a 13-9 edge over CU since the Big 12 Conference was formed. Since the 2002-03 season, the Buffaloes have a 4-1 advantage with their only set back coming last season. Mizzou swept the season series a year ago for the first time since 2001-02.

 

ABOUT missouri: The Tigers bring a three-game losing streak and 1-3 record in today’s game. However, all three losses are by an average of 6.3 points. Mizzou will also be looking for its first win of the season on the road (0-5) and are led with a quartet of scorers averaging 10 points or better. Key note: Mizzou is third in the conference with 138 made 3-pointers (7.3), while the CU defense ranks 11th in 3-point defense.

 

BIG 12 TOP-10: Colorado’s top two seniors of Roby and Hall highlight the conference top-10 leaders (all games played):

FT %:     Roby     4th   .788

Scoring:  Roby     5th  16.9 ppg.

FG%:      Roby     9th    .495

Steals:    Hall       5th     2.00

Assists:  Hall       t-5th   4.00

Ast-Turn Ratio Hall         10th   1.76

 

1,000 POINTS: Marcus Hall is 54 points away from becoming the 25th player in school history to score 1,000 points in his career. Hall has 946 points entering today’s game and stands in 26th place overall.

 

TEAM LEADERS: CU’s leading scorers are Richard Roby (16.9 ppg.) and Marcus Hall (11.9 ppg.); leader on the glass is Roby (6.2 rpg.) and Jermyl Jackson-Wilson (4.4 rpg.); Hall tops the team in assists (4.0 apg.), steals (2.0 spg.) and 27 3-pointers.

 

LAST GAME REVIEW: Richard Roby scored a team-high 27 points with nine rebounds, the sixth time that he has scored over the 20-point barrier this season, however Kansas State’s Michael Beasley countered with 26 of his game-high 29 points in the second half to lead the Wildcats to a 72-56 victory, last Wednesday. CU hurt itself by hitting only 17-of-31 free throws and were out-rebounded by a 41-to-30 margin.

 

SEASONED VETERAN?: With 18 starts under his belt, freshman Cory Higgins is making the most of his initial season with 31.3 minutes per game. Higgins recorded his seventh and eighth double-digit scoring game, respectively with a team-best 13 points against Nebraska and 15 points at Texas A&M. He also grabbed a season-best eight rebounds (all defensive) at Texas.

 

Trends after 18 games

                In Wins (9)    In Losses (9)

FG %               49.8%       41.3%

3-pt. FG %       36.6%       33.1%

FG made          24.8          20.9

FT%                 68.9%       68.2%

Turnovers          13.4          13.6

Assist/TO Ratio +1.9          -1.2

Off. Rebounds   9.1            8.7

Def. Rebounds  23.3          19.0

Steals              8.0            4.8

Blocks             4.6            4.4

 

In nine wins ... Roby: 16.8 ppg., 6.9 rpg., 3.3 apg.; Hall: 13.9 ppg., 3.3 rpg., 3.4 apg.; Jackson-Wilson: 6.2 rpg., 5.0 ppg. 1.2 bpg.

 

4th all-time: Richard Roby keeps moving up on the school scoring list with 1,760 points. After netting his third 27-point effort of th season, he stands 117 points from passing Shaun Vandiver (1,876). Vandiver played three years from 1989-91 scoring 1,876 points in 91 games (20.6 ppg.).

 

BUFFALO GOLD: For the first time since the 2000-01 season, CU wore gold uniforms in their conference home opener against Nebraska. The last time CU wore gold was an 81-71 home win versus Oklahoma State (Jan. 27, 2001). During the 1999-2000 season,  CU also wore gold in a 69-64 loss at Nebraska on Feb. 26. Against K-State on Wednesday, the Buffs returned to the gold unis.

 

HALL or ROBY: Through 18 games, Richard Roby and Marcus Hall have led the majority of games in scoring. Roby has led nine times, Hall six times, while Cory Higgins has done it in back-to-back games (at Texas A&M, Nebraska).  Xavier Silas (24 pts. vs. Florida A&M) has performed it once. In his nine games, Roby averages 22.2 ppg., while Hall is 16.2 ppg.

 

EASY POINTS: In recent years, CU was not a very good free throw shooting team. This year, the Buffaloes are shooting .686. With under two minutes to play in the game, Marcus Hall is an impressive 20-of-22 (.909) during that stretch, while the entire team is 43-of-52 (.827 percent).

 

TRIFECTA: For only the third time this season, Cory Higgins joined Marcus Hall and Richard Roby for leading the team in rebounding, assists and steals in the same game outright. Higgins topped CU at Texas (8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal). Hall was led in all three categories against Tulsa and Roby against New Orleans. Roby is the closet to lead in all five categories (points, rebs, assts., stls., blks.) in a single game topping four of five against New Orleans, only missing the blocked shots category.

           

CAN’T PASS THROUGH THIS HALL: Senior Marcus Hall’s eight steals against Tulsa were the most since Jose Winston had eight for the Buffs in a 67-56 win over St. Mary’s on Nov. 11, 1999. It’s the second-most steals in a game this season in Division I (Lester Hudson, Tenn.-Martin, 10). The school record for steals in a game is 10 by Jay Humphries against Milwaukee-Wisconsin on Jan. 15, 1983. Hall’s 118 career steals puts him in ninth place on the all-time list at CU (teammate Richard Roby is fifth on the all-time list with 161 career swipes). 

 

AK-47 MEET MH-1: The stat sheet will tell you Hall didn’t even record a double-double against Tulsa, but that’s doesn’t explain how close he was to notching the first quadruple-double in NCAA Division I history. Hall shot just 2-of-14 against Tulsa, preventing him from reaching 10 points, usually the easiest stat to fill. Other than that, he was just one teammate’s missed lay up and two tipped passes out of bounds away from infamy. A lot of what if’s, but Hall is turning into the Andre Kirilenko of college basketball with his ability to fill a stat sheet in several categories. His final line: 4 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 8 steals.

 

CU During Big 12 Inception: After 18 games, CU not only has won more games this season than last, but their field goal percentage and limiting their turnovers per game rank near the top over the last 12 years.

Year     PPG FG  3-Pt.%  FT%  To  W’s

2007-08 63.8 .455  .349   .686 13.5   9

2006-07 69.1 .417  .313   .655 17.5   7

2005-06 76.8 .434  .342   .646 14.0   20

2004-05 71.6 .435  .353   .629 14.4   14   

2003-04 74.2 .464  .372  .621  14.6   18

2002-03 75.2 .443  .326   .669 14.0   20

2001-02 79.7 .453  .357   .677 17.0   15

2000-01 80.6 .460  .359   .715 16.5   15

1999-00 75.2 .426  .339   .686 14.3   18

1998-99 73.1 .414  .344   .702 14.7   18

1997-98 71.4 .404  .346   .688 14.3   13

1996-97 73.1 .420  .362   .681 13.9   22

 

IRON MAN: Marcus Hall ended his streak of 161 consecutive minutes played. From Nov. 29-Dec. 22, Hall played 196 out of 200 possible minutes spanning five games (40 each at Air Force, Stanford, at Wyoming, New Orleans, at Colorado State).  For the season, Hall averages a conference best 36.2 minutes a game.

 

REDSHIRT YEAR: Sophomore forward Jeremy Williams will be redshirted this season and will return next year with three full years of eligibility. He was academically ineligible for the fall semester. Williams averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rpg. last season with 18 starts.

 

FOUR IN A ROW? - Richard Roby will be looking to become only the third player in school history to lead the team in scoring four consecutive seasons. From 2004-05 (16.0 ppg.), 2005-06 (17.0) through last year (17.3), Roby has made it three straight. Here are the others:

Donnie Boyce    1991-95    4-straight

Shawn Vandiver *1988-91   3-straight

Emmett Lewis   1975-79    4-straight

Cliff Meely         *1968-71   3-straight

Pat Frink           ^1964-65, ’66-68  (3 of 4 years)

* - Played only three years

^ - did not play 1965-66 season

 

3-Point Streak: Dating back to the 2001-02 season, CU has made a 3-pointer in 181 consecutive games. Last time they failed to make at least one trey was Jan. 16, 2002 against Iowa State in Boulder. The Buffs won 63-61.

 

FUN ?n Sun: For the next two seasons the Buffaloes will be making multiple trips to the Hawaiian Islands. Next season, CU will be making their first-ever trip to the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu. In 2009-10, CU will play in the Maui Invitational. Hosted by Division II college Chaminade, and sponsored by EA Sports, the Buffaloes will be one of eight schools participating in the 26th edition of the tournament. Joining CU two years from now will be Arizona, Gonzaga, Louisville, Maryland, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin.

 

CU IN THE PRO WORLD: There is a number of CU basketball members with ties to the professional ranks. From head coach Jeff Bzdelik to the five student-athletes.

Coach Bzdelik: Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets (2002-05);

Casey Crawford: father, Steve played with the Boston Red Sox;

Cory Higgins: father, Rod played in the NBA from 1982-95, currently the general manager of the Charlotte Bobcats;

Richard Roby: half-brother of Kenyon Martin (Denver Nuggets);

Xavier Silas: father, James, played professionally for 10 years, eight years with the San Antonio Spurs;

Dwight Thorne II: cousin, Acie Law IV played for the Texas A&M Aggies and great uncle, Ernie Banks played with the Cubs.

 

BUFF BITS: Richard Roby has tallied double-figures 16 of 18 games, Marcus Hall 13 of 18 games ? Over the last two seasons, Roby and Xavier Silas have made the most 3-pointers with 62, Hall (27), Levi Knutson (18), Cory Higgins (18) and Dwight Thorne (11) ? Senior Marcus King-Stockton did not play at Air Force marking the first time he did not play in a game since his freshman season (Mar. 2 at Nebraska), a string of 66 consecutive games.

 

TEAM BITS: CU committed a season-low 10 turnovers at Texas A&M and Nebraska ? CU shot a season-best 62 percent from the field at Texas A&M. It’s the first time CU has shot over 60 percent since making .627 against Mercer in 2005-06, and .611 percent against a Big 12 foe since 2002-03 against Texas A&M. In the same game, the Buffs shot a school second-best from the field in the second half (.773) ? CU’s 16 rebounds at A&M were the fewest since grabbing 16 against Arkansas State, Mar. 21, 1991 (w, 81-75) ? The Buffs played with only seven players against SMU and Tulsa ? The Buffs victory at Moby Arena was CU’s first in four years and it snapped Colorado State’s 24-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents ? CU shot a season-high 33 3-pointers at Wyoming, their most since attempting 34 at Nebraska (Feb. 22, 2006) ? For the first time since the 1998-99 season, CU won back-to-back road games (at Denver, at Air Force) ? The Buffs win at Air Force ended the Falcons’ 38-game home winning streak against non-conference foes ? DU’s 44 points were the fewest allowed by a CU team since a 71-44 win over Tennessee State on Dec. 19, 2003 ? CU won three straight games, twice for the first time since 2005-06 when they won nine and five straight games on two separate occasions.