Dom Collier

[Bullwinkle]

I keep reading that Dom Collier is the future of Colorado Basketball. I know it's early, but I don't see it. Turnovers and wild shots seem to be the norm and his free throw percentage is horrible. Should we see some improvement or is this just a freshman trying to find his way. Next Chauncey or Spencer?

 

[Buffaloup]

I keep reading that Dom Collier is the future of Colorado Basketball. I know it's early, but I don't see it. Turnovers and wild shots seem to be the norm and his free throw percentage is horrible. Should we see some improvement or is this just a freshman trying to find his way. Next Chauncey or Spencer?

He's a freshman who is struggling right now on a team that is having a disappointing year. I've been encouraged by a few things I have seen, including his shot and ability to get into the paint on a consistent basis and make decent decisions once he finds himself in those spots.

I think we will see a huge improvement over the summer and he will come back stronger and more confident as our starting point guard next year.

 

[BUFFset]

Hurt his wrist, slowed his development. Not as good as we thought he was. Ski and Talton taking his minutes when they shouldn't be

 

[absinthe]

Hurt his wrist, slowed his development. Not as good as we thought he was. Ski and Talton taking his minutes when they shouldn't be

Please explain to me why Ski should not be taking minutes.

 

[stretch]

Let Ski operate as the shooting guard and keep the ball in Dom's hands

 

[MtnBuff]

It's hard to be a freshman at this level of basketball, it's harder when your teammates aren't acting like they are more mature and helping with your adjustment.

Dom has some development to do both physically and in terms of his game, he can't do a lot of the things that he could easily do at the HS level or the AAU level.

Having a group of teammates who aren't playing team ball, aren't stepping up in big moments, aren't turning the good passes they recieve into buckets or doing what they need to do to make themselves available isn't helping him any.

It is still very likely that Dom learns from this season and comes back in the future a much better and more effective player but he isn't a guy right now who can individually dominate games, he needs help and he isn't getting it when he does make the right play.

 

[seattlebuff]

He definitely needs work, but from what I can see, he has the best handles on the team, and a pretty good first step. He's maybe not quite as assertive as I thought he'd be, but he looks far more creative and offensive minded than any of the current sophs looked last year.

 

[Daaah]

He definitely needs work, but from what I can see, he has the best handles on the team, and a pretty good first step. He's maybe not quite as assertive as I thought he'd be, but he looks far more creative and offensive minded than any of the current sophs looked last year.

I'm not sure he has the best handle on the team at all. But I DO think he has the best basketball IQ and that is really important. I've seen him set up plays and I think that is exactly what this team is lacking. We have athletes, but they don't seem to be able to regularly get into positions in which to use their athleticism. Dom can create spacing and seems to understand how to get people the ball where they need it. He needs to cut down on turnovers, but I think that will come. I'm pretty high on Dom while recognizing that as a freshman he's not a dominant player.

 

[BUFFset]

Please explain to me why Ski should not be taking minutes.

When Ski plays out of position at PG, he is taking minutes from Dom. Might as well make the change, this season is lost and the experiment with Ski at PG has failed.

 

[onealcd]

I'm not sure he has the best handle on the team at all. But I DO think he has the best basketball IQ and that is really important. I've seen him set up plays and I think that is exactly what this team is lacking. We have athletes, but they don't seem to be able to regularly get into positions in which to use their athleticism. Dom can create spacing and seems to understand how to get people the ball where they need it. He needs to cut down on turnovers, but I think that will come. I'm pretty high on Dom while recognizing that as a freshman he's not a dominant player.

Him and ski are the only ones I trust bringing the ball up the middle of the court against the press. They seem to be the only ones that can dribble between two players if need be. They can also go fast with the ball and not worry about losing their dribble.

 

[rolandftw]

Dom was always going to take a year, or two, to develop. People with Dinwiddie like expectations were very unrealistic. He will be a very good Buff, and likely for four years.

 

[wyobuff]

He's a freshman. He'll get better. I do wish he'd get a bit more time on the court though - it's done wonders for jhop.

 

[Da Lama]

I love Dom and his game and I truly believe he will be a very good PG for us eventually, but he's had a rough start on a team with a lot of issues both on and off the court. What worries me more is when I hear Tad say "we have to get PG in here. That's what our 2015 scholly is going to be used for." Does that mean he thinks he missed on Dom and what about the JHOP at PG experiment?

 

[Buffaloup]

I love Dom and his game and I truly believe he will be a very good PG for us eventually, but he's had a rough start on a team with a lot of issues both on and off the court. What worries me more is when I hear Tad say "we have to get PG in here. That's what our 2015 scholly is going to be used for." Does that mean he thinks he missed on Dom and what about the JHOP at PG experiment?

Dom needs to be our starting PG next year, this lineup could be nasty

Dom
Hop Fortune
XJ Fletch DT King
Josh Miller
Wes

 

[Quattro]

I keep reading that Dom Collier is the future of Colorado Basketball. I know it's early, but I don't see it. Turnovers and wild shots seem to be the norm and his free throw percentage is horrible. Should we see some improvement or is this just a freshman trying to find his way. Next Chauncey or Spencer?

You need to slow your roll on your conclusions

• Turnovers? He's the youngest guy on the team and has roughly the same TO Rate as the rest of the team sans Ski, Scott, and Wesley
• Wild shots? You mean when he has to take a last second trey because Talton passed up a better look?
• FT%? Sure, but he hardly gets there so it's not that important. He's not a 26% free throw shooter so I'm not concerned about it at this point

He's had two injuries this year and has missed 4 games, that's a ton of missed time for a Freshman, especially when he misses camp and the early part of the year against mostly lesser competition.

 

[MarkW]

If you doubt his raw ability, take a look at tonight's game. Dom was giving a pretty good imitation of Mr. Smooth/Chauncey Billups. He was calm and poised when shooting and several times was able to create a shot for himself.

 

[Buffnik]

Tonight was a confidence builder. The guards are starting to turn a corner this year.

 

[cu3x]

another factor is that he is listed at 6'2", 170 pounds, which is enough in HS, but not for banging and scraping in college. A year in the weight room should do a lot.

 

[absinthe]

He's a freshman. He'll get better. I do wish he'd get a bit more time on the court though - it's done wonders for jhop.

This year I agree, but remember what happened last year when Spencer went down and Jhop's minutes spiked?

 

[MarkW]

Here's a highlight from the game last night that's an example of what I was mentioning in my last post:

http://www.snappytv.com/snaps/dom-c...ngton-state-at-colorado-on-pac-12-mountain_x1

 

[aghcsm]

Thanks, nice clip, if he can do that routinely it will open up other options as well.

 

[Goose]

I love Dom and his game and I truly believe he will be a very good PG for us eventually, but he's had a rough start on a team with a lot of issues both on and off the court. What worries me more is when I hear Tad say "we have to get PG in here. That's what our 2015 scholly is going to be used for." Does that mean he thinks he missed on Dom and what about the JHOP at PG experiment?

Not at all. It means we need some PG depth. In Tad's perfect world (and I agree with him 100% on this), you can never have enough PG's. Even if Dom or JHop start at PG next year, we still need some depth behind them. Ideally, you have 2-3 ballhandlers on the floor at a time. We don't have that right now. 3 years ago we had Nate and Spencer (and even Carlon and Ski to an extent). That's what we need to get back to.