PacHoops: Pac-12 round up week 6

[allbuffs]

PacHoops: Pac 12 Basketball Week In Review
by Adam Butler
www.PacHoops.com

Why hello there Buffaloes, welcome back! We missed y’all on the competitive side of things and now I think you’ve sufficiently re-spooked everyone. Good stuff. I haven’t seen every CU game – and missed the Stanford drubbing - but I did get to watch the entire Cal game while milking a glorious hangover stemming from a night where I wore suspenders and danced with the birthday girl’s mother. The turnovers proved a non-factor as Askia Booker and X Johnson caught fire. Booker connected on two-thirds of his shots across this little homer and for all the talk of Ski Ball, for better or worse, teams need a guy with whatever amount of talent and a whole lot of DGAF. Especially when cooler heads can prevail, like that of Spencer Dinwiddie. Goodness I like the way that kid plays.

And speaking of how people play, Shabazz Muhammad ain’t too shabby. He strutted into Tucson and took it to the Wildcats. Bravo to him for backing up his speak (said he was “taking it upon himself” to win that game). He – and his teammates – had a damn answer for every single push the Wildcats made. AND THEN THEY LAID AN EGG IN TEMPE. Eff that noise. They got rolled and seemed to let it happen and while Travis Wear didn’t play, I don’t ultimately think that was the difference maker here. I suppose the major takeaway is that Arizona has been absorbing the big blows on Thursday nights all season long for the Sun Devils. But credit where it’s due. Harping on UCLA makes less and less sense as the season progresses. So good on you, Herbivores.

Oregon continues to put up my favorite stat – WINS – by whatever means necessary. They are so wonderfully well coached and guided by that Altman system that they didn’t seem to miss a beat sans super freshman, Dominic Artis. They may be a bit under-talented if we’re looking over other top-15 teams, but their depth, size, and that systematic commitment let’s them get away with it. What they won’t be able to get away with for much longer, however, is 23 turnovers. That’s how many they committed against UW which likely would have plagued them had the Huskies not coughed it up 21 times themselves. Forty-four collective turnovers? Woof.

But back to those Buffs. You guys think this is for real? Do you think what transpired at the Keg this weekend is the rule not the exception? I think the most important thing here was that the Buffaloes looked like a group that believed they could. Even in wins over USC and WSU, Colorado played the passive role. Not a good look for those guys. This weekend the Buffs tried on their “I Believe” outfit and I just think they’re going to be a lot cozier in this look ongoing.

Be great.

 

[absinthe]

A little more color on the rest of the pac-12:

http://pachoops.com/2013/01/week-4-pac-12-hoops-review/?fb_source=pubv1

And of course CU:

What We Learned: The Buffs are back. They played their kind of ball and took the Bay Area to task. Final scores aside, Colorado finally started scoring some buckets. Is Xavier Johnson for reals? I know he’s not going to drop double-doubles on the weekly but his 11/3 effort Thursday was exactly what this group needed from someone not named Booker, Dinwiddie, or Scott. Also, 20 rebounds is so much. The next step will be in observing the sustainability of this O as the slump they were in was significantly long. Did they just catch fire or is this real deal? I’m leaning towards the latter. I told BuffsNation about it, too (amongst other weekend wrap up items). But in all honesty, I don’t know if too much was grossly revealed by this weekend’s games. UCLA exposed Arizona as lacking a scoring threat on the post and that just because there is immense size in Kaleb Tarczewski, he isn’t yet the type where teams scheme against him, opening things up for Arizona’s dynamic guards. Grant Jerrett is becoming more assertive about getting into the blocks but isn’t quite there yet. At the end of the day, however, your team is generally pretty well suited to feature two such players. It’s going to be OK in Tucson.

 

[whatthebuff]

Xavier Johnson is for realsies. And 20 rebounds is like, totally so much.

 

[jgisland]

Good stuff as always pachoops

 

[pachoops]

I really enjoyed watching XJ play. He's like a bit of baby giraffe all those moving parts and when he slows down just the slightest bit, wow.

 

[Goose]

I really enjoyed watching XJ play. He's like a bit of baby giraffe all those moving parts and when he slows down just the slightest bit, wow.

We have one baby giraffe on the team and it's Ben Mills thankyouverymuch.

It's almost as if XJ just realized two weeks ago - "wait, this is the same game as it was in high school when I dominated" and realized he could start kicking ass.