The very brief Bzdelik era is underrated.
Ricardo Patton had some good years, but had really left the cupboard bare in terms of talent.
Bzdelik came into Dorrell/Embree-esque quality roster and brought in some dudes.
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Official 2023-24 MBB Season Thread
- Thread starter Da Lama
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Ricardo Patton had some good years, but had really left the cupboard bare in terms of talent.
Bzdelik came into Dorrell/Embree-esque quality roster and brought in some dudes.
I would love this Bracket for the Buffs (updated Bracketology on ESPN today). Get a match up with Houston in the Elite 8.
Heavens, this is bait.
Bz inherited Roby and Hall for their senior seasons, Xavier Silas, and Dwight Thorne. It wasn't completely bare, but I get your point. I would give him credit for singing Cory, Austin, Nate, Relphorde, and Alec over three seasons. If you want to argue for what pre-injury SHT could've been, I'm open to the discussion, but ultimately unmoved.
Talent aside, the product on the court was dog**** and nearly unwatchable. There's nothing anyone can say to convince me that Bz could've approached what Tad did in years one and two. I do thank him for the practice facility, though.
I think Bz's years are appropriately rated.
(as a note, I had to look up when Cory and Levi signed -- Cory was Bzdelik, Levi was RP)
I think the baseline of understanding how Bz is rated may be our difference, that and I saw Roby as very talented but somehow regressing throughout his career so I probably underrate him.
Agree Tad >> Bz.
I just think the perception with Bz seemed to be that it was all garbage because of the record, when he was building some quality depth that left the program much better off than what it was, not just counting the practice facility.
I think it's very fair to give Jeff some credit for trying to build *something*, and he definitely left the program better off than when he found it -- something you cannot say for RP, despite the *relative* success he had. What's more, Bz's hire was a sign that we were actually investing and striving for respectability in the sport, after a number of years of just letting things lie fallow. That alone is worth noting.
However, by year three I wasn't seeing enough to say we would be a competitive player in the league, going forward; that RPs best years would probably have been better than Jeff's, long term. We just weren't *competing* with the rest of the league.
But, my loudest complaints with his time at CU aren't the record, per se, it was the style of basketball on display. The Princeton, or at least his version of it, wore on me pretty quickly. You want to say that's because he was trying to make chicken salad out of chicken ****, OK, I guess that's fair, but... *shudders*
Was Jeff's time in Boulder a complete waste? No. Was it something to write home about? Also no. I appreciate it for what it was -- transitional.
I wanted to mention Ski because his development in this program was undeniable. I left him out because I think many on this board see him as a controversial figure due to the way his senior year ended. But I'm glad you corrected my omission, without Ski we don't get that Kansas buzzer beater.
Out of interest, I went back to see what I wrote on this subject in April of '10 -- https://rumblinbuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/dont-blame-bz-cus-fine-on-its-own.html
This was in response to a lot of media fire shot Bz's way when he left, so I was a little defensive:
"[...] As soon as he was hired, I got the feeling that Jeff was an unwilling participant. [...] I just felt that he was always looking for the moment that he could move on. But he also seemed to care about the long term future of the program. He willed the media to pay attention to the program. He hired a veteran head coach (Steve McClain) to help run the team, and essentially set him up as his obvious successor. He damn near forced Mike Bohn to spend money on the program. He consistently recruited not for the now, but for the future.
[...] [Bzdelik] will essentially be leaving the program better than he found it. [...] Over his tenure, Coach Bz (and his staff) has built recruiting pipelines, overseen the expansion of the facilities at the CEC, and dragged the fan base kicking and screaming into (almost?) caring about men's basketball. All without a winning record. [...] It's relatively ignorant to be angry with Coach Bz for this move; he made the program better, and he's leaving for the right reasons. While he was here, he did the best he could to improve the program, and that's all I could really ask him to do."
I go on to say that Tad is my 3rd choice out of the 3 named candidates for the open job. I was young and foolish.
Ski always has a place. A man who brought us so much joy through his performance? Bless him.
The exit was ugly, no doubt. If anything, however, his exit was the perfect denouement for his 'ride the dragon' style.
I also think it's fair, at least at some level, for him to have gone 'CBI? **** that.'
Buffsbball
Well-Known Member
To be fair to Tad on KeeShawn, he did develop under Tad. His progression went stagnant since he left for Oregon- Jumped from 4 PPG as a redshirt frosh to 11 as a sophomore and down back to 8 as a senior with Oregon.
Yeah, that's fair. Speculating from the outside it seems like the main reason he left is that KJ jumped him on the depth chart, so you can't blame him leaving on the staff either. It was kind of like a Jokic/Nurkic situation.
In your defense, almost EVERYONE had Tad as third choice of the three, proving that all of us are idots.
Somewhat random. I was able to get off work unexpectedly for the pac 12 tournament. What's the best way to get the full session tickets, or does anyone have any advice for those that have attended? Looking at the website, it looks like it is only selling full session's in the upper level. Watching in the past I have never seen the lower level sold out. I also saw that ironically Oregon State was selling full session passes for the lower level through their website, but not CU. Any suggestions would be great!
AEROBUFF
Well-Known Member
I believe the full tournament tickets are only open to basketball season ticket holders right now. They aren't cheap. The lower level tickets are ~$500 each. I buy tickets for the sessions I want to go on StubHub the day of. They are normally pretty cheap unless UA plays in the session and then their fans jack up the price.
jumped ship
Well-Known Member
Tad's gonna be having Cody warming up at the Tucson High gym and scoot him over to McKale 5 mins before tip
Confirmed, request forms went out to season ticket holders last month. The standard CU section is $469 + $15 in fees per ticket, with a one-time application fee of $10; max 6 tickets per account holder. I believe holders have til early Feb to respond. Submitting an application does not lock you into purchasing at this time -- they'll come back in mid-Feb and confirm a) if you've been awarded, and if so b) if you'd still like to purchase. I've never heard of anyone not getting awarded the standard tickets, however.
I go with the all-session passes, but I tend to go to most of the games in the tournament. You can save a lot if you're just interested in the CU games by waiting and playing the "hope it's not Zona" game.
The CU section is not currently known, afaik.
You're fortunate. Crowd so small and quiet there was a professor where we had tix who used to grade papers during games.
I admittedly have not been paying attention to much basketball outside of the Pac12 yet this season, but does Clemson actually have a shot to win the ACC?
Fleming was a short walk to the keg. Sometimes on weekends, when I'd had enough of the law library, I would walk over and sit near the top and continue studying during games. We weren't even that bad then. Vandiver could fill it up.
We'll know tomorrow night when they play Miami. They follow that up with UNC and VT. Alabama (overrated this year) has been their only marquee win this year.
I was joking. I was there for Tom Miller. I just find it amazing that posters can have an extended conversation about anything pre-Tad
I remember games in the Tom Apke era. There was no student section at all, and we could walk up and sit in great seats any time. They used to have beer vendors walk around with these wire racks that held like 25 beers. I remember the beers had plastic wrap on top to keep them from spilling. When I was there with a group, we would sometimes buy whatever was left on the rack, and the vendor would just leave the whole thing with us and swing by to pick it up (or trade it out) later. They got paid by the beer, so they loved it.
My fraternity would sometimes volunteer on trash and sweeping duty after games. It was super easy, and it helped pay for those beers.
Vandiver was my guy. He was so much fun to watch.
My fraternity would sometimes volunteer on trash and sweeping duty after games. It was super easy, and it helped pay for those beers.
Vandiver was my guy. He was so much fun to watch.
Apke, miller, Patton Buzz. Was a poor to very bad program most of the time prior to Tad. Some decent years but very very few. The AD did not care
I was a student towards the end of the Patton era. I seemed to remember that if there was a good team coming to play, there could be some pretty good crowds. However, one of the specific games I was recalling was the 2003 game when they upset #3 UT (TJ Ford's team), and that was only 90% full. Lol.
On the other hand, I have a lot of fond memories in the Tad era when I'd buy extremely cheap tickets on the secondary market to see someone like South Dakota State, take my kids to Dark Horse for dinner, walk over to the Keg and sit up behind one of the baskets with them running up and down one of the bleachers with no one else in our section.
Until things started to pop with the Alec NIT/Bubble year and the P12T title which followed, it was an absolute ghost town for those Nov/Dec non-conference games.
I remember a game in the non-conf schedule in 2005 where we made plans with someone on the other side of the arena on where to go after the game by just yelling at each other while play was going on.
cu3x
Well-Known Member
I had season tickets when they played in the field house. 1969 Big 8 Champs - 10 on the roster 6' 4" or less. Sox Walseth the coach. Was also the women's coach - a few years later. That seems like another world.
Although I prefer the packed house, there was something about sitting courtside in the first row in an arena with only a few hundred people. It was so quiet, you would only hear the shoes squeak on the floor.
Not unlike a Wednesday Zephyrs game at Mile High. Like 300 fans in an 80,000 stadium.