Basketball Game Thread #7 Oklahoma St @ #20 Colorado (Live From the MGM Grand)

[Darth Snow]

2 games better than I thought we'd be so far. Well see

 

[BuffG]

Also, I was looking at the rosters and it hit me how young we are. Physically, that can make it tough to match up.

CU roster tonight:
Starters- 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, 1 freshman
Bench- 1 sophomore, 4 freshmen

Buffs have a lot of room for growth. Sitting at 10-2 with a likely home win against Georgia to take us into conference play at 11-2 against one of the nation's toughest schedules. I'm feeling pretty damn good about this team.

337th in the country in experience. Hubie Brown really nailed that home. He was excellent in his Buffs analysis btw. How many top 25 teams are that young and don't expect to lose a majority of their top contributors to the NBA?

 

[rolandftw]

I'm sure Tad could target more deadly outside shooters, but they are not likely to be the overall athletes that a lot of his recruits have been.

 

[tante]

I'm sure Tad could target more deadly outside shooters, but they are not likely to be the overall athletes that a lot of his recruits have been.

I think we need one good shooter on the roster. There are some situations where it would be helpful.

 

[mattrob]

I think we need one good shooter on the roster. There are some situations where it would be helpful.

Agreed. And now that Tad's upgraded the overall athleticism of the roster, it should be easier to give up a little athleticism in exchange for a pure shooter with one scholly.

 

[Gary Indiana]

Probably should not let it bother me, but has anyone watched the "highlights" of the game on ESPN.com? It's all made baskets by OSU and shows nothing from the buffs, they cut it to make it look like it wasn't as close as it was. This is similar to the Kansas highlights, which showed Wiggins and Ellis highlights and then Ski's shot.

 

[jumped ship]

Probably should not let it bother me, but has anyone watched the "highlights" of the game on ESPN.com? It's all made baskets by OSU and shows nothing from the buffs, they cut it to make it look like it wasn't as close as it was. This is similar to the Kansas highlights, which showed Wiggins and Ellis highlights and then Ski's shot.

Noticed this as well, only showed one highlight of the Mayor hitting a baseline 3...not as upset with this as with the KU highlights though...after all, we did lose this one.

Should be fuel for the team, we are still the underdogs.

 

[tante]

so are we still going to be in the top 25?

 

[HRBuff]

so are we still going to be in the top 25?

Yes 21 in the AP.

 

[tante]

Yes 21 in the AP.

in your face tante

 

[rolandftw]

I think we need one good shooter on the roster. There are some situations where it would be helpful.

Of course. Problem is, you have to be able to do a lot of the things that Tad expects for your shooting to be much value. It's kinda my view of getting big men. It's nice if they are 7 feet, but if they don't have basketball skills then they just end up taking space. Need to do more then just hit open outside shots. Would love to get Rex Pflueger for 2015.

To me, the bigger issue then the three point offense, was the three point defense being so bad on getting to Phil Forte. He was around a 50% shooter, and there was no excuse for him to be as wide open as frequently as he was. I have full confidence that the shots Xavier Johnson was missing, he's normally going to hit at an above average clip. Tre'Shaun Fletcher missed some looks that with some experience, I'm confident he can hit. But the three point defense needs A LOT of work.

 

[tante]

Of course. Problem is, you have to be able to do a lot of the things that Tad expects for your shooting to be much value. It's kinda my view of getting big men. It's nice if they are 7 feet, but if they don't have basketball skills then they just end up taking space. Need to do more then just hit open outside shots. Would love to get Rex Pflueger for 2015.

To me, the bigger issue then the three point offense, was the three point defense being so bad on getting to Phil Forte. He was around a 50% shooter, and there was no excuse for him to be as wide open as frequently as he was. I have full confidence that the shots Xavier Johnson was missing, he's normally going to hit at an above average clip. Tre'Shaun Fletcher missed some looks that with some experience, I'm confident he can hit. But the three point defense needs A LOT of work.

I'm not sure I understand your post. I don't think we need a shooter to be a full time starter, I think we just need someone to play 10 to 15 minutes a game and get some good looks from deep. We need someone that can play some decent defense, but we don't need an all conference defender.

 

[jwhite17]

I'm not sure I understand your post. I don't think we need a shooter to be a full time starter, I think we just need someone to play 10 to 15 minutes a game and get some good looks from deep. We need someone that can play some decent defense, but we don't need an all conference defender.

I completely agree. We just need someone like Elon's Koch or Sampson that can go off and hit 2-3 threes per game. Someone that can play okay defense and just hit some shots against the zone. That's the biggest killer for this team now. I'm really hoping Boyle can find a 5th senior transfer that can fill this role next year.

We have great length and athleticism at all positions, we have guys that can drive the rack, we have guys that can dunk, etc... but we are lacking a true shooter on this team.

If we had Knutson playing on this team, we would probably be undefeated right now. Our offense was impossible to stop on that 2010-2011 team, and we didn't even have a true post player. Knutson made that much of a difference for guys such as Burks/Higgins driving the rack.

 

[SECOBuffsFan]

I don't know that a true shooter is what is hurting this team as much as a philosophical flaw in how they refuse to run their offense through the post every time they get stuck in the half court sets. Booker and Dinwiddie are good shooters, but Scott could make them much more effective if they would constantly feed the ball inside to him and force the opponent to double team him so he can kick out to the wing or corner for a uncontested shot.

Booker was lighting it up in the first half and forced OSU to switch a different guy on him defensively, opening up opportunities for Dinwiddie at that point.

 

[jwhite17]

I don't know that a true shooter is what is hurting this team as much as a philosophical flaw in how they refuse to run their offense through the post every time they get stuck in the half court sets. Booker and Dinwiddie are good shooters, but Scott could make them much more effective if they would constantly feed the ball inside to him and force the opponent to double team him so he can kick out to the wing or corner for a uncontested shot.

Booker was lighting it up in the first half and forced OSU to switch a different guy on him defensively, opening up opportunities for Dinwiddie at that point.

You are correct. This team has major issues in the half court set. I'm not sure if we have ever had a good half court team ever under Boyle. It seems guys just stand around and pass it around the perimeter. Okie State was setting pick after pick to get guys open.

We are built for running and getting free throws, but unfortunately on the road or netural sites, once teams take that away, we are very mediocre on offense. How can Boyle fix it?

 

[SECOBuffsFan]

We got loads of rebounds to be able to run Saturday...Oklahoma State squeezed it off.

I know I sound like a broken record, but they have got to attack through the post more.

 

[cubuffs85]

I'm trying to put this in perspective.

We only lost by 5. As badly as I thought we played, more equal officiating in the 1st half to balance out FTs and we probably would have won. We're not far away.

Also, I was looking at the rosters and it hit me how young we are. Physically, that can make it tough to match up.

CU roster tonight:
Starters- 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, 1 freshman
Bench- 1 sophomore, 4 freshmen (throw in 1 senior if you want to include the 30 seconds from Mills at the end of the 1st half)

OSU roster tonight:
Starters- 1 senior, 3 juniors, 1 sophomore
Bench- 2 sophomores, 1 freshman

Buffs have a lot of room for growth. Sitting at 10-2 with a likely home win against Georgia to take us into conference play at 11-2 against one of the nation's toughest schedules. I'm feeling pretty damn good about this team.

Don't think the officiating was the story here, we legitimately lost this one.

 

[cubuffs85]

Probably should not let it bother me, but has anyone watched the "highlights" of the game on ESPN.com? It's all made baskets by OSU and shows nothing from the buffs, they cut it to make it look like it wasn't as close as it was. This is similar to the Kansas highlights, which showed Wiggins and Ellis highlights and then Ski's shot.

In both cases, they are higher ranked, bigger brands (more true in KU's case), and have more marquee players. Now in Okie Lite's case, they won.

I'm just happy were playing premier games, not too long ago, our games were all afterthoughts nationally speaking OOC.

 

[cubuffs85]

I completely agree. We just need someone like Elon's Koch or Sampson that can go off and hit 2-3 threes per game. Someone that can play okay defense and just hit some shots against the zone. That's the biggest killer for this team now. I'm really hoping Boyle can find a 5th senior transfer that can fill this role next year.

We have great length and athleticism at all positions, we have guys that can drive the rack, we have guys that can dunk, etc... but we are lacking a true shooter on this team.

If we had Knutson playing on this team, we would probably be undefeated right now. Our offense was impossible to stop on that 2010-2011 team, and we didn't even have a true post player. Knutson made that much of a difference for guys such as Burks/Higgins driving the rack.

Probably not, but you can play the "if game" all day and manipulate it to your liking. Going undefeated is very difficult, we should be pretty happy with two losses given our schedule. I would've thought, we'd have had three. Even making it out of the easy games with no losses is good in my books, we have a target on our backs for almost every team we play especially CSU.

 

[jumped ship]

Probably not, but you can play the "if game" all day and manipulate it to your liking. Going undefeated is very difficult, we should be pretty happy with two losses given our schedule. I would've thought, we'd have had three. Even making it out of the easy games with no losses is good in my books, we have a target on our backs for almost every team we play especially CSU.

Having Dre and Knutson back, we still would have lost against Baylor. Okie State may have been a different story, but this game was just gravy.

We are poised well for what really matters, conference play and getting a solid 4-7 seed for the tourney. I am excited to see how this team competes on the road (once the rotation is tightened up).

 

[sackman]

Losing this game sucks, but it puts us in a great position going into the conference schedule. We've seen the best out there. We know we stack up.

 

[Quattro]

Don't think the officiating was the story here, we legitimately lost this one.

The officiating was awful in the game. The play that summarizes the officiating was when Spencer got nailed going to the rack near the end and Scott would later end up shooting the FTs. OSU got a lot of soft calls and we didn't.

Having Dre and Knutson back, we still would have lost against Baylor. Okie State may have been a different story, but this game was just gravy.

We are poised well for what really matters, conference play and getting a solid 4-7 seed for the tourney. I am excited to see how this team competes on the road (once the rotation is tightened up).

Ummm...based on what?

 

[BigBuff]

Why didn't little X play more? Thought he could have played better defense on forte than J-Hop and thought he could have opened up the floor with his outside shot some more.

 

[cubuffs85]

The officiating was awful in the game. The play that summarizes the officiating was when Spencer got nailed going to the rack near the end and Scott would later end up shooting the FTs. OSU got a lot of soft calls and we didn't.


Ummm...based on what?

I like you 'Tini, but the bad calls went both ways. We didn't play well enough to win. I get how people want to blame the officiating when things don't go our way and they weren't good IMO, but I don't feel like they "stole" the game from us.

 

[Quattro]

I like you 'Tini, but the bad calls went both ways. We didn't play well enough to win. I get how people want to blame the officiating when things don't go our way and they weren't good IMO, but I don't feel like they "stole" the game from us.

I'm not sure if they 'stole' the game away from us, but I also don't believe the calls went both ways the whole game. OSU got a whole lot of touchy calls. I expect there to be a decent difference in free throws attempted when you're the home team at home, but at a neutral venue I expect it to be pretty even, that was not the case on Saturday where OSU shot 10 compared to our 2 in the first half and 25 to our 18 in the second half, that's a big difference for a neutral site game.

 

[Professor3]

Don't think the officiating was the story here, we legitimately lost this one.

I was there and the refs were DEFINITELY a determining factor in the game. There is absolutely no doubt that their bias was clear by the fouls that they called against us and the fouls that they ignored that OSU committed. Watching it live and in person was quite different than the television coverage. OSU got away with a slug fest. The calls were just that bad during the first half of the game. Fair calls and we win that game. No question, no hesitation, no doubt.

 

[jgisland]

I was there and the refs were DEFINITELY a determining factor in the game. There is absolutely no doubt that their bias was clear by the fouls that they called against us and the fouls that they ignored that OSU committed. Watching it live and in person was quite different than the television coverage. OSU got away with a slug fest. The calls were just that bad during the first half of the game. Fair calls and we win that game. No question, no hesitation, no doubt.

CU won the foul battle in every other game this year, all the sudden we lose a close game and it's the refs fault? Were the refs a determining factor in the 10 wins?

 

[cubuffs85]

I'm not sure if they 'stole' the game away from us, but I also don't believe the calls went both ways the whole game. OSU got a whole lot of touchy calls. I expect there to be a decent difference in free throws attempted when you're the home team at home, but at a neutral venue I expect it to be pretty even, that was not the case on Saturday where OSU shot 10 compared to our 2 in the first half and 25 to our 18 in the second half, that's a big difference for a neutral site game.

We got some favorable calls too. Bad refs are not, we had no business winning this one IMO, we played poorly. This wasn't Chengate 2.0. I think your looking at this from the CU lense more than an overall game POV.

 

[cubuffs85]

I was there and the refs were DEFINITELY a determining factor in the game. There is absolutely no doubt that their bias was clear by the fouls that they called against us and the fouls that they ignored that OSU committed. Watching it live and in person was quite different than the television coverage. OSU got away with a slug fest. The calls were just that bad during the first half of the game. Fair calls and we win that game. No question, no hesitation, no doubt.

Ok man, whatever you say. Do you ever think the refs are in favor of us, or just always against us?

 

[Ruckus]

Professor, I was there also. The refs didn't take the game away from us. Okie st beat us. That's it.