The focus is rightly on the current season as the Buffs make a late push to win the Pac-12 and try to go deep in the Tourney.
But I can't help but look at next year and appreciate what Tad is building plus how he built it.
When he took over, he inherited a team that was set up by Bzdelik to be the breakout year in his program build. With seniors Levi Knutson, Cory Higgins and Marcus Relphorde along with juniors Austin Dufault and Nate Tomlinson, that team was experienced, had been through a lot, and had super soph Alec Burks returning for 1 more year before going pro. Coach Abatemarco had identified Andre Roberson as the top freshman recruit to be a rebounder and energy guy to give the team a big piece of what it was missing.
That team ended up winning 24 games under Boyle and getting robbed of an NCAA tourney bid.
During that season, we saw a very talented offensive team start buying into the defensive system by year's end and the Buffs becoming a team that could actually win a game on the road. An identity as a team that peaked at tourney time also started to be built with 2 wins in the Big 12 tournament and a run to the NIT Final Four.
Clearly, Tad inherited a quality roster. But it was a roster recruited in the upper classes to run a Princeton style offense and zone defense. Tad got that group to play purely man defense while pushing the pace on offense with a half court scheme that relied on a player being able to beat a defender to create his own shot or dish if beating his guy forced help & rotation from the defense. He made it work. Some guys never quite fit the defensive style and others didn't like the new offense, but others shined like they never would have in the old schemes.
What really showed that Tad knew what he was doing was with his off-season moves, though. Knowing how much scoring punch and leadership he'd be losing after his first year and how dependent his offense is on guys who can break down a defender, he brought in Carlon Brown as a transfer. Carlon gave Burks & Higgins an all-conference level talent to match up against in practice every day as he sat out a year. He also gave Tad the senior winner and scorer he needed to avoid the rebuilding year in 2012-13 that everyone expected.
Further, the first full recruiting class Tad brought in saw the arrival of Spencer Dinwiddie, Askia Booker and Damiene Cain (health issues struck us here). Not only was this a new level of talent for a CU class, but it sent a message to our new conference that CU was going to recruit California and get frontline talent. All 3 signees were rated as Top 25 players in CA. Beyond that, Tad also brought in Jeremy Adams to fill the Alec/Carlon role of a physically imposing scorer off the wing. Health issues have sidelined that plan, but the plan was clear.
Tad's ideal lineup is to have 2 interchangeable combo guards at the "1" and "2" with one guy filling the role of primary ball handler. He wants a "3" who is more of an oversized combo guard than a true SF. Then, he wants his "4" to be a combo forward who can rebound and play both inside and out. At the "5", he looks for someone who can play with his back to the basket and give a post presence to run offensive sets through. Defensively, this plays into his style of tight man coverage where a lot of switches can happen during possessions on the perimeter. With the lineup Tad plays, those switches rarely result in a player being in a really bad spot against whomever he ends up guarding.
That 2012-13 season? After being picked in preseason polls to finish 10th or 11th in the Pac-12, the Buffs again won 24 games. Finishing with a winning conference record, winning the Pac-12 tourney title, and advancing in the NCAA tourney with a win over UNLV. One hell of a rebuilding year.
Which brings us to 2013-14. All those players mentioned from Bzdelik along with Carlon Brown were now gone. Our lone senior was a high energy glue guy, Sabatino Chen, that Boyle convinced to transfer from DU. Our juniors were the ultimate college glue guy, Andre Roberson, along with Shane Harris-Tunks (a big with injury problems and limited offensive game), the aforementioned Jeremy Adams (saddled with health issues) and Ben Mills (a 7-footer Tad took a risk on in the Andre Roberson class to address the size & rebounding problems CU had under Bzdelik).
Going into the year, we were looking at almost all of the offense needing to be generated by underclassmen. Dre would score in double digits and Chen would have his nights, but both are the types who find points rather than being the type of guy you build an offense around. Dinwiddie was moving into the role of primary ball handler and team quarterback as a true sophomore, putting a lot more responsibility on his shoulders. Booker was moving from being a 6th man energizer bunny who could provide scoring punch some nights to the role of primary shooter & scorer. Were they all ready to step up their games and leadership?
To go with this squad, Tad signed a Top 25 recruiting class. It started with Josh Scott and Wes Gordon, the top rated players in Colorado who were both national recruits at the PF spot. Scott was the more polished on offense and was immediately penciled in as a starter. Gordon was a redshirt so the classes would balance better and he could develop while Shane Harris-Tunks filled the role of 10 minutes of bench relief. Tad further showed his commitment to in-state recruiting by signing Xavier Talton, an athletic guard with all the tools to develop his game. Two more signees continued the Buffs strong move into California when Tad landed Xavier Johnson and Eli Stalzer from the state's top program, Mater Dei. XJ was a Top 100 national recruit who fills the Dre role of a combo "4" and Eli was an overlooked prospect who was the glue guy on his superstar high school team and projected as a 4-year backup guard for the Buffs -- think Sabatino Chen with a better shot and PG skills, but without Chen's ability to guard the frontcourt. Finishing the class was Chris Jenkins, a pure shooter from Detroit who at 6'7" played and guarded all 5 positions in high school. Jenkins redshirted to put on some weight, acclimate to the physicality of the college game, and balance the classes.
With so much responsibility on such young players, there were huge question marks heading into this year. Buffs were picked 6th in the conference in preseason polls... mostly out of respect for what was accomplished the year before and for Tad Boyle. And so far they've exceeded even the inflated expectations. Winning the Charleston Classic in the early non-conference, enjoying a winning conference record after 11 games despite 7 of them being on the road with a young team, and having a Top 20 RPI. This year's Buffs look tourney-bound, have an outside shot at going on a run to win the Pac-12 regular season title, and have to be considered a big threat to win the Pac-12 tourney in March.
So what does this mean for 2013-14 and into the future?
Next year, Spencer and Ski become a veteran backcourt tandem that has played a ton of minutes together. They will have also had a year of having to handle the pressure of the ball being in their hands at crunch time. Dre may or may not return to re-write the CU record books but he would enter his senior year as the program's all-time leading rebounder, #2 steal artist, #2 or #3 shot blocker, and a 1,000 point scorer on pace to be Top 10-15 all-time. If he comes back, it's obviously huge. Definitely returning is Xavier Johnson, a similar player to Dre who is more of an offensive weapon/creator and banger who brings + rebounding, defense, intensity and hustle. He's just not Dre on those + categories, but neither is anyone else playing college basketball. Josh Scott, one of the most polished post scorers in the conference during his freshman year, returns to anchor the interior of the offense and provide skilled shot blocking and + rebounding. Beyond that, Eli and Talton mature as sophomores, Chris Jenkins adds a pure shooter to open the court along with the length to disrupt passing lanes, and Wes Gordon adds a shot blocker, mid-range shooter, good rebounder and + passer to the frontcourt.
The recruiting class? From AZ (where Tad is adding a recruiting pipeline) we add that state's #1 prospect and a Top 100 overall, Jaron Hopkins, whose game should remind Buff fans of Carlon Brown. From WA we add another explosive wing who brings shooting range in Tre Fletcher. And we get back into TX with Dustin Thomas, a Top 10 TX prospect whose game is pretty much an Austin Dufault who can break you down off the dribble.
The 2013-14 team is shaping up as a group that I'd pay admission to see practice against each other. It could even get better if Jeremy Adams gets healthy or there's another upperclass addition to the frontcourt after some shakeup.
The future? One of the things about Tad is that he's a long-term thinker who is building a program. He was actually thinking about 2014 recruiting, the 2014 roster and how it sets up in 2015 when he recruited the current crop of 2012 freshmen. Talton and Stalzer aren't the types to be forced out of the program if Tad is able to sign Dom Collier and Josh Perkins next year (both Top 100 - maybe Top 40 - national prospects from CO). They'll also be junior veterans who will allow Tad to bring these young superstars along slowly if he needs to. Guys like Gordon and Jenkins project as all-conference types down the road in 2016 instead of using them as 4-8 minute a night guys if they'd played this year.
This program is performing now at the top of the conference, but the fact is that this program is being built for the future. 2013-14 looks like a season with the Sweet 16 as the reasonable expectation that should be achieved. And beyond that Tad has built this so that the 2013-14 season we're looking toward becomes the CU norm rather than a peak.
Thank you, Tad.
CU Basketball is arriving and it's easy to see the Buffalo stampede that is coming.
:gobuffs:
But I can't help but look at next year and appreciate what Tad is building plus how he built it.
When he took over, he inherited a team that was set up by Bzdelik to be the breakout year in his program build. With seniors Levi Knutson, Cory Higgins and Marcus Relphorde along with juniors Austin Dufault and Nate Tomlinson, that team was experienced, had been through a lot, and had super soph Alec Burks returning for 1 more year before going pro. Coach Abatemarco had identified Andre Roberson as the top freshman recruit to be a rebounder and energy guy to give the team a big piece of what it was missing.
That team ended up winning 24 games under Boyle and getting robbed of an NCAA tourney bid.
During that season, we saw a very talented offensive team start buying into the defensive system by year's end and the Buffs becoming a team that could actually win a game on the road. An identity as a team that peaked at tourney time also started to be built with 2 wins in the Big 12 tournament and a run to the NIT Final Four.
Clearly, Tad inherited a quality roster. But it was a roster recruited in the upper classes to run a Princeton style offense and zone defense. Tad got that group to play purely man defense while pushing the pace on offense with a half court scheme that relied on a player being able to beat a defender to create his own shot or dish if beating his guy forced help & rotation from the defense. He made it work. Some guys never quite fit the defensive style and others didn't like the new offense, but others shined like they never would have in the old schemes.
What really showed that Tad knew what he was doing was with his off-season moves, though. Knowing how much scoring punch and leadership he'd be losing after his first year and how dependent his offense is on guys who can break down a defender, he brought in Carlon Brown as a transfer. Carlon gave Burks & Higgins an all-conference level talent to match up against in practice every day as he sat out a year. He also gave Tad the senior winner and scorer he needed to avoid the rebuilding year in 2012-13 that everyone expected.
Further, the first full recruiting class Tad brought in saw the arrival of Spencer Dinwiddie, Askia Booker and Damiene Cain (health issues struck us here). Not only was this a new level of talent for a CU class, but it sent a message to our new conference that CU was going to recruit California and get frontline talent. All 3 signees were rated as Top 25 players in CA. Beyond that, Tad also brought in Jeremy Adams to fill the Alec/Carlon role of a physically imposing scorer off the wing. Health issues have sidelined that plan, but the plan was clear.
Tad's ideal lineup is to have 2 interchangeable combo guards at the "1" and "2" with one guy filling the role of primary ball handler. He wants a "3" who is more of an oversized combo guard than a true SF. Then, he wants his "4" to be a combo forward who can rebound and play both inside and out. At the "5", he looks for someone who can play with his back to the basket and give a post presence to run offensive sets through. Defensively, this plays into his style of tight man coverage where a lot of switches can happen during possessions on the perimeter. With the lineup Tad plays, those switches rarely result in a player being in a really bad spot against whomever he ends up guarding.
That 2012-13 season? After being picked in preseason polls to finish 10th or 11th in the Pac-12, the Buffs again won 24 games. Finishing with a winning conference record, winning the Pac-12 tourney title, and advancing in the NCAA tourney with a win over UNLV. One hell of a rebuilding year.
Which brings us to 2013-14. All those players mentioned from Bzdelik along with Carlon Brown were now gone. Our lone senior was a high energy glue guy, Sabatino Chen, that Boyle convinced to transfer from DU. Our juniors were the ultimate college glue guy, Andre Roberson, along with Shane Harris-Tunks (a big with injury problems and limited offensive game), the aforementioned Jeremy Adams (saddled with health issues) and Ben Mills (a 7-footer Tad took a risk on in the Andre Roberson class to address the size & rebounding problems CU had under Bzdelik).
Going into the year, we were looking at almost all of the offense needing to be generated by underclassmen. Dre would score in double digits and Chen would have his nights, but both are the types who find points rather than being the type of guy you build an offense around. Dinwiddie was moving into the role of primary ball handler and team quarterback as a true sophomore, putting a lot more responsibility on his shoulders. Booker was moving from being a 6th man energizer bunny who could provide scoring punch some nights to the role of primary shooter & scorer. Were they all ready to step up their games and leadership?
To go with this squad, Tad signed a Top 25 recruiting class. It started with Josh Scott and Wes Gordon, the top rated players in Colorado who were both national recruits at the PF spot. Scott was the more polished on offense and was immediately penciled in as a starter. Gordon was a redshirt so the classes would balance better and he could develop while Shane Harris-Tunks filled the role of 10 minutes of bench relief. Tad further showed his commitment to in-state recruiting by signing Xavier Talton, an athletic guard with all the tools to develop his game. Two more signees continued the Buffs strong move into California when Tad landed Xavier Johnson and Eli Stalzer from the state's top program, Mater Dei. XJ was a Top 100 national recruit who fills the Dre role of a combo "4" and Eli was an overlooked prospect who was the glue guy on his superstar high school team and projected as a 4-year backup guard for the Buffs -- think Sabatino Chen with a better shot and PG skills, but without Chen's ability to guard the frontcourt. Finishing the class was Chris Jenkins, a pure shooter from Detroit who at 6'7" played and guarded all 5 positions in high school. Jenkins redshirted to put on some weight, acclimate to the physicality of the college game, and balance the classes.
With so much responsibility on such young players, there were huge question marks heading into this year. Buffs were picked 6th in the conference in preseason polls... mostly out of respect for what was accomplished the year before and for Tad Boyle. And so far they've exceeded even the inflated expectations. Winning the Charleston Classic in the early non-conference, enjoying a winning conference record after 11 games despite 7 of them being on the road with a young team, and having a Top 20 RPI. This year's Buffs look tourney-bound, have an outside shot at going on a run to win the Pac-12 regular season title, and have to be considered a big threat to win the Pac-12 tourney in March.
So what does this mean for 2013-14 and into the future?
Next year, Spencer and Ski become a veteran backcourt tandem that has played a ton of minutes together. They will have also had a year of having to handle the pressure of the ball being in their hands at crunch time. Dre may or may not return to re-write the CU record books but he would enter his senior year as the program's all-time leading rebounder, #2 steal artist, #2 or #3 shot blocker, and a 1,000 point scorer on pace to be Top 10-15 all-time. If he comes back, it's obviously huge. Definitely returning is Xavier Johnson, a similar player to Dre who is more of an offensive weapon/creator and banger who brings + rebounding, defense, intensity and hustle. He's just not Dre on those + categories, but neither is anyone else playing college basketball. Josh Scott, one of the most polished post scorers in the conference during his freshman year, returns to anchor the interior of the offense and provide skilled shot blocking and + rebounding. Beyond that, Eli and Talton mature as sophomores, Chris Jenkins adds a pure shooter to open the court along with the length to disrupt passing lanes, and Wes Gordon adds a shot blocker, mid-range shooter, good rebounder and + passer to the frontcourt.
The recruiting class? From AZ (where Tad is adding a recruiting pipeline) we add that state's #1 prospect and a Top 100 overall, Jaron Hopkins, whose game should remind Buff fans of Carlon Brown. From WA we add another explosive wing who brings shooting range in Tre Fletcher. And we get back into TX with Dustin Thomas, a Top 10 TX prospect whose game is pretty much an Austin Dufault who can break you down off the dribble.
The 2013-14 team is shaping up as a group that I'd pay admission to see practice against each other. It could even get better if Jeremy Adams gets healthy or there's another upperclass addition to the frontcourt after some shakeup.
The future? One of the things about Tad is that he's a long-term thinker who is building a program. He was actually thinking about 2014 recruiting, the 2014 roster and how it sets up in 2015 when he recruited the current crop of 2012 freshmen. Talton and Stalzer aren't the types to be forced out of the program if Tad is able to sign Dom Collier and Josh Perkins next year (both Top 100 - maybe Top 40 - national prospects from CO). They'll also be junior veterans who will allow Tad to bring these young superstars along slowly if he needs to. Guys like Gordon and Jenkins project as all-conference types down the road in 2016 instead of using them as 4-8 minute a night guys if they'd played this year.
This program is performing now at the top of the conference, but the fact is that this program is being built for the future. 2013-14 looks like a season with the Sweet 16 as the reasonable expectation that should be achieved. And beyond that Tad has built this so that the 2013-14 season we're looking toward becomes the CU norm rather than a peak.
Thank you, Tad.
CU Basketball is arriving and it's easy to see the Buffalo stampede that is coming.
:gobuffs:
