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Looking Forward to the Next CU Basketball Season

By Alissa Noe

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The Take Away

Nov 18, 2013; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Jaron Hopkins (23) and guard Xavier Talton (3) and guard Spencer Dinwiddie (25) and forward Josh Scott (40) and guard/forward Tre

Last season, the Buffaloes had their strengths and their weaknesses. Here are some of the things I noticed.

What the Buffs did well:

  • Rebounding. Rebounding was by far the strongest part of Colorado’s game. During the regular season, the Buffs grabbed an average of 37.9 boards per game. As far as the Pac-12 goes, they barely ranked second behind Arizona in their rebounding average (38.9 rpg). They ranked 50th overall in the country, putting them in the top 14.3% in division one basketball.
  • Drawing Fouls. At the beginning of the season, basketball players all across the country had to adjust to the new fouling rules. The modifications to the rules emphasized that the use of hands or forearms to impede on the ball holder’s progress was no longer allowed. At first, the Buffs (along with nearly every team) found it hard to adjust to the new rules. In their third game of the season against Wyoming, 48 total fouls were committed (19 by Colorado). They quickly learned how to draw a lot of fouls and get sent to the line more than normal.
  • Free Throws. With great fouling comes great responsibility. The year before last, CU’s free throw percentage was terrible. They missed 230 of their 732 free throw attempts (68.6% made), and there were some games where they didn’t make hardly any free throws. This past year, Tad made damn sure that would never happen again. He engineered an exercise in practice to make sure they would never miss a free throw, and it worked. The golden boys improved their FT% to 71.8%. Now, you might be thinking it’s not that much better, but when you consider the fact that they got sent to the line a total of 903 times, it’s pretty impressive. In their home game against Georgia, they set a school record by going 100% from the line (26-26).

    • Zone Defense.

    Although Tad Boyle is a man of habit and generally likes to stick to your typical man-to-man defensive system, the Buffaloes have proved that they can use the zone to their advantage. In their game against No. 6 Kansas back in December, they used it to upset one of the best teams in the country. During the first quarter, the Buffs were trailing pretty far behind Kansas. With about ten minutes left in the first half, Boyle decided to switch over to the zone and it completely threw Kansas off. The Buffs fought back from a nine-point deficit and actually led by halftime, 33-30. And then Askia Booker made a 30-foot shot at the buzzer to upset the Jayhawks and the rest is history.

    Jan 5, 2014; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Jaron Hopkins (23) drives to the net against Oregon Ducks guard Damyean Dotson (21) in the second half at Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes defeated the Ducks 100-91. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

    What the Buffs need to work on:

    • Perimeter shooting. Last season, shooting from the three-point range was easily Colorado’s biggest weakness. In the Pac-12 alone they were tied with Arizona for 10th in three-point field goals made, only making 181 of 569 attempts during the regular season (31.8%). During the regular season, they only made an average of 4.83 treys per game.
    • Perimeter defense. Well damn, it looks like they can’t do anything right around the perimeter. Last season, the Buffs allowed their opponent to take way too many threes during games. Although their opponents technically only made 251 of 706 three-point attempts (35.6%), that’s still 70 treys more than the Buffs made. On top of that, they allowed their opponents to attempt 137 more shots from downtown than they attempted. That’s not cool.
    • Zone defense. While using the zone was one of their greatest strengths last year, their offense against the zone was a huge weakness. The best example I can think of was their home game against Harvard in November. From the start of that game, head coach Tommy Amaker implemented the zone to completely dismantle the Buffs in the first half. The halftime score was 42-30. Coming out in the second half, the Buffs stormed back and outshot the Crimson 40-20 to win 70-62. It was the greatest comeback effort I have ever seen in recent Colorado basketball history. After the game, sophomore guard/forward Xavier Johnson simply said that they Buffs weren’t ready to lose on their home court. “No one wants to lose a game, especially at home,” he said. “Today we had a great support from our fans and everything, and our team just wanted to win it for them and win it for each other.”  When ESPN’s College GameDay came to Boulder in February to cover CU’s home game against Arizona, it happened again. As much as I don’t like to admit it, Sean Miller is a hell of a coach with a great basketball mind. He noticed right away that Colorado struggled against the zone when Harvard utilized that technique earlier in the season and applied it to the GameDay game. And you saw what happened. Arizona completely shut down the Buffs and embarrassed them on their home court in front of the entire country.

    “Nobody wants to lose a game, especially at home.”

    • Assists and turnovers. It’s no secret that the Buffs aren’t that big on assists. As a matter of fact, they were 10th in the Pac-12 for overall assists by the end of the regular season with an average of 11.11 per game. The best example of their struggle with assistance came against Wyoming (seeing the pattern yet?) when the whole team finished the night with a total of four assists. You read that right. Four. It’s a wonder how they even won that game. “If you guys are looking for the definition of the phrase ‘winning ugly,’ I think you saw it tonight,” head coach Tad Boyle said after the game that night. “It wasn’t pretty, wasn’t our best effort, but I was really proud of our guys for finding a way down the stretch to win the game.”  It was even worse for turnovers. Although the turnovers didn’t affect the outcome of their games too much, they still averaged 13.6 s TO’s per game. That’s 245 total throughout the season. When you put those two numbers together, you get an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.82. To put that in perspective, UCLA lead the Pac-12 with the best ratio of 1.60. Yeah. The Buffs need to do some serious soul searching and fix their ball handling skills.

    For what to look forward to next season, go on to page 3.

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