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ESPN's Season Preview Ranks CU 2nd

wyobuff

Well-Known Member
2. Colorado Buffaloes
Tad Boyle has done one of the best coaching jobs in the nation over the past three seasons. He took the Buffaloes to an NIT Final Four and back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. In doing so, he has really raised the level of expectations in Boulder and this season the Buffaloes are one of the favorites to win the conference. Despite losing the nation's second-leading rebounder to the NBA draft in Andre Roberson, Colorado's roster could be as deep as it has ever been. The team will be led by 6-6 point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who is an excellent passer, can score when needed and is the team's best defender. His backcourt mate is Askia Booker, a pure scorer. If he can be more selective in his shot attempts, Booker will become a much more effective player.Xavier Johnson had a tremendous freshman season -- especially once he was inserted into the starting lineup -- and is expected to have a much bigger role on this team. He has the capability of leading the Buffaloes in scoring and rebounding. Sophomore center Josh Scottis arguably the best back-to-the-basket player in the league, as he is ambidextrous when he gets the ball on the block. With added strength, he will become more of a threat down low.


Boyle had the luxury of redshirting two guys in Wesley Gordon and Chris Jenkins last season. Both should now be the benefactors of Roberson's departure, considering they are expected to see more significant minutes in 2013-14. Incoming recruits Tre'Shaun Fletcherand Dustin Thomas are both talented enough to contribute as freshmen.
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Emphasis mine on booker - totally agree with this. The guy seems to really step it up in big games (I think he's been the leading scorer in all 3 tourney games in the last 2 years), but for some reason just cant always get it done on the road.

Edit: Forgot link http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-col...atop-pac-12-power-rankings-college-basketball
 
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Without seeing the insider stuff, you can see what they have about Arizona (who is ranked 1st). I find it interesting that we are that well regarded in the rankings but there is almost no mention of the Buffs in shootaround. They get mentioned in the lists where all of the teams are mentioned but not in the other discussion areas. I think that's a good sign since it doesn't sound like they have a lot of questions around the team for the year (just high expectations).
 
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wyobuff said:
Emphasis mine on booker - totally agree with this. The guy seems to really step it up in big games (I think he's been the leading scorer in all 3 tourney games in the last 2 years), but for some reason just cant always get it done on the road.

Edit: Forgot link http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-col...atop-pac-12-power-rankings-college-basketball
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I think it's important to note that Miles Simon wrote this preview. He saw/was announcing in Charleston last year where Booker lit it up, Simon has been high on him sense.
 
Road games are the key if you want to win a conference. There's plenty of decent teams that win the vast majority at home but can't win on the road. You want to give yourself a great shot to win the Pac, you go 6-3 on the road.
 
CVilleBuff said:
Road games are the key if you want to win a conference. There's plenty of decent teams that win the vast majority at home but can't win on the road. You want to give yourself a great shot to win the Pac, you go 6-3 on the road.
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I agree, although think CU did all right on the road. Had 4 wins, and should have had 5. The two home losses are more of a disappoint to me, then our road performance. Hold serve at home, play around .500 on the road, and CU would have a great chance to win the conference.
 
rolandftw said:
I agree, although think CU did all right on the road. Had 4 wins, and should have had 5. The two home losses are more of a disappoint to me, then our road performance. Hold serve at home, play around .500 on the road, and CU would have a great chance to win the conference.
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We did well given our situation last year, improved from 3-6 the previous year to 4-5 last year (5-4 in reality of course), but there's a ton of room for improvement. Those Utah, Washington and Arizona State games still make me shudder. Add in that OOC abomination at Wyoming, and we've got a ways to go to be playing with poise on the road and consistently winning. I don't care how we win on the road, just win, but christ we made it ugly last year.

It's hard for me to ever expect us to go undefeated in conference play at home. It should be a goal and it can happen, but it's often the nature of the beast of a 35 game basketball season where you have one of those nights where you are just off and drop one. The killer last year was dropping that 2nd home loss to ASU.

That early game at Colorado State will be very telling to see how this team will be able to handle the road games this year once conference play comes around.
 
I have to contain my excitement for this season, but man could it be special. Possibly even historic for our university.
 
CVilleBuff said:
We did well given our situation last year, improved from 3-6 the previous year to 4-5 last year (5-4 in reality of course), but there's a ton of room for improvement. Those Utah, Washington and Arizona State games still make me shudder. Add in that OOC abomination at Wyoming, and we've got a ways to go to be playing with poise on the road and consistently winning. I don't care how we win on the road, just win, but christ we made it ugly last year.

It's hard for me to ever expect us to go undefeated in conference play at home. It should be a goal and it can happen, but it's often the nature of the beast of a 35 game basketball season where you have one of those nights where you are just off and drop one. The killer last year was dropping that 2nd home loss to ASU.

That early game at Colorado State will be very telling to see how this team will be able to handle the road games this year once conference play comes around.
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I agree that our road play has huge room for improvement. A 6-3 road record and a more fluid offense, would certainly be a step towards CU contending for a regular season conference title. At the same time, the teams that usually win conferences, rarely lose at home. Of the 9 best conferences, 10/12 teams that won at least a share of a conference title, finished with 0 or 1 home conference loss. Running the table is probably unrealistic, but losing at home should be very rare for CU. All 3 of our home losses last year were the 2nd game of a home stand.

To me, that screams of a team that was immature and overconfident. Hopefully this year, that is not the case, as an 8-1 or 9-0 home record in conference would really go a long way for CU taking the next step from "bubble team" to "top 25 team."
 
I think 6-3 on the road is absolutely possible. Maybe even 7-2. This is a really good team. Not many holes.
 
sackman said:
I think 6-3 on the road is absolutely possible. Maybe even 7-2. This is a really good team. Not many holes.
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Let's not forget how difficult it is to win on the road. Road teams win conference games 38% of the time. Tad has a 41.17% record on the road at CU in conference games. UCLA won the regular season last year and went 6-3 on the road. Cal, Oregon and Arizona all went 5-4. National Champion Louisville also went 6-3 on the road in conference games.

If you look at our road conference schedule there are only 3 games that I would say CU "should win", they are the Wazzu, USC and Utah, everything else is a toss up. And it's usually a given that you drop at least 1 of the games that you "should win" (Utah last year).

Jan. 8-12 at Washington
at Washington State

Jan. 22-26 at Arizona,
at Arizona State

Feb. 12-17 at USC,
at UCLA

Feb. 26-Mar. 2 at Utah

Mar. 4-8 at California
at Stanford

If they go .500 I'll be more than happy.
 
jgisland said:
Let's not forget how difficult it is to win on the road. Road teams win conference games 38% of the time. Tad has a 41.17% record on the road at CU in conference games. UCLA won the regular season last year and went 6-3 on the road. Cal, Oregon and Arizona all went 5-4. National Champion Louisville also went 6-3 on the road in conference games.

If you look at our road conference schedule there are only 3 games that I would say CU "should win", they are the Wazzu, USC and Utah, everything else is a toss up. And it's usually a given that you drop at least 1 of the games that you "should win" (Utah last year).

Jan. 8-12 at Washington
at Washington State

Jan. 22-26 at Arizona,
at Arizona State

Feb. 12-17 at USC,
at UCLA

Feb. 26-Mar. 2 at Utah

Mar. 4-8 at California
at Stanford

If they go .500 I'll be more than happy.
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Road in college basketball is nasty. I'm just stating to realistically win the conference, 6-3 on the road is probably what it takes unless you take the undefeated at home and 5-4 on the road route. I would be ecstatic with 6-3, but I do not expect it. 5-4, however, I do expect given where we stand this year.
 
I agree that the road is a tough place to play, but I think we can do pretty well there this year. They showed some true stones on the OR road trip in 2012/2013, unlike the year before where they let an opening round bye in the p12 tourney dribble down their legs because they lost 3 of the last 4.
i'm hoping for 5-4 or 6-3 this year, and would be happy with anything better than that.
 
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