This Week in BasketBuffs - 12/27/11

LAST WEEK

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

First off, we have to give a shout-out to the women's team who won both games at the UTSA Classic to finish the non-conference portion of their schedule at 11-0. Coach Lappe and her team have been playing some great ball so far, so let's hope it continues into conference play.

As for the men's team... it wasn't the best week. The Buffs went 2-0, so we can't be too upset, but both games were a lot closer than they should have been. The CSU-B game was a dogfight when it didn't need to be one, and when I started to get my hopes up that the team had gotten on track against Texas Southern, they had one of their worst halves of the season that allowed a 20+ point lead to get cut to 3 points before holding on for the win.

So what's going on? Did the team get a little too comfortable after last season's great play? Do they just play to the level of their opponents? What's going on? While I'm hoping that they're just playing to the level of their opponents (as well as the disappointing games in which we played horribly against bad teams, we've also played pretty well against Georgia and Wichita State), I'm not sure that's how it's going to be. I've pointed out repeatedly that I'm hoping that the attitude of the freshmen take over this team, but it doesn't seem to be happening yet. The team still has enough time to make this a memorable season that will lead to post-season play, but it's quickly running out. They need to figure things out and now.

THIS WEEK


Tell me if this sounds familiar, but anything other than going 2-0 this week is not an option. And this might be the most confident I've felt this season that we'll go 2-0. New Orleans is a Division 2 team that, honestly, I know nothing about. They're 9-4 this season, but it appears that they have yet to beat a D1 team. Also, they will be playing at the University of North Texas tonight before flying into Boulder for tomorrow's game, so the team should be tired. This could be a good opportunity to really get the team on track before we head into conference play.

And the PAC-12 scheduling Gods decided to be nice to us and let us enter conference play gently. The Buffs get to host Utah for their first ever PAC-12 men's basketball game, and Utah might be the worst BCS conference team in the last decade. They are horrible, to the point where KenPom was starting to wonder if they were going to go 1-29 this season. However they won two of their last three games, beating Idaho State and Portland at home before getting blown out by Weber State on the road. Josh Watkins is easily the star player for Utah, averaging 16 points and 5 assists a game. He's actually leading the nation in assist rate and possession percentage, so he'll try to make things happen for the Utes. Hopefully, we won't let him. Stop him and the rest of the game should be a breeze.


SEASON NUMBERS TO FOLLOW