Wbb - Loss to #10/#10 @UCLA grame thread

[BoCoBBall]

I wanted to open a thread for fans to talk about the CU game at UCLA.

I don't think it should be lost on anyone that the Buffs were playing the 10th ranked team in the AP and the USA Today/Coach's poll. As-of Monday morning UCLA is the 10th best team in the Sagarin NCAAW rankings with a 94.26 rating and the Buffs are the 50th best team 81.12 rating.

I don't think any reasonable Buffs fan expected an upset on the Bruins home floor. UCLA has some truly exceptional guards (plural), and they run a multiple guard game that few teams in the Country can match up with. The Buffs have some great guards in our Sophomore and Freshman recruiting classes, but not at the level that UCLA has. In fact the Buffs struggled to just find any player with the athleticism to match up against Jordin Canada. One of the positive takeaways from this game was how well Quinessa Caylao-Do did as the Buffs tried different players matching up with Canada, and quite frankly few can:

Our freshman [Quinessa Caylao-Do] comes in to guard Canada, and nobody can totally stop Canada, but came in fearlessly. We looked down our bench and our bench was up, energetic. It was just a great team effort. I'm very proud of how we played the game tonight." -- Coach JR Payne

There were many positives in the game, and also many things to improve upon for EVERY Buffs player.

One thing that was shared with me this weekend, a CU Women's Basketball scholarship sponsor shared with me that the father of a starter on this team is having a problem disengaging from social media, and also our fan forum. This thread, and I would even suggest the AllBuffs fan forum, is not the place for Parents of players on this team to try to come into the fan community and bludgeon fans and supporters of the team who don't hold their child/player in the same esteem as only a parent can. I think that's reasonable. I'm refraining from identifying the screen name of the father, or naming the player, but let's suffice to agree that this is a fan forum and realistically there is no player on this Buffs team that is going to play in the WNBA. This roster is not where it will be several years from now after JR Payne raises the bar in terms of the quality of players that CU recruits to compete in the Pac-12. What does this mean? Recognizing that a parent might be sensitive to the performance and struggles of their child, I think all posters need to do a better job of being sensitive to the fact that these are AMATEUR athletes and student athletes first. Also, I think parents need to take a long hard look at how disingenuous it is to come into a fan community pretending to be a fan, and not disclosing that they are posting as a parent, and attempt to stir up the pot regarding anyone that doesn't hold their daughter in the same category that only a parent can see their own child. I think both are reasonable.

Quite frankly, the scholarship sponsor shared with me that there are some negative aspects in play here, and its actually making it hard for the player who's parent is trolling social media and fan forums, to just focus on basketball at times.

So that being said, what was your reaction to the UCLA game? The Buffs obviously struggled to match up with the Bruins exceptional guards and guard-style of play, but the team really showed grit in not quitting and backing down. The Buffs came back late. Haley Smith showed what a valuable and efficient scorer she can be when she sees the ball. Quinessa Caylao-Do showed how valuable she can be matching up with the elite Pac-12 guards defensively. The Buffs learned something about themselves in terms of their character.

They also learned they can play basketball with the 10th best team in the country. For this roster and where the program is right now, that's saying something. With just two conference wins in the past two seasons, I think playing the Bruins 74-87 is as big of a victory as can be had in NCAAW, against a truly elite team like UCLA.

 

[Buffnik]

It would definitely be challenging to be a parent of an athlete.

Fun when fans are singing the praises and everything is going great, but it would be brutal to hear the criticisms. Especially when some of that is going to be ill-informed or ill-considered. And as a parent (or someone close to a player) you have to suppress your urge to correct people or to defend the player because it does more harm than good most of the time while sometimes violating confidences (i.e., sometimes what's really going on needs to stay within the team even though public perception is wrong and is unfair to one or more players).

That said, I am sensitive to this and so are the other mods.

We have a policy against player bashing. Criticism is one thing. Personal attacks are another. And it's a gray area. Kind of like porn, you know it when you see it but it's hard for me to define as different than criticism other than obvious things like not making fun of someone's appearance.

For parents and friends -- if you want to correct something by providing information but don't want to get into things with fans by being the person to post something, you always have the option of using the Private Message system on Allbuffs to let me or another mod know what's going on and have us post the information without involving you. We'll respect not revealing the source and will limit what we post to whatever you say is ok to share. That has worked for some parents/family/friends of players in the past.

 

[CUoldtimer]

I wanted to open a thread for fans to talk about the CU game at UCLA.

I don't think it should be lost on anyone that the Buffs were playing the 10th ranked team in the AP and the USA Today/Coach's poll. As-of Monday morning UCLA is the 10th best team in the Sagarin NCAAW rankings with a 94.26 rating and the Buffs are the 50th best team 81.12 rating.

I don't think any reasonable Buffs fan expected an upset on the Bruins home floor. UCLA has some truly exceptional guards (plural), and they run a multiple guard game that few teams in the Country can match up with. The Buffs have some great guards in our Sophomore and Freshman recruiting classes, but not at the level that UCLA has. In fact the Buffs struggled to just find any player with the athleticism to match up against Jordin Canada. One of the positive takeaways from this game was how well Quinessa Caylao-Do did as the Buffs tried different players matching up with Canada, and quite frankly few can:

Our freshman [Quinessa Caylao-Do] comes in to guard Canada, and nobody can totally stop Canada, but came in fearlessly. We looked down our bench and our bench was up, energetic. It was just a great team effort. I'm very proud of how we played the game tonight." -- Coach JR Payne

There were many positives in the game, and also many things to improve upon for EVERY Buffs player.

One thing that was shared with me this weekend, a CU Women's Basketball scholarship sponsor shared with me that the father of a starter on this team is having a problem disengaging from social media, and also our fan forum. This thread, and I would even suggest the AllBuffs fan forum, is not the place for Parents of players on this team to try to come into the fan community and bludgeon fans and supporters of the team who don't hold their child/player in the same esteem as only a parent can. I think that's reasonable. I'm refraining from identifying the screen name of the father, or naming the player, but let's suffice to agree that this is a fan forum and realistically there is no player on this Buffs team that is going to play in the WNBA. This roster is not where it will be several years from now after JR Payne raises the bar in terms of the quality of players that CU recruits to compete in the Pac-12. What does this mean? Recognizing that a parent might be sensitive to the performance and struggles of their child, I think all posters need to do a better job of being sensitive to the fact that these are AMATEUR athletes and student athletes first. Also, I think parents need to take a long hard look at how disingenuous it is to come into a fan community pretending to be a fan, and not disclosing that they are posting as a parent, and attempt to stir up the pot regarding anyone that doesn't hold their daughter in the same category that only a parent can see their own child. I think both are reasonable.

Quite frankly, the scholarship sponsor shared with me that there are some negative aspects in play here, and its actually making it hard for the player who's parent is trolling social media and fan forums, to just focus on basketball at times.

So that being said, what was your reaction to the UCLA game? The Buffs obviously struggled to match up with the Bruins exceptional guards and guard-style of play, but the team really showed grit in not quitting and backing down. The Buffs came back late. Haley Smith showed what a valuable and efficient scorer she can be when she sees the ball. Quinessa Caylao-Do showed how valuable she can be matching up with the elite Pac-12 guards defensively. The Buffs learned something about themselves in terms of their character.

They also learned they can play basketball with the 10th best team in the country. For this roster and where the program is right now, that's saying something. With just two conference wins in the past two seasons, I think playing the Bruins 74-87 is as big of a victory as can be had in NCAAW, against a truly elite team like UCLA.

Man, you cannot but help take shots in almost every post you make. Some are not even hidden well. For example:

"...I'm refraining from identifying the screen name of the father, or naming the player, but let's suffice to agree that this is a fan forum and realistically there is no player on this Buffs team that is going to play in the WNBA. This roster is not where it will be several years from now after JR Payne raises the bar in terms of the quality of players that CU recruits to compete in the Pac-12. What does this mean? Recognizing that a parent might be sensitive to the performance and struggles of their child, I think all posters need to do a better job of being sensitive to the fact that these are AMATEUR athletes and student athletes first. Also, I think parents need to take a long hard look at how disingenuous it is to come into a fan community pretending to be a fan, and not disclosing that they are posting as a parent, and attempt to stir up the pot regarding anyone that doesn't hold their daughter in the same category that only a parent can see their own child. I think both are reasonable."

What does this have to do with anything in your post or that paragraph except to take a shot at a player? You are not fooling anybody. Stir up the pot? Pot meet Kettle?

 

[Highlander]

Man, you cannot but help take shots in almost every post you make. Some are not even hidden well. For example:

"...I'm refraining from identifying the screen name of the father, or naming the player, but let's suffice to agree that this is a fan forum and realistically there is no player on this Buffs team that is going to play in the WNBA. This roster is not where it will be several years from now after JR Payne raises the bar in terms of the quality of players that CU recruits to compete in the Pac-12. What does this mean? Recognizing that a parent might be sensitive to the performance and struggles of their child, I think all posters need to do a better job of being sensitive to the fact that these are AMATEUR athletes and student athletes first. Also, I think parents need to take a long hard look at how disingenuous it is to come into a fan community pretending to be a fan, and not disclosing that they are posting as a parent, and attempt to stir up the pot regarding anyone that doesn't hold their daughter in the same category that only a parent can see their own child. I think both are reasonable."

What does this have to do with anything in your post or that paragraph except to take a shot at a player? You are not fooling anybody. Stir up the pot? Pot meet Kettle?

That's okay, the posts are so long, I'm pretty confident no one actually reads them to pick up on the shots being taken.

 

[Sykobuff]

That's okay, the posts are so long, I'm pretty confident no one actually reads them to pick up on the shots being taken.

Like reading war and peace. Good content but 10 paragraphs not needed.

 

[BoCoBBall]

NOTHING in my post can be constituted as an attack on a player, unless one has an emotional attachment to a player, in the way a father or mother might.

It is an incredible accomplishment for many students to get into CU. They worked very hard academically to qualify for admission. It is not an attack on those students to acknowledge that, for most, they did not also get accepted to Pac-12 rival Stanford or Ivy League Harvard. Not everyone is born with the equal aptitude, facilities, or tenacity. Quite simply, not every person is born with the same genetic potential to play ping pong, be an AMO Physicist (Go Buffs Nobel Laureates!), play basketball/football, be a cheerleader, or to have a chance to qualify for entrance into Med School. CU will not be offering too many basketball scholarships to 5'8" men nor will we likely see a Quarterback or Left Tackle at CU that is 5'9" in the future. Not everyone, regardless of how tirelessly they work, is going to have an equal chance to play competitive sports on every level. Quite frankly, until this season in football excepting ruining Utah's chance to win the South one season, even the Buffs football players realistically haven't been even playing competitive football on a Pac-12 level. It was nice to see that change this season. In Women's Basketball this has not been a good team. Kathy McConnell-Miller set the recent high bar for conference wins at 6, and Linda Lappe had one single season winning more games than that.

Since Ceal Berry retired here are the Buffs conference records:

2005-06 3-13 KMM Big-12
2006-07 6-10
2007-08 5-11
2008-09 3-13
2009-10 3-13
2010-11 6-10 LL
2011-12 6-12 PAC-12
2012-13 13-5
2013-14 6-12
2014-15 6-12
2015-16 2-16
2016-17 JRP 0-2 so far (6 conference wins would be an incredible feat of coaching with these players)

Quite frankly there is no player on this CU team that is as talented as ANY of the players from that Pac-12 conference 13 win 2012-13 team: Arielle Roberson, Chucky Jeffry, Jen Reese, Jamie Swan, Alexus Atchley, Lauren Huggins, Lexy Kresl, Jasmine Sborov, Rachel Hargis, Breanna Malcolm-Peck, Meaghan Malcolm-Peck, Brittney Wilson, or Ashley Wilson. Okay maybe that's not fair. We never really got to see Kyleesha Weston play.

The 13 Pac-12 wins that team managed seems almost impossible from where the program sits right now. JR Payne has a ton of work to do, and must considerably upgrade this roster at every position to get back to that level of performance. However, that team played in the NCAA tournament and there were 3 WNIT invites bracketing that NCAAW appearance, and every Buffs team made it to Quarterfinals in at the WNIT. Compare that with the current team that has won a grand total of just 2 conference wins in going on two seasons.

I love this Buffs team, but I'm exhausted with the false narrative communicating just how talented some of the individual players are. I see very talented young women that are exceptional players in their own right. However, there is not a complete basketball player on this roster that can drive to the basket, create good scoring looks for teammates, shoot with efficiency for threes, shoot midrange with efficiency, finish at the basket AND be able to play effective defense on Pac-12 match ups. There just isn't. That isn't so much a recognition of the limitations of the athletes the Buffs have but a fair acknowledgement of the incredible exceptional athletes the Pac-12 has in our opponents. At the start of Conference play the Pac-12 was 115-20 in terms of non-conference cumulative record. Seven teams were nationally ranked. Two were in the top-10. The USA Today/Coach's poll has FOUR Pac-12 teams in the top-12. That's just ridiculous. The Pac-12 has surpassed the ACC in terms of the quality of the conference at the top, top-to-bottom, and weighted excepting the top teams. Look at the Sagarin conference metrics:

Sagarin ratings:
#6 Washington 99.46
#10 UCLA 94.06
#11 Stanford 94.05
#14 Oregon State 91.29
#25 Arizona State 86.74
#28 Utah 85.91
#31 California 85.03
#33 Oregon 83.71
#36 Washington State 83.29
#44 Southern Cal 81.90
#49 Colorado 81.15
#117 Arizona 71.30

The reality is that Colorado really doesn't match up with any Pac-12 team favorably, save Arizona. The Buffs just don't have Pac-12 average Bigs, and will likely get outrebounded in most games Correal ends up in foul trouble. The one team CU really matches up with strength-to-stregth is actually USC. USC kind of foregoes putting bigs on the floor and plays a very guard centric game. The best talent for CU right now is the Sophomore and Freshman guards. We've already seen how they match up with the talent and athleticism of USC guards. The answer is they just don't. That's okay. If you lose to Usain Bolt in the Olympics that doesn't make you a poor sprinter. The Pac-12 is the #1 conference in NCAAW for reason. Two different Pac-12 teams were in the Final Four last year.

 

[BoCoBBall]

I guess my point is that the Buffs are a very very good NCAAW basketball team. They have only lost one game in non-conference if we don't unpack who they actually played. Even with the expected 0-2 on the SoCal road trip, the Buffs are still considered the 49th best team in all of NCAAW per Sagarin's algorithm. If life were fair the best 64 teams would be invited to the NCAAW tournament and we'd be looking at going dancing come March. However, life isn't that simple. The Pac-12 should have as many invites to the NCAAW Tournament as any other conference, at least as many as the ACC if not more. There is almost a 2.5-2.6 ratings difference between the ACC and the Pac-12 (the Pac-12 being superior) by three different Sagarin metrics.

Central Mean gives more weighting to the middle teams in the conference than the best and worst teams. In context, this means that Utah and California count x6 versus outliers Washington and Arizona. UCLA and Colorado both count for x2 versus outliers Washington and Arizona. Southern Cal and Stanford each count x3 versus outliers Washington and Arizona. Oregon State and Washington State each count x4 versus outliers Washington an Arizona. Arizona State and Oregon each count x5 versus outliers Washington and Arizona. For the 12 team Pac-12 group the weights are:

1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1

This Sagarin conference Central Mean metric smooths out conference disparities where very good or very bad teams deviate from the mean. Sure UCONN is good but they skew the average conference rating of the American Athletic conference by over 2.00 just by being that good. The American Athletic conference only has a 73.81 Sagarin Central Mean metric. UCONN wins a ton of games, but in reality it isn't an overly competitive conference they are winning those games against. The Pac-12 has the highest Sagarin Central Mean metric at 86.43. The difference between comparing 73.81 as a Central Mean to 86.43 is like comparing Arizona State to Northern Colorado.

If we weight all teams in a conference the same, which is what the Sagarin Arithmetic Mean/Simple Average does then the Pac-12 is still the #1 conference. With UCONN skewing the American Athletic conference by just how good they are the conference comes in at 75.72, but the PAC-12 even with Arizona weighing down the average still comes in at #1 at 86.57.

My favorite I post about a lot. Its the rating a team needs to have to win half of a team's games in a round robin format on neutral court. This is not an actual reflection of the teams on the schedule for that given season, rather a reflection of the competitiveness of the conference were a given team to play every conference team. This Sagarin metric the Win50% reveals a lot.

As-of today per the Sagarin Win50% algorithm a team needs an 86.58 rating to win just 50% of their games in the Pac-12 and that assumes neutral courts, and Pac-12 games are not played on neutral courts. Every road game means a team needs a rating of 89.66 to just have a 50/50 chance to compete in that game. For the sake of comparison that means to just win half of the Pac-12 games a team needs to be in between DePaul 23rd in AP poll & 21st in USA Today/Coach's poll (88.81, ranked 21st by Sagarin rating) and West Virginia 17th in AP poll and 16th in USA Today/Coach's poll (89.74, ranked 20th by Sagarin rating), and they'd still lose half their Pac-12 games. This Buffs team isn't even close to that. They are unranked in both the AP Poll and USA Today/Coach's poll and probably never should have been ranked, deservingly with that incredibly low SOS in non-conference. However, you can't take away that huge win over UK. Where are the Buffs after two conference games? Sagarin has the Buffs inside the 64 team bubble, but that will be irrelevant considering what the Pac-12 conference schedule will do to the Buffs record. The Buffs are ranked as the 49th best team in NCAAW (out of 349) and have a rating of just 81.15. Even with the 3.08 home court advantage the Buffs will still not reach the Win50% rating needed to compete in most games. That being said, I always loved the expression "that's why they play the games."

You need look no further than Ohio State and Michigan in bowl games to realize that ratings and rankings can be poor indicators of team quality. USC had wins over Pac-12 champion Washington AND Big-10 champion Penn State. For anyone that wants to argue about how media or pundits consider a player or a team by reputation, I would respond that reputations and polls often are disconnected from actually watching the games or a true evaluation of teams and talent. Quite simply, in NCAAW we don't depend on polls to determine who is the best team. Frankly put, we're going to find out when they play the games.

This Buffs team just recently lost to the Wyoming Cowgirls. There is no player for Wyoming that presents a matchup problem like Jordin Canada, Kelsey Plum, Syney Wiese, Minyon Moore, or Maite Cazorla. Wyoming is a mid-major in the Mountain West conference and they just aren't that good of a team (compared to Pac-12 teams or Colorado). Sagarin has Wyoming as the 73rd best team in the country with a rating of only 77.11. So why did Wyoming win?

For the same reason that the Buffs are in a two year struggle in conference play. They just had better players. The average CU fan doesn't always look at the game in its overall context. They might not even know which opposing players had big nights. A homer Buffs fan might just watch the Buffs, and not see the game in its larger context. A Buffs player can put up 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds and 10 assists but actually have had a terrible NET game. What that means is regardless of how aggressive, of how good a player is at driving and finishing layups, how good they are at creating good looks for teammates to finish, or how good of a rebounder or shooter they are what matters is what they do in terms of net contribution. If a Buffs player is incredibly gifted as a rebounder, but such a poor defender that they give up just so many more points than the offensive production value of an offensive/defensive rebound, then they are actually hurting their team if all they can contribute is rebounding. If a Buffs shooter is an incredibly gifted shooter and can hit three-pointers lights out, but they are such a poor defender that opponents are beating them for easy layups then they are actually hurting their team. The percentage of threes they make will ultimately mean the value of those attempts are lower in terms of expected points than the value of the opponents layups on the weak defender. If the Buffs have a gifted player offensively, but that player needs to dominate the ball to find aggressive moves to the basket, that can have a deleterious effect on the rest of the team's offensive rhythm and production, especially if that player can't simultaneously be aggressive to the basket AND create opportunities to slashing teammates, and if that player is a defensive liability. In Basketball one of the basic stats coaches look at is called Plus/Minus. Anyone that every played basketball on any level is familiar with this stat. It basically tracks the minutes an athlete played and tracks whether they individually made a positive or a negative contribution to their team in terms of Plus/Minus. In the Association, we can easily see stats for +/- for almost any player as its a relevant stat as much as Points, Assists, Rebounds or Turnovers. In NCAAW it can be very hard to find these stats, and not every program is competent enough to actually track it or has the means to purchase a statistics package from an outside vendor.

What Buffs fans often don't have a sense of is when a Buffs player is having a big night in terms of points or rebounds or steals or assists but that they are actually hurting their team in terms of how much less effective they are at the defensive end. We've seen Buffs players get frustrated with one another as players got lost switching between defensive concepts lately. Not everything JR Payne asks these players to do is necessarily easy. Not every Buffs player is a complete player, able to contribute to their position as a plus scorer, rebounder, distributor, 3-point range shooter, mid-range shooter, or finisher around the basket. Not every Buffs player commands the opposing defenses attention in terms of how they space out to defend that player with the ball in hand. There are plenty of players on the Buffs roster that opposing defenses actually game plan to let that player take certain shots or looks because…the opposing team knows that over the course of the game their offensive efficiency will be greater than that particular player's ability to finish those particular shots with or without help defense.

I guess that's the point. The Pac-12 has incredibly talented and athletic players, and for the most part the Buffs aren't on that level right now. No objective person could watch how the Buffs were given fits by lowly MVSU, and torched by players at Wyoming let alone unable to handle the match ups versus USC and UCLA and believe that individual players are exceptional or elite, on the same level as their Pac-12 peers they are being asked to guard. Realistically almost every Buff on the roster is going to have trouble matching up, individually, with the athleticism, height, and basketball IQ of some of these Pac-12 superstars. That's where coaches come in.

JR Payne is a great coach. She intimately understands what she has on this roster and what she doesn't have. She's going to do her best to try to find ways to put these Buffs players in a position to succeed and not ask them to do things that they just can't manage effectively. It isn't fair to ask an athletically limited player to guard one of the greatest (or actually the greatest) player in NCAAW one on one. Again, that's why they play the games. A coach can use different zone looks, help defenders, or change defensive assignments so individual players are not guarding who is guarding them. That's what makes basketball interesting the tactics & strategy involved.

However, enough with the notions that this CU Buffs team has ANY player on it that is singularly exceptional. They just don't. This is a good Buffs team. We'd have a good chance to win most mid-major conferences. If the Buffs played in a mid-major conference this Buffs team absolutely would be an NCAAW tournament team this year. They are certainly one of the best 64 teams in the country. However, that probably won't happen. This Buffs team has won exactly two conference games in going on two years for a reason. That reason is NOT because the Buffs players are so much better than their opponents every night out.

 

[BoCoBBall]

We can see some of the Buffs struggles and deficiencies if we unpack some Pac-12 NCAAW statistics.

An initial look an a Buffs fan has a lot to get excited about. Looking over NCAAW Pac-12 statistics and the Buffs are one of the top teams offensively, at least by just looking at Scoring Offense:
1.Washington..........89.6
2.California..........79.5
3.Colorado............79.3
4.Oregon..............78.6
5.UCLA................77.0
6.USC.................75.8
7.Stanford............75.3
8.Washington State....72.9
9.Oregon State........72.5
10.Utah................72.1
11.Arizona.............68.9
12.Arizona State.......66.9

Then we look at Scoring Defense:

1.Oregon State........53.5
2.Stanford............53.9
3.Arizona State.......54.7
4.Utah................57.6
5.UCLA................60.8
6.Washington..........61.0
7.California..........62.8
8.USC.................63.0
9.Arizona.............63.5
10.Colorado............64.6
11.Oregon..............64.7
12.Washington State....69.7

The Buffs are able to put up some points, but they are like turnstiles on defense just letting opposing players score with ridiculous efficiency. An objective and learned fan looks at BOTH in context, and actually watches the games to evaluate. A player that puts up 20 or 30 points but whose defensive effort leads to giving up more than 20 or more than 30 points to the other team (not necessarily to the same opposing player(s) is actually hurting their team even though they are filling the box score.

The W-L record does not lie. That is a coaching phrase that is trite, but true. That's why effective coaches look at the +/- stat to help determine which of the players in their rotation are creating a net loss for the team to have them out on the floor. There are players in the NBA that can fill a box score with points, rebounds, assists, steals and still be one of the singular reasons that their team actually lost the game. Not every turnover shows up in the box score. Passing to a teammate that leads to an unfinished shot or that leads to a turnover is a hidden stat. Do the passes a player makes lead to positive shooting efficacy or negative shooting efficacy. You can track that, including how many passes away each player's pass mattered. Obviously the fourth pass before that led up to a missed shot isn't the same as the decision made by the last pass before the shot. Decision making is something fans don't understand. Coaches get it though. Sometimes there are great high school coaches that don't have a feel for individual players, but they know that a given player is a "winner."

The Buffs have some very talented players on their roster, great basketball players in their own right. However, anyone that doesn't think that former Buff Alexus Atchley was a winner never watched Washington go on their run last season. Alexus was a great basketball player in a way that isn't conveniently identified in the box score. She is the perfect control to the problems affecting the current Buffs squad. Alexus was a winner whose defense and contribution weren't always tracked in buckets like points, assists, rebounds but undeniably she is a better basketball player than most of the scholarship players at CU last year/this year. There is a reason she was a captain, and there is a reason Washington went to the Final Four with her playing almost every single minute of every game.

The Buffs score a ton of points, good for being third in the conference in terms of points scored, but they don't score them very efficiently:

Pac-12 Field Goal Percentage (FG%)
1.California.......... .499
2.Washington.......... .489
3.Oregon.............. .483
4.Stanford............ .476
5.USC................. .461
6.Oregon State........ .456
7.Arizona State....... .445
8.Colorado............ .439
9.Utah................ .432
10.Arizona............. .428
11.UCLA................ .426
12.Washington State.... .404

Looking at how poorly the Buffs are shooting the ball, it makes it just that much more interesting that they are top-3 in the conference in terms of points scored. That will be interesting to see if the Buffs can maintain that top-tier trend in terms of points scored in conference play.

It doesn't bode well for a Buffs team that doesn't score particularly well and not very efficiently in terms of Pac-12 rivals if they don't defend well either. Let's look:


Pac-12 Defensive Field Goal Percentage (DFG%)
1.Utah................ .322
2.Oregon State........ .329
3.Stanford............ .340
4.California.......... .350
5.UCLA................ .354
6.Washington.......... .364
7.USC................. .381
8.Arizona............. .385
9.Oregon.............. .389
10.Colorado............ .389
11.Washington State.... .412
12.Arizona State....... .417

Colorado is just not a good defensive team, and that's not because Colorado has elite players that are just that much better than everyone else in the conference or in the country.

There are Buffs on this roster that can do some things. There are Buffs on this roster that are exciting to watch. However, there are also Buffs on this roster that has limitations at every position. There are no complete players on this team. There are not any WNBA players on this team. That isn't an attack on any one player. We don't live in a world where everyone gets to go to Harvard, be an F-22 fighter pilot, or play in the NBA less they get their feelings hurt.

Basketball is a tough skill set, an very very few NCAAW players can dribble and penetrate while simultaneously be capable of either finishing or scoring, that can ALSO play effective defense. There are plenty of NCAAW players that can do one of those things, and many talented players that can do two of them. There are very very few NCAAW players that can shoot threes with efficiently that can also take a defender off the dribble and drive in isolation, but lots of players that can do either. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 is a conference that is known as the Conference of Champions for a reason.
Many of the best players in the country play in the Pac-12.

As Buffs fans let's have some integrity and cheer on our Buffs, but let's ALSO cheer on the spectacular accomplishments that the many talented and amazing young women on the other teams manage. Including when they beat our Buffs. Let's get past this self-serving and narcissistic false dialog regarding how our daughters, our old club team players, or our nieces and nephews are the bestest players in all the land, when often times those same players are the very reasons the Buffs are losing the games just as much as they are the reasons when they win. It goes both ways.

Night in and night out the Buffs need to play effectively at both ends of the floor. Points matter, but scoring efficiency matters too. Scoring efficiency matters but so does Defensive points Allowed. Defensive points Allowed matters but so does Defensive Efficiency.


The Buffs have some very talented players on this roster. Unfortunately the Buffs while they are ranked as the 49th best team in NCAAW are about to play a conference schedule of teams much much better than that. Those teams are just better because they have better coaching. Those teams are better because…they have better players.

That isn't an attack on the players we have, or any particular player. Enough with people posting that just want to control the narrative on their child. The fact that the Buffs have a talent deficit in the Pac-12 is a reality. Its why the Buffs have just one single season in the Pac-12 where they didn't lose twice as many games as they won. The Buffs players are great basketball players in their own right, some of the best in the country. This would be an NCAAW tournament team in most conferences. They just aren't particularly good Pac-12 players. That's the reality.

For NCAAW basketball the Pac-12 is like the SEC for football. It doesn't get better than the Pac-12 for NCAAW basketball.

Let's cheer on our Buffs for all they can accomplish. Our players try hard and do their best. Unfortunately, that might not be good enough most nights this season. Who cares!
This team might not be able to consistently win against the best Pac-12 teams. However, they can win and get the upset.

Let's finally beat Stanford! JR Payne has done it before with a roster less talented than this.
Let's make some noise in the Pac-12 tournament. Buffs have done it before.
Let's get back to postseason play!

Let's also stop trying to convince everyone that our daughters are the best players in the conference, in a conference with some of the singularly most elite exceptional athletes in the country, when they aren't even close as complete players. That's okay. They are having significantly accomplishments with what they CAN DO and have done, without having to engender a false narrative regarding what they truly can't and haven't been able to do.

At the end of the season, there is only one champion in NCAAW. It just might not be the team that our daughter, or that we root for is on. That's okay. Enough with the false narrative. Let's all come together to celebrate what these student athletes can do, and are doing, and will do again!

Not argue about what we think they can do, as only in the mind of a father/mother, disconnected from the reality on the floor.

Go Buffs!

 

[BeBe]

My eyes glaze over when I see diatribes full of math and statistics.
Setting all that aside, let me simply say Go Buffs! I hope to see a good game tomorrow night that hopefully includes a Buffs win over the Arizona Wildcats.

 

[Buffnik]

My eyes glaze over when I see diatribes full of math and statistics.
Setting all that aside, let me simply say Go Buffs! I hope to see a good game tomorrow night that hopefully includes a Buffs win over the Arizona Wildcats.

For sure! Winning is 60% effort, 40% skill, and then a little bit of luck.

Go Buffs!

 

[CUoldtimer]

My God. Do you think I'm a dad? Everybody else thinks you attack KL so we all must related in some way to her. Also, do you think anybody cares enough about what you have to say to read those posts? And you shouldn't have a 10 paragraph post followed by another one that starts with "I guess my point is..." and then a third long post after that. Here's how I feel about your posts (ignore first 15-20 sec):

 

[jsmilkst]

Quite frankly there is no player on this CU team that is as talented as ANY of the players from that Pac-12 conference 13 win 2012-13 team: Arielle Roberson, Chucky Jeffry, Jen Reese, Jamie Swan, Alexus Atchley, Lauren Huggins, Lexy Kresl, Jasmine Sborov, Rachel Hargis, Breanna Malcolm-Peck, Meaghan Malcolm-Peck, Brittney Wilson, or Ashley Wilson

That would be one of those things people call you out for. This is a ridiculous statement. I loved that team too, but Kennedy would surely have started on that team (btw, Ken + Chucky would've been hella fun to watch) and maybe Robinson too.

 

[CUoldtimer]

That would be one of those things people call you out for. This is a ridiculous statement. I loved that team too, but Kennedy would surely have started on that team (btw, Ken + Chucky would've been hella fun to watch) and maybe Robinson too.

So I'm guessing you're KL's cousin?

 

[BeBe]

.....
Quite frankly there is no player on this CU team that is as talented as ANY of the players from that Pac-12 conference 13 win 2012-13 team: Arielle Roberson, Chucky Jeffry, Jen Reese, Jamie Swan, Alexus Atchley, Lauren Huggins, Lexy Kresl, Jasmine Sborov, Rachel Hargis, Breanna Malcolm-Peck, Meaghan Malcolm-Peck, Brittney Wilson, or Ashley Wilson. ........

Thanks for pointing our this sentence JS. I love the logic here by BoCoBBall. Ref the parts I bolded .... So there is no player on the current team that is as talented as Lauren Huggins.... and the current team includes Lauren Huggins!!

 

[CUoldtimer]

Thanks for pointing our this sentence JS. I love the logic here by BoCoBBall. Ref the parts I bolded .... So there is no player on the current team that is as talented as Lauren Huggins.... and the current team includes Lauren Huggins!!

In his defense, he's so dead set on disparaging KL that the other names are just cut and pasted.

 

[buffgal]

Thanks for pointing our this sentence JS. I love the logic here by BoCoBBall. Ref the parts I bolded .... So there is no player on the current team that is as talented as Lauren Huggins.... and the current team includes Lauren Huggins!!

And Huggins hasn't played a single minute so far this season. Oh, the logic.

If memory serves Breanna Malcolm-Peck spent most of her CU career injured or sick. We never got the opportunity to see how talented Breanna was or was not.

Copy and paste skills are very good as it's Meagan Malcolm-Peck. Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[PAC MAN]

BocoBBall,

That was some quality information you provided. The conference records you provided would explain why I wasn't too moved when WBB got off to a hot start this season. I just watched the Buffs beat the Wildcats tonight and the Wildcats are the #12 team of the P12 while we are #11. A good start and let's see if the Buffs can beat those Sun Devils on Sunday.

I have read that the guards are the strength of this team and that is what I saw this evening. The Buffs also rebounded well tonight and stole some balls as well due to the quickness of our guards.

As for ripping on individual players, I say that is something that should be directed at professional athletes while college athletics are more team oriented.