Ft. Lewis

[Mick Ronson]

we played Fort Lewis. it's nice to get a big score W, but what are we going to learn? unless we lose or have sloppy play to the extent that a big halftime lead makes you think about the final outcome. we've had that before over the years in cupcake non-con. we didn't have it tonight. the only thing we could learn tonight was a bad thing. we didn't learn that. at least.

let's not pin too much hope on the hoops team so we can backlash later when the team plays real competition and struggles since sometimes our misplaced hopes are a direct result of the crap football season. that's classic crossover CU football to basketball fan. then, once disappointed we say: "CU is a football school...always has been, always will be". and then we give up on hoops. which is the #1 reason CU hasn't had the institutional support to succeed. fans bailout at the first moment. or they think because we lose at Nebraska on TV we suck.

this is not going to be a great team. i'll eat my words if we are....the inflation of expectation is starting to be palpable. let's give these guys a chance to be their own team. not Burks or Hig. Or Chauncey. that Harvard team was decent. not a terrible loss on the road. we may have played terrible...but, it wasn't nearly as bad as the last week conference season loss at ISU we all seem to forget about. no one ever talks about the SF loss as bad coaching. you got to tell your guys you don't have a TO.

 

[tante]

we played Fort Lewis. it's nice to get a big score W, but what are we going to learn? unless we lose or have sloppy play to the extent that a big halftime lead makes you think about the final outcome. we've had that before over the years in cupcake non-con. we didn't have it tonight. the only thing we could learn tonight was a bad thing. we didn't learn that. at least.

let's not pin too much hope on the hoops team so we can backlash later when the team plays real competition and struggles since sometimes our misplaced hopes are a direct result of the crap football season. that's classic crossover CU football to basketball fan. then, once disappointed we say: "CU is a football school...always has been, always will be". and then we give up on hoops. which is the #1 reason CU hasn't had the institutional support to succeed. fans bailout at the first moment. or they think because we lose at Nebraska on TV we suck.

this is not going to be a great team. i'll eat my words if we are....the inflation of expectation is starting to be palpable. let's give these guys a chance to be their own team. not Burks or Hig. Or Chauncey. that Harvard team was decent. not a terrible loss on the road. we may have played terrible...but, it wasn't nearly as bad as the last week conference season loss at ISU we all seem to forget about. no one ever talks about the SF loss as bad coaching. you got to tell your guys you don't have a TO.

I haven't heard anyone say that we looked terrific. In fact I think we are only happy about Dre and Dufault.

 

[dio]

Mills looks a little bit bigger.... he is gonna be good once (if) he finally completely fills out.

I think we should all remember that Roberson didn't really start coming on until conference play last year. This thing is going to take some time with all the youth and new starters.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

My observations:

I didnt have all my questions answered, but I think I learned alot from this team last night.

SHT: Yes, last night he was the most disapointing, but I think a lot of that was from not playing for a year. Also remember, SHT only started playing basketball in Highschool (I think), he was very rattled by the other team pushing him around. He has to learn that a little guy can hit him almost as hard as they can, but when he just pushes back a little out of frustration, he will get called for a foul. His Technical foul was silly, the guy pushed him, and rather than just letting it slide, he gave him a little push in the back, nothing big, but it was obvious from the Officials view (right in front of us).

Booker: The guy is athletic, but seemed to be more athletic then his ball handling and play would allow. I think Tad will get him to slow down, and play within himself and be very productive this year and upcoming years. I was very happy to see he will be a productive player, not a role player. I see him putting up decent minutes from the bench.

The Mayor: As mentioned before, made plenty of freshman mistakes, but he is a legit starter, and really ran the floor well. Give him a couple more games and you will see him take over for Tomlinson. I would like to see him shoot more, it looked like he had a good shot, but I didnt see it much last night. At his height, he should be able to shoot over most guards.

Dufault: Had a good night last night scoring wise, hopefully this is the Dufault that we can see all year. Although SHT's play was disapointing, his big contribution was allowing Dufault to play in a position where he can score. Still needs to work on his defense, but I think that is one of the things you will see progress over the year, guys are having to play completly different positions defensivly this year opposed to last year.

Tomlinson: I liked how in the begining of the game he was looking to go to the basket, but that quickly stopped. He wasnt sucessful the first couple of drives, then seemed to get discouraged. If he wants to keep his starting job, he is going to need to keep going to the hoop. His moves werent too bad, just needs the confidence to finish.

Carlon: He isnt Corey or Burks like I think many people were expecting, but he is going to be a solid contributer. I think when the game gets close you will see his leadership take over, as you saw in the first couple minutes when FLC tried to give them a game.

Mills: Wish we saw him more since he is not redshirting. He doesnt have the mass of SHT, but I think he may be just as effective in the next year or so.

Chen: He is a little weak when we come to conference play, but I was impressed what he provided, very smart play, and decently athletic.

Sharpe: I think you will see him get a lot more minutes this year than we thought before. His defense and high tempo will keep him in the game, although I didnt see any shooting, or good decision making that makes me think he will be a starting PG. But with Dinwidde and possibly Booker or chen, they would provide a very difficult defense to break and you will see a lot of fast break points.

Eckloff: Didnt see anything to make me think he is going to be a contributer, other than a wide body when we get into foul trouble.

Roberson: Guy is legit, but doesnt have the confidence Burks or Higgins had to take over a game. Hopefuly that will come, and I dont think you will hear serious talk of NBA untill he does. I dont think there are too many people in the league more athletic then him, and as long as he can keep himself in the game and not make dumb fouls, you will see some serious numbers. His shot may be somewhat improved from last year, but still not quick enough to take when he has someone on him.

Overall: I am cautiously optomistic about this year. I think there is a lot of learning that will happen, and that will be the determining factor of how good this team is, but they have talent. If they learn to play well with eachother, I think they may suprise a few people and possibly be a bubble team again, but likely they will have a lot of freshman mistakes and issues, and will be a bubble NIT team.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

no one ever talks about the SF loss as bad coaching. you got to tell your guys you don't have a TO.

That was a dumb mistake and Boyle was yelling no TO the whole time. As soon as they called for a TO, they tried to take it back, it was more of a instinct, and a brain fart, a dumb one at that. Tomlinson actually tried to say that it was a USF player calling TO, not us. Pretty entertaining.

I am not just making this up, I was at the game with court side seats ~3 feet from the insodent, actually closer than the Ref was at the time.

 

[Mick Ronson]

That was a dumb mistake and Boyle was yelling no TO the whole time. As soon as they called for a TO, they tried to take it back, it was more of a instinct, and a brain fart, a dumb one at that. Tomlinson actually tried to say that it was a USF player calling TO, not us. Pretty entertaining.

I am not just making this up, I was at the game with court side seats ~3 feet from the insodent, actually closer than the Ref was at the time.

good info....but still shouldn't happen. i was being contrary just for the sake of it. i stand by my original post. hard to know if there is a lot to be happy about or unhappy about it with a game like this....other than the pleasure of the Buff cagers taking the floor at home and the beginning of the new season. let's not overthink a W to a low division team, good or bad, all i'm saying.

 

[GoBuffs!!]

good info....but still shouldn't happen. i was being contrary just for the sake of it. i stand by my original post. hard to know if there is a lot to be happy about or unhappy about it with a game like this....other than the pleasure of the Buff cagers taking the floor at home and the beginning of the new season. let's not overthink a W to a low division team, good or bad, all i'm saying.

I will agree, It will be interesting to see how they stack up against some stiff compition in Puerto Rico. I think you will see a completly different type of basketball, since Boyle wont have the luxury of being able to experiment with lots of differnent lineups and create situations. But if they are able to put somethings together, they should be able to do ok, but they need to limit their rookie mistakes.

 

[dyemeduke]

Thanks for the updates guys. I'd rep all of you, but that's a lot of you...and since I "must spread rep around"...I'm not going to rep any of you ...

...anyhoo - thanks for the updates. I agree with Mick as I've posted before - while I think we'll be competitive in our games, I do NOT think it's going to show up in the W/L column. I think your guys' evaluation of the game is in line with what many though was going to be the case - although I'm surprised not a whole lot about Adams. It was Ft Lewis though, so hopefully the team gained some confidence tonight and mans up for some real competition.

 

[MtnBuff]

I didn't see the game, listened on the radio so can't comment on how they looked. Always good to start a season with a convincing win, even if it is against a team from a lower division.

It's really hard to tell a lot from games like this. On one hand you are playing a team that PAC level athletes playing against a team of guys who are mostly comparable to the walk-ons that most PAC teams have on the end of the bench to fill out practices, guys who are smaller, slower, less skilled or most likely a combination of all three. On the other hand a game against a Colorado is a chance for these guys to "show that they belong" so you have a team that will go out and give an absolute effort against the D1 team that has a hard time getting motivated to play hard against what they see as inferieor competition.

It sounded like CU made a lot of mistakes early had a hard time getting on the same page. That said it was good that they were able to work hard enough to put the game away fairly early and put out the effort needed to do what they had to do. It also sounded like they made enough mistakes to give Tad and his staff some things to get on the players on in practice before they have to face some real competition in Puerto Rico.

I am excited as can be about this years recruiting class but those guys aren't here yet. Last years class gives reason for optimism as well but they are still freshmen and arguably the most important, Cain, isn't playing yet. Brown and Adams are quality players but you don't lose a Burks or a Higgins without it impacting you and the Buffs lost both plus some other quality guys.

This may be one of those years of frustration since we know what is coming but it isn't here yet. It remains to be seen how many games we win this year but we will have some frustrating loses on the way. I'd still rather deal with frustrating loses than be were we were a recent few years ago just hoping to get a few decent wins a year.

 

[tante]

Thanks for the updates guys. I'd rep all of you, but that's a lot of you...and since I "must spread rep around"...I'm not going to rep any of you ...

...anyhoo - thanks for the updates. I agree with Mick as I've posted before - while I think we'll be competitive in our games, I do NOT think it's going to show up in the W/L column. I think your guys' evaluation of the game is in line with what many though was going to be the case - although I'm surprised not a whole lot about Adams. It was Ft Lewis though, so hopefully the team gained some confidence tonight and mans up for some real competition.

next game report goes in Barzil :lol:

 

[Junction]

this is not going to be a great team. i'll eat my words if we are....the inflation of expectation is starting to be palpable. let's give these guys a chance to be their own team. not Burks or Hig. Or Chauncey.

:yeahthat:

Obviously didn't see the game, but from what I've read here, it seems to match pretty well with my expectations for this year. Roberson is a stud, and will be the best player we have. His rebounding ability is going to be huge for this team. Aside from him, it sounds like the bigs are still touch and go. Would be great if Dufault could provide a scoring threat up front consistently, but it's particularly hard to evaluate what the bigs can do against a lower division team.

Aside from that, it sounds like there's a lot of potential. Brown and Adams are probably going to need to provide the offensive spark this year. Tomlinson (unfortunately) is probably still going to be the main guy at the point for a while. If this team is going to beat our expectations, the Mayor is probably going to have to beat him out and play beyond his age.

One thing that will be interesting, I think, is if Sharpe and Booker can manage to harness their athleticism into being effective with the ball, and into having at least some kind of scoring threat. Last year it was frustrating watching Sharpe because you could see all the physical ability, but it just was so rare that he could turn it into anything positive on the court. I would love to see him step up, and it sounds like Booker might need a bit of the same development path.

We'll learn a lot more about this team in Puerto Rico...

 

[jgisland]

I wasn't able to make it to the game last night but I have read though this thread, some recaps and have poured over the stats and have a few observations and questions that haven't been touched on yet.

We only shot 9 3's, this was a concern of mine going into the season, we don't have any 3pt shooters. For those that were there, did we not have any good looks, were we passing up 3's, or were we just able to score easily in other ways that it didn't matter?

Free throw %, we only shot 70.4% from the line last night, this is clearly going to be something to watch as the season goes on.

Dinwiddie is going to have to step up and be the PG of the present not the future. Tomlinson and Sharpe aren't going to be able to cut it, Tomlinson needs to move into the SG role and try to fill the shooting void left by Knutson. TOMLINSON HAS TO LOOK FOR HIS OUTSIDE SHOT.

Foul Trouble - Roberson with 3 and Dinwiddie fouling out. Not that worried about Dinwiddie in his first college game, but Roberson needs to stay on the court. I am not really sure at what point in the game Roberson picked up his fouls, can anybody enlighten me?