Can Tad get this thing turned around?

[BIGEZ321]

PAC 12 is down, down down. With all of my bitching about Tad, I still want him here. I think he can recruit, and for the most part the players seem to like him. We just need some coaches that can do some more creative stuff on offense. Also somebody to get though to Tad that a 3 point lead with 2 minutes to go does not mean hold the ball.

Not on the assistant coaches. The assistant coaches can help advise Tad what to change on offense, but it's up to Tad to make modifications. Tad knows what he's seeing and he needs to tweak the offense so that it caters more to the players abilities.

But whatever offense it is, it comes down to the players making plays. Plain and simple.

 

[cu3x]

Tad has said several times that there are a lot of "mental" issues with this team. While commenting on the lack of desire, commitment and effort shown, Tad says,

[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]"You’ve got to play for something greater than yourself. When you’re worried about yourself it shows.” He also notes that some players are getting 'gift' minutes, because their backups aren't prepared to play. (today's CUBuffs.com)

Are BB practices closed? How come we don't know who is dogging it?

Happy New Year all. [/FONT]

 

[hokiehead]

bringing in some backup

McCartney speaks to Boyle's team

hope this is more effective than George Karl was.

 

[PAHIBuff]

bringing in some backup

McCartney speaks to Boyle's team

hope this is more effective than George Karl was.

Well, um, yah. So it's come to this. Uncle Bill to rally the hoopsters.

 

[sackman]

It would appear that the answer to the question posed in the OP is a definite "No". At least not this year. This year is cooked. This has to be the most frustrating year Tad has ever had in coaching. All that talent, and it's playing like garbage. That game last night just about put me to sleep. Sloppy, uninspired crap.

 

[BIGEZ321]

It would appear that the answer to the question posed in the OP is a definite "No". At least not this year. This year is cooked. This has to be the most frustrating year Tad has ever had in coaching. All that talent, and it's playing like garbage. That game last night just about put me to sleep. Sloppy, uninspired crap.

UNINSPIRED is the word. This can't be the case, but we came out looking like we expected to lose the game. We we're defeated before the game even started. Where is the freaking energy Tad!!! These guys are moving on offense with absolutely no speed, no purpose, and no intent. I didn't see a handful of truly hard cuts or effective pick and rolls all game.

The first positive is Dustin Thomas, he's consistently getting better and better. The second is Tory Miller, he's going to turn into a good one.

 

[tante]

Is Tad offering any new players or are we still looking at a single scholarship? Would be interesting to see if a free more offers start going out.

 

[seattlebuff]

It would appear that the answer to the question posed in the OP is a definite "No". At least not this year. This year is cooked. This has to be the most frustrating year Tad has ever had in coaching. All that talent, and it's playing like garbage. That game last night just about put me to sleep. Sloppy, uninspired crap.

Another post mentioning our "talent" ... I don't get it. Someone please explain this to me. Talented players don't consistently play sloppy, allow teams to rain 3s, pass up open looks, fail to penetrate and create, and shoot in the low 30%.

To me, basketball talent is a forward who has low post skills, footwork, ability to rebound and finish in close. For guards, it's ability to shoot a jump shot quickly with a hand in your face, handle the ball in traffic, penetrate and dish or finish. And if you can't do these things consistently yet, at least show the potential of what we might see down the road.

I just don't see loads of talent on this team. (I'm giving Dom and Miller a pass, they might pan out.)

 

[absinthe]

Another post mentioning our "talent" ... I don't get it. Someone please explain this to me. Talented players don't consistently play sloppy, allow teams to rain 3s, pass up open looks, fail to penetrate and create, and shoot in the low 30%.

You are talking about coaching, scheme, buy-in, and work ethic, and team cohesiveness. Plenty of very talented guys do one or more of these things on your list very poorly at the NBA level.

I just don't see loads of talent on this team.

Just to play devils advocate, the media and recruiting services see multiple top 100 and 150 recruits, an all-conf selection, and consistently have come down on the team for underachieving. From that you'd glean that people who get paid to evaluate and talk about talent think that there is some on this team.

 

[Quattro]

You can have talent and still not be a very good team.

 

[sackman]

The thing is, you see flashes of brilliance. XJ his freshman year was spectacular. He's just a guy this year. I don't know what the heck is going on with him. Scott must still be hurting, because if I see him standing out at the top of the key with the ball in his hands one more time, I'm going to freak. That's not his spot. He NEEDS to be down in the blocks, with Miller and/or Gordon, scoring with high percentage shots. Speaking of Miller, the dude is a load, and will get better. I almost think the team would be better without Scott, XJ and Ski. That's crazy, I know, but other than Ski, I don't see a lot of "want to" from this team.

 

[J.R. Ewing]

The thing is, you see flashes of brilliance. XJ his freshman year was spectacular. He's just a guy this year. I don't know what the heck is going on with him. Scott must still be hurting, because if I see him standing out at the top of the key with the ball in his hands one more time, I'm going to freak. That's not his spot. He NEEDS to be down in the blocks, with Miller and/or Gordon, scoring with high percentage shots. Speaking of Miller, the dude is a load, and will get better. I almost think the team would be better without Scott, XJ and Ski. That's crazy, I know, but other than Ski, I don't see a lot of "want to" from this team.

Scott was clearing both hurting and not in basketball shape.

 

[tante]

Scott looked good on that steal followed by the dunk.

 

[Jello Bear]

I'll be honest, I'll be having a hard time motivating to drive 40 minutes up to Boulder for the next few games; just to watch what we've been seeing the last few games.

 

[J.R. Ewing]

Scott looked good on that steal followed by the dunk.

They showed him wincing pretty badly after one of the dunks, and both commentators' take was "It looks like we wished he hadn't dunked that."

 

[blynch32]

Just to throw in my take on the talent or not argument...I think good guards can hide a teams flaws and make a team better. Look at the roster from Tad's first year at CU, and compare it to this years. Burks and Higgins may be two of the best guards in school history, and throw in Knutson knocking down every shot he takes, and mix in some Nate who was basically playing Talton minutes, and you've got a pretty solid group of guards or guys handling the ball and making decisions. Look outside of that group, and this years team is deeper and way more talented....not to take anything away from Roberson's body of work, but he was just a freshman on the team I compared. Interesting to look at that team, and even though they only played basically 8 guys, and weren't as talented after the group of guards, they knew there roles and played hard. Dinwiddie leaving had such a huge effect, as it wouldn't be that far out of the realm of saying Dinwiddie and Booker's numbers being similar to Burks and Higgins, and also having in my take a more talented supporting class.

I still remember being pissed for weeks after that team got snubbed.

Rk	Player	G	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Cory Higgins	38	32.2	5.3	12.1	.434	4.3	9.3	.462	0.9	2.8	.340	4.6	5.3	.866	3.3	2.5	1.0	0.4	2.1	2.2	16.1
2	Alec Burks	38	31.4	6.6	14.1	.469	5.9	11.6	.508	0.7	2.5	.292	6.6	7.9	.825	6.5	2.9	1.1	0.3	2.6	2.3	20.5
3	Marcus Relphorde	38	28.1	3.9	9.0	.434	2.8	6.2	.451	1.1	2.7	.394	2.3	3.0	.779	4.3	2.2	1.0	0.1	2.3	2.5	11.2
4	Levi Knutson	38	26.8	4.2	8.2	.506	2.0	3.7	.546	2.1	4.5	.474	1.2	1.4	.904	2.9	1.0	0.6	0.1	0.8	1.8	11.7
5	Andre Roberson	38	22.3	2.7	4.6	.580	2.3	3.7	.640	0.3	0.9	.343	1.1	2.0	.553	7.8	0.9	1.3	1.1	1.2	2.9	6.7
6	Austin Dufault	38	22.2	2.7	5.2	.523	2.6	4.6	.572	0.1	0.7	.192	1.0	1.6	.629	4.2	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	2.9	6.6
7	Nate Tomlinson	34	20.2	1.1	2.1	.500	0.3	0.5	.611	0.7	1.6	.463	0.3	0.5	.529	1.7	2.5	0.9	0.1	1.2	1.9	3.1
8	Shannon Sharpe	38	13.1	0.8	1.8	.420	0.7	1.4	.519	0.0	0.4	.067	0.6	0.9	.647	1.3	1.2	0.3	0.2	0.7	0.9	2.1

Rk	Player	G	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Josh Scott	15	30.9	4.3	8.3	.516	4.2	8.1	.521	0.1	0.2	.333	5.2	6.5	.804	7.3	1.1	0.6	2.1	0.5	1.3	13.8
2	Askia Booker	22	29.0	5.8	14.1	.413	3.8	8.7	.435	2.0	5.4	.378	3.6	4.4	.814	3.1	3.3	1.3	0.1	2.3	1.8	17.3
3	Wesley Gordon	23	26.6	2.6	4.8	.541	2.4	4.3	.560	0.2	0.5	.364	2.0	2.8	.708	7.7	1.2	0.3	1.6	1.2	2.1	7.4
4	Xavier Johnson	18	26.1	3.8	8.8	.430	2.6	5.8	.448	1.2	2.9	.396	2.7	3.8	.696	5.4	0.6	0.8	0.3	1.8	2.3	11.4
5	Jaron Hopkins	21	23.9	2.7	5.5	.491	2.1	4.0	.524	0.6	1.5	.406	1.1	2.0	.558	3.4	1.6	1.1	0.2	1.8	2.4	7.2
6	Xavier Talton	23	22.9	1.1	3.9	.292	0.4	1.9	.209	0.7	2.0	.370	0.6	0.7	.765	1.7	1.6	0.6	0.1	1.5	1.7	3.6
7	Dustin Thomas	23	18.4	1.6	3.7	.424	1.3	3.0	.435	0.3	0.7	.375	1.1	1.6	.703	2.9	1.2	0.5	0.3	1.3	2.4	4.5
8	Dominique Collier	19	18.0	1.4	3.9	.347	1.0	2.2	.452	0.4	1.7	.212	0.7	1.6	.467	1.8	0.9	0.7	0.1	1.1	2.2	3.8
9	Tre'Shaun Fletcher	23	17.1	1.6	3.6	.446	1.0	2.5	.414	0.6	1.1	.520	0.6	1.0	.583	2.2	0.9	0.3	0.0	1.1	1.4	4.4
10	Tory Miller	21	9.0	1.0	2.0	.512	1.0	2.0	.512	0.0	0.0		1.0	1.4	.759	2.4	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.8	1.4	3.1

 

[tante]

I'll be honest, I'll be having a hard time motivating to drive 40 minutes up to Boulder for the next few games; just to watch what we've been seeing the last few games.

Only 3 games left. You can do it.

 

[Goose]

I'll be honest, I'll be having a hard time motivating to drive 40 minutes up to Boulder for the next few games; just to watch what we've been seeing the last few games.

Go to watch a guy try to make the top 6 in school history in points. That's my main joy right now, honestly.

 

[Jello Bear]

Yeah, Ski's reason enough. Kid's all heart.

 

[Eggon]

Watching a classic replay between Utah and Stanford in the Brevin Knight and Van Horn era Dance. Great game. Point guard is just sooooooo valuable to compose a great team. Knight was exceptional, but watching this game it just reminds me how void we are at PG.

Tad needs to solve for X. X=PG. X is not on the team presently. Find X Tad.

 

[azbuff]

Wish I didn't care. Most of our players don't.

 

[sackman]

I'm already going to miss this Sunday's game. That only leaves two games left. I'm honestly dreading the idea of watching an epic beat-down a the hands of the dick c.hards and I freaking hate ASU.

I dunno. This has been a rough season for the fans, too. Not a lot to cheer for. That, and I have the most obnoxious douchenozzle who sits next to me and bellows at the top of his lungs at the most inappropriate times. I can put up with a lot when we're winning, but when we're losing, and looking bad doing it, it makes it easy to come up with other things to occupy my time.

 

[Darth Snow]

missing sunday's game as well. might not even watch it. Been a crazy couple weeks tho.

 

[Buffnik]

I'll be there Sunday. This season is frustrating, but I'm far from bandwagon and it's still been in the top 50th percentile of basketball quality I've seen at the Keg from a CU team.

 

[BIGEZ321]

You know, it's been a good few years for CU MBB. In such a way, us fans have gotten spoiled. Tad got us on the map and now we've had a blip. Hopefully the ship can be righted next year.

 

[Deleted member 807]

I'll be honest, I'll be having a hard time motivating to drive 40 minutes up to Boulder for the next few games; just to watch what we've been seeing the last few games.

One of the most interesting moments during the broadcast was when the camera caught Spencer Dinwiddie seated in the stands chatting with a woman who looked a lot like Arielle Roberson.

I vaguelly recall that Arielle may have been the subject of some locker room discussion in the past since her older brother Andre may or may not have been too excited about his little sister dating a former team mate.

I got to thinking that a reality program following the Mayor around Boulder last night would have been more entertaining than last night's uninspired loss.

 

[Buffnik]

One of the most interesting moments during the broadcast was when the camera caught Spencer Dinwiddie seated in the stands chatting with a woman who looked a lot like Arielle Roberson.

I vaguelly recall that Arielle may have been the subject of some locker room discussion in the past since her older brother Andre may or may not have been too excited about his little sister dating a former team mate.

I got to thinking that a reality program following the Mayor around Boulder last night would have been more entertaining than last night's uninspired loss.

That wasn't the issue. Emotions messed with Mayor when they were having relationship issues.

But, yeah, there have been issues related to girls and teammates swimming in the same dating pool. That goes on everywhere, though. Beyond that, the guys get along better than a lot of teams do and hang out off the court.

The issue with chemistry might be too much about them getting along too well. There's too much comfort with everyone doing his thing. It's too chill instead of a competitive and not always friendly atmosphere where guys call each other out and can be cutthroat.

 

[Deleted member 807]

That wasn't the issue. Emotions messed with Mayor when they were having relationship issues.

But, yeah, there have been issues related to girls and teammates swimming in the same dating pool. That goes on everywhere, though. Beyond that, the guys get along better than a lot of teams do and hang out off the court.

The issue with chemistry might be too much about them getting along too well. There's too much comfort with everyone doing his thing. It's too chill instead of a competitive and not always friendly atmosphere where guys call each other out and can be cutthroat.

Neither Spencer nor Arielle looked particularly happy during their cameo. It could have been due to how poorly the Buffs were playing, or not. It was the second most compelling moment after Josh's dunk followed by an expression of pain.

There just aren't many captivating story lines this year. Ski's pursuit of 7th on the all time CU scoring list is about as gripping as it gets. Watching XJ bumble around, the lack of an offense, a bunch of turnovers, and uninspired play by people who have the physical but not mental fortitude to win games is just killing any excitement around CU hoops.

 

[Buffnik]

Neither Spencer nor Arielle looked particularly happy during their cameo. It could have been due to how poorly the Buffs were playing, or not. It was the second most compelling moment after Josh's dunk followed by an expression of pain.

There just aren't many captivating story lines this year. Ski's pursuit of 7th on the all time CU scoring list is about as gripping as it gets. Watching XJ bumble around, the lack of an offense, a bunch of turnovers, and uninspired play by people who have the physical but not mental fortitude to win games is just killing any excitement around CU hoops.

Mayor & Arielle was an issue between them and it affected both of their play at times. But that wasn't a team chemistry thing. That was my point.

 

[Deleted member 807]

Mayor & Arielle was an issue between them and it affected both of their play at times. But that wasn't a team chemistry thing. That was my point.

I get your point. It can be a team chemistry thing when your leader has lost focus. There was not much team chemistry against Washington State in Spokane and again in Seattle last year prior to the injuries.

Of course college hoops players are entitled to the pursuit of a meaningful relationship during those precious few college years. But as a fan and as a coach, you don't want to see that personal life manifest itself in a negative way on the court.