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Game thread- Women's basketball opens season in Greeley against UNC (Friday, 7:00)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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So, the new coaching staff and 2016/17 team begins its season tomorrow night in Greeley against UNC. Last season, the Buffs defeated the Bears 63-41 in Boulder.

Go get um Buffs- Start off STRONG!

cubuffs.com preview article entitled "Buffs Begin New Era This Weekend" - http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2016/11/9/womens-basketball-buffs-begin-new-era-this-weekend.aspx

"
BOULDER - A new era of Colorado basketball begins this weekend as the women's squad opens the 2016-17 season with two games. CU opens the year on the road on Friday at Northern Colorado before returning to Boulder for the home opener on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip against Air Force.

Following Sunday's game against Air Force, there will be a free youth clinic for students in eighth grade and younger. Register your child at CUBuffs.com/WBBclinic.
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UNC game page - http://uncbears.com/gameday/women-s-basketball-vs-colorado/wbball/175/

Link to area where Live video will be provided (looks free?) - http://www.bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx

Live Audio (CU) - http://www.cubuffs.com/watch/?Live=1019

Live Audio (UNC) - http://uncbears.com/watch/?Live=80

Live Stats - http://sidearmstats.com/unco/wbball/
 
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Go Buffs! Hope lots of fans go to watch the game. I am hoping the video link works, but no CU audio?
 
Thanks for getting this started Aztec!
UNC was 13-17 last season and lost to the Buffs in Boulder 63-41.
Lots of questions going into the UNC game:

• Besides Kennedy, Robinson and H Smith, who will start?

• Is Eleanor Jones who looks to have a lot of raw talent, going to get some serious time?

• Will the Buffs push that ball at every opportunity?

• Will there be a reduction in silly turnovers and better defending on the perimeter?

I'm sure that are many more questions as well.

CU returns home on Sunday to face Air Force at 2pm.
 
I think Eleanor Jones has an elbow injury. Wasn't that said on Media Day? Same for Lauren Huggins.

I think we need to remember that some things are the same because of the same players. Many of the players are slow and the bench last year was not deep.

How good are the players we have not seen like Jones, Ariana Freeman, Quinessa Caylao-Do and Monica Burich.

I don't see how the slowness of some of the players can be fixed by coaching. I hope some players are in better shape than in previous years.
 
Spoke with JR about 2 weeks ago at a soccer match and asked about Jones. JR said she was practicing fully for the first time - just needs to work on her conditioning.
 
So...that box score is odd. Three quarters and the total of 53 does not agree with the final score of 83 (although scoring does sum to 53)...
 
dyemeduke said:
So...that box score is odd. Three quarters and the total of 53 does not agree with the final score of 83 (although scoring does sum to 53)...
Click to expand...

You're right. I also was checking live stats occasionally, and I thought they said Robinson had 17 late in the game, and I thought they also had Leonard with at least 9 assists. I'll remove the box score tweet from my earlier post.
 
If the box score is correct, Kennedy had a heck of a game. 26 points, 9 assists, 3 steals and only 1 turnover. A career high in points for her.
I'll reserve judgement on the team until I see them play in person. Hopefully that will be on Sunday afternoon.

upload_2016-11-11_22-28-56.png
 
I watched online. I like the up tempo style. Kennedy had herself one heck of a game.

They run and sometimes they looked scattered. It's the first game so that is to be expected. It appeared every player has the green light to shoot. Liked what I saw from Haley Smith and Alexis Robinson. Monica Burich appears to have a lot of talent. Too bad she was injured last year.

Started off on fire. The Bears got within 10 in the 2nd half. Don't remember which quarter, but the Buffs kept fighting and won by 20.

Nice to see that everybody who was healthy got in the game. We would see games that were finished one way or the other in the past and bench players sat. Not any more. JR said in the pregame interview that everybody would play and they did.

I am glad that Carol Callan is back for another season. I know USA Basketball is moving to Phoenix but I don't know when. Her commentary will be missed when that happens. She commented that the players were not constantly looking at the bench. She said she could hear the coaches yelling things to players from bench, but the players were not always looking to the bench. I don't recall any shot clock violations.

Definitely a new mindset.
 
Lots of questions going into the UNC game:

• Besides Kennedy, Robinson and H Smith, who will start?

• Is Eleanor Jones who looks to have a lot of raw talent, going to get some serious time?

• Will the Buffs push that ball at every opportunity?

• Will there be a reduction in silly turnovers and better defending on the perimeter?

I'm sure that are many more questions as well.

CU returns home on Sunday to face Air Force at 2pm.
Click to expand...

Northern Colorado is fun to watch. #10 Savannah Smith has the best ball handling skill set I've seen in a CO grown player plus elite quickness that can beat defenders even w/o her dangerous crossover. She's very fun to watch and last season you never knew if she would turn it over losing the ball or make the defender look lost. Sometimes both at once! NC likes to shoot threes, struggle to rebound on both ends. The Buffs just plainly had a talent advantage and a significant length advantage.

I expected to see great guard play with Smith, Leonard, and Robinson playing alongside all the capable guards NC will put on the floor at once. What I saw was Kennedy Leonard playing at another level. Kennedy could have had thirty maybe forty points if she wanted, but was doing an incredible job of distributing the ball and creating offense. Just looking at the box score doesn't do justice to her night. Yes she had 9 assists and only 1 turnover, but she was threading the ball through traffic and making and attempting some difficult passes. A friend that is an Air Force veteran was watching their game in Denver and regretted missing the clinic she was putting on. Leonard was just schooling defenders changing speeds lulling the defender, then exploding by. If this is the growth in her game FR to SO I can't imagine the player this young woman will be her senior year. She'll be All-American soon.

Back to the questions:

1. Who knows? There isn't a lot of talent on this roster compared to other Pac-12 teams. However, let's save the conference play for after the non-conference schedule. Let JR figure out what she has, what they can do. She'll put players in a position to succeed.

2. Very disappointed to not get more of a chance to see the British Big. It seemed the game was just a bit too fast for Eleanor, and she seemed a bit lost out there. That being said she didn't grow up in CO playing Gold Crown, or in the States playing AAU or club ball. Obviously, there is a learning curve. I didn't understand why JR didn't let Jones log more minutes in garbage time. I thought it would be the perfect game to get her acclimated to Div-I. Let's be honest, NC has no size or players that can adequately defend length. The Buffs won't see another team all year that essentially just lets bigs have their points like NC typically does. I really wanted to see Zoe and Eleanor discover some dominance against NC, and gain some confidence, but the game just didn't play out like that. JR knows what she's doing, and I'm sure there are reasons.

3. The Buffs didn't really seem to force anything. When they did push it was under control and not reckless. That being said Kennedy with the ball in her hand in transition is nearly undefendable if she has a teammate running as a outlet. Should be fun to watch!

4. The Buffs won't face any teams in the conference schedule that are as slow on the perimeter and as small as NC. There is just a huge difference between the quality of the average Pac-12 player and a Big Sky player. NC was able to consistently get wide open looks on three pointers. They missed plenty, but it didn't bode well for CU. You can't make players faster, but I'm sure JR will focus on fundamentals in terms of positioning and such. Quite honestly NC's guards other than Savannah Smith, aren't really that much quicker than even Haley. CU should have dominated on defense, but we didn't see that, beyond the rebounding. Work in progress? Hopefully against Air Force the Buffs are a little quicker on the perimeter rotations.

Should be exciting. Very encouraged by how JR Payne coaches up the bench players in game, at times turning her back on the in game action. This is a coach in every sense of the word. I've never seen a DI coach do that before. I kind of liked it. I can't imagine what this team will look like for Leonard/Robinson's senior year. Should be exciting.
 
BoCoBBall said:
I expected to see great guard play with Smith, Leonard, and Robinson playing alongside all the capable guards NC will put on the floor at once. What I saw was Kennedy Leonard playing at another level. Kennedy could have had thirty maybe forty points if she wanted, but was doing an incredible job of distributing the ball and creating offense. Just looking at the box score doesn't do justice to her night. Yes she had 9 assists and only 1 turnover, but she was threading the ball through traffic and making and attempting some difficult passes. A friend that is an Air Force veteran was watching their game in Denver and regretted missing the clinic she was putting on. Leonard was just schooling defenders changing speeds lulling the defender, then exploding by. If this is the growth in her game FR to SO I can't imagine the player this young woman will be her senior year. She'll be All-American soon.

Back to the questions:

1. Who knows? There isn't a lot of talent on this roster compared to other Pac-12 teams. However, let's save the conference play for after the non-conference schedule. Let JR figure out what she has, what they can do. She'll put players in a position to succeed.

2. Very disappointed to not get more of a chance to see the British Big. It seemed the game was just a bit too fast for Eleanor, and she seemed a bit lost out there. That being said she didn't grow up in CO playing Gold Crown, or in the States playing AAU or club ball. Obviously, there is a learning curve. I didn't understand why JR didn't let Jones log more minutes in garbage time. I thought it would be the perfect game to get her acclimated to Div-I. Let's be honest, NC has no size or players that can adequately defend length. The Buffs won't see another team all year that essentially just lets bigs have their points like NC typically does. I really wanted to see Zoe and Eleanor discover some dominance against NC, and gain some confidence, but the game just didn't play out like that. JR knows what she's doing, and I'm sure there are reasons.
Click to expand...

I agree that Kennedy should be an All American before she graduates if she stays healthy. Sadly that must always be considered.

No, there isn't a lot of talent for CU aside from the guards. Same as last year, but it's worse without Swan. I fully expect JR to keep working with the team and get the most out of each player.

My guess after seeing Eleanor Jones last night is that she hasn't had to kind of coaching or experience that goes with playing AAU or club basketball. I may be wrong, but after watching the team Kennedy played on last summer and now Jones, I don't think the UK puts out the same kind of talent as the US. Part of that is the lack of AAU and club ball. Kennedy was by far the best player on the UK team this summer.

Remember Eleanor has been injured. I thought she looked a bit lost also. She has had some big changes since August. First with the visa issues, then arriving on campus after classes started. Also the elbow injury. She didn't get to start conditioning with her teammates. Getting caught up on her coursework had to take precedence over basketball when she first arrived on campus. I hope with JR's coaching, we will see her progress over the course of the season.

It was fun to watch the team having fun. The team last year did not look like they were having fun. They were mostly losing and that isn't fun for any competitive athlete. That wasn't why they came to college. I hope the players can finally win. From the write up on Air Force, the Buffs should beat Air Force tomorrow. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Air Force. The players are first cadets and then basketball players.
 
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