This Week in BasketBuffs - 12/27/11

[Goose]

LAST WEEK

Monday, December 19th, 2011

70

64

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

56

51

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

University of New Orleans Privateers

Wednesday, December 28th 7:00 PM ROOT Rocky Mountain Coors Event Center Boulder, CO

Men: Saturday, December 31st 4:00 PM ROOT Rocky Mountain Coors Event Center Boulder, CO

Women: Saturday, December 31st 2:00 PM No TV John M. Huntsman Center Salt Lake City, UT

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.

	Colorado Offense	Colorado Defense	UNO Offense	UNO Defense	D1 Average
eFG%	50.6%	49.3%	N/A	N/A	48.7%
Turnover %	21.1%	18.2%	N/A	N/A	21.1%
Off. Reb %	33.2%	30.3%	N/A	N/A	32.6%
FTA/FGA	48.8	32.1	N/A	N/A	36.7

	Colorado Offense	Colorado Defense	Utah Offense	Utah Defense	D1 Average
eFG%	50.6%	49.3%	47.0%	56.0%	48.7%
Turnover %	21.1%	18.2%	21.4%	16.7%	21.1%
Off. Reb %	33.2%	30.3%	27.5%	34.6%	32.6%
FTA/FGA	48.8	32.1	39.1	31.6	36.7

SEASON NUMBERS TO FOLLOW

	Offensive Efficiency	Defensive Efficiency	Pace
Colorado	103.2	101.9	66.5
D1 Average	100.0	100.0	67.3

[jgisland]

At what point do we become worried about the pace this team is playing? CU has recruited and built to be a "run and gun" team, they are 217th in pace and 7th in the P12. The horrendous D they are playing (which is somehow still better than last year) wouldn't bother me so much if they were getting up and down the court at a higher pace.

[Darth Snow]

At what point do we become worried about the pace this team is playing? CU has recruited and built to be a "run and gun" team, they are 217th in pace and 7th in the P12. The horrendous D they are playing (which is somehow still better than last year) wouldn't bother me so much if they were getting up and down the court at a higher pace.

And, even more worrisome, it isn't because teams have not been rebounding against us on the offensive glass. Didn't we get out rebounded in one of the games last week?

[sackman]

Sack family will be in attendance this Saturday against the yoots.

[Goose]

At what point do we become worried about the pace this team is playing? CU has recruited and built to be a "run and gun" team, they are 217th in pace and 7th in the P12. The horrendous D they are playing (which is somehow still better than last year) wouldn't bother me so much if they were getting up and down the court at a higher pace.

Not only that, but it's gone down almost every week. We're getting slower as the season goes on, not faster.

And, even more worrisome, it isn't because teams have not been rebounding against us on the offensive glass. Didn't we get out rebounded in one of the games last week?

Texas Southern.

[Buffnik]

Nice job, Goose.

[Goose]

Thorburn just tweeted that Ski will be back tomorrow, but Cain is still out with a concussion.

[Darth Snow]

Thorburn just tweeted that Ski will be back tomorrow, but Cain is still out with a concussion.

so much for working Cain in during the month of December. I bet he got less than 30 minutes of game time. Is he even practicing?

[RumblinBuff]

Texas Southern.

bakersfield, 33-30

[Goose]

bakersfield, 33-30

You're right. My bad.

[66BUFF]

...

[Goose]

Tonight:

North Texas 78
New Orleans 47

[shang]

Tonight:

North Texas 78
New Orleans 47

New Orleans was a div 1 team in the sun belt conference(as is North Texas) up until last year. Where do you guys get the pace stats? and your observation is correct, we clearly are not running nor gunning, especially in games where we don't even hit 30 pts in a half....

[jgisland]

New Orleans was a div 1 team in the sun belt conference(as is North Texas) up until last year. Where do you guys get the pace stats? and your observation is correct, we clearly are not running nor gunning, especially in games where we don't even hit 30 pts in a half....

Kenpom.com and statsheet.com are your best bets for pace stats.

[Goose]

All of the stats I use in this are from KenPom.com. The breakdown by team is subscription only, but it's worth it IMO. I don't use Statsheet as much only because my company's IT department is still stuck in 2003 so the page doesn't load correctly half of the time for me.