LAST WEEK
MEN
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
WOMEN
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
Well, that was fun.
The Buffs went in to last week as the #156 team in the nation according to KenPom.com's rankings. Thanks to the healing power of a warm-up game against New Orleans (who, like YungCoach said, would probably lose to Ft. Lewis by double digits) and the PAC-12's basketball punching bag, the team is feeling better, the fans are feeling better and we are now ranked 127th in the nation. And that's despite the fact that the UNO game doesn't count in the KenPom rankings. I think the thing I'm most excited about after the last week was the defensive effort. I know that Utah and New Orleans both couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with no one guarding them, but the effort was there from the Buffs. This is something that Boyle & Co. have been preaching for a while, so it's nice to see the players rewarded.
The second thing I'm thrilled about from the past week? The atmosphere. The crowd was amazing - especially the student section. I know we have quite a few students on here, and it's been mentioned in the other thread, but you guys did an amazing job during the Utah game. I'm also going to throw the band in here too as they were great. Heard some of the old chants that I hadn't heard much this season, which was nice. I'm hoping that this continues through conference play, but am a little scared that it's only because we had the "Alumni Band" for Utah (and BTW, that was some nice spinning out there from both Rumblin' and Golden Buff during the Supa Dupa Tuba Cheer. Everyone rep them).
I'm trying to temper expectations because we just played two of the worst teams in the nation, and we did what we were supposed to, but it was nice to see things start to click. That said, my Dinwiddie crush has reached full on infatuation levels. The Mayor is the Man. I actually thought during the Utah game that we may not get a full four years from him as he may be headed to the NBA. Everyone's talking about Dre being our next NBA player, but The Mayor might beat him to the punch.
As for the women, they continue to impress as they went on a 14-0 run to close the game out at Utah and improve their record to 12-0. Seabrook lead the way with 17 & 7. I wasn't able to watch the game, but Buffgal pointed out in the game thread that Jeffry had a rough game, but picked it up when she needed to at the end. All you need to know is that the Buffs, who were picked twelfth in the pre-season poll of the PAC-12, went in to Salt Lake City and beat the team that was picked 6th. They're now getting votes in the top 25 poll and with a good week could find themselves ranked very soon.
THIS WEEK
The next two weeks should tell us everything we need to know about both the men's & women's teams. The men's team will get Washington at home on Thursday night and PAC-12 player of the week Tony Wroten, Jr. will be leading the Huskies. Wroten is fifth in the nation for percentage of possessions used, so the ball will be in his hands a lot. He gets to the line quite a bit and is leading the team with 16.8 ppg while dishing out 3.4 apg. That said, his assist to turnover ratio is 0.8, so hopefully the Buffs can pressure him and we can get him rattled early. CJ Wilcox is another player to keep your eyes on for the Huskies. He's averaging 15.3 ppg, doesn't turn the ball over a lot and is pretty efficient on offense (73rd in the nation). Just ask our Canadian Duck friend about Wilcox who went 6-of-8 from 3 against the Ducks in their last game. The Huskies are a good shooting team who can rebound well. It's going to take one hell of an effort for the Buffs to pull off the victory.
As for Wazzou, they're a tough team to read. They're a middle of the pack team to be brutally honest. They've only played 3 away games (not counting the 3 "neutral court" games they played for the 76 Classic in which they went 0-3), and they're 2-1 with all of the games going as expected (beating Idaho & Portland and losing to Gonzaga). They did beat Oregon State this weekend, but it's hard to accurately judge that one considering no one really knows how good Oregon State is either. Faisal Aden, their senior guard, is the player to watch. He has the ball, a lot, and when he does have it there's a good chance he's shooting it. Want proof? He's a volume scorer, so it'll be interesting to see how the Buffs handle him. Do they let him shoot and focus on making sure no one else does anything or do they try to stop him?
As for the women's team, they go on the road this week. Washington State is only 8-6, but they're ranked 42nd in RPI. The Huskies are 8-4 and 122nd in RPI. The Buffs are ranked 90th, so I don't think a split is unreasonable. Winning both games would be huge though. You have to imagine that a 14-0 Buffs team would be ranked heading into their biggest week of the season -- hosting Cal (#53 RPI) and Stanford (#4 in the polls and RPI).
SEASON NUMBERS TO FOLLOW
MEN
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
| 92 | University of New Orleans Privateers | 34 |
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
|
| 73 | 
| 33 |
WOMEN
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
|
| 58 |
| 52 |
Well, that was fun.
The Buffs went in to last week as the #156 team in the nation according to KenPom.com's rankings. Thanks to the healing power of a warm-up game against New Orleans (who, like YungCoach said, would probably lose to Ft. Lewis by double digits) and the PAC-12's basketball punching bag, the team is feeling better, the fans are feeling better and we are now ranked 127th in the nation. And that's despite the fact that the UNO game doesn't count in the KenPom rankings. I think the thing I'm most excited about after the last week was the defensive effort. I know that Utah and New Orleans both couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with no one guarding them, but the effort was there from the Buffs. This is something that Boyle & Co. have been preaching for a while, so it's nice to see the players rewarded.
The second thing I'm thrilled about from the past week? The atmosphere. The crowd was amazing - especially the student section. I know we have quite a few students on here, and it's been mentioned in the other thread, but you guys did an amazing job during the Utah game. I'm also going to throw the band in here too as they were great. Heard some of the old chants that I hadn't heard much this season, which was nice. I'm hoping that this continues through conference play, but am a little scared that it's only because we had the "Alumni Band" for Utah (and BTW, that was some nice spinning out there from both Rumblin' and Golden Buff during the Supa Dupa Tuba Cheer. Everyone rep them).
I'm trying to temper expectations because we just played two of the worst teams in the nation, and we did what we were supposed to, but it was nice to see things start to click. That said, my Dinwiddie crush has reached full on infatuation levels. The Mayor is the Man. I actually thought during the Utah game that we may not get a full four years from him as he may be headed to the NBA. Everyone's talking about Dre being our next NBA player, but The Mayor might beat him to the punch.
As for the women, they continue to impress as they went on a 14-0 run to close the game out at Utah and improve their record to 12-0. Seabrook lead the way with 17 & 7. I wasn't able to watch the game, but Buffgal pointed out in the game thread that Jeffry had a rough game, but picked it up when she needed to at the end. All you need to know is that the Buffs, who were picked twelfth in the pre-season poll of the PAC-12, went in to Salt Lake City and beat the team that was picked 6th. They're now getting votes in the top 25 poll and with a good week could find themselves ranked very soon.
THIS WEEK
|
| Men: Thursday, January 5th 7:00 PM ROOT Rocky Mountain Coors Event Center Boulder, CO | Women: Thursday, January 5th 8:00 PM No TV Hec Edmundson Pavilion Seattle, WA |
|
| Men: Saturday, January 7th 2:00 PM Fox Sports Net Coors Event Center Boulder, CO | Women: Saturday, January 7th 2:00 PM No TV Beasley Coliseum Pullman, WA |
The next two weeks should tell us everything we need to know about both the men's & women's teams. The men's team will get Washington at home on Thursday night and PAC-12 player of the week Tony Wroten, Jr. will be leading the Huskies. Wroten is fifth in the nation for percentage of possessions used, so the ball will be in his hands a lot. He gets to the line quite a bit and is leading the team with 16.8 ppg while dishing out 3.4 apg. That said, his assist to turnover ratio is 0.8, so hopefully the Buffs can pressure him and we can get him rattled early. CJ Wilcox is another player to keep your eyes on for the Huskies. He's averaging 15.3 ppg, doesn't turn the ball over a lot and is pretty efficient on offense (73rd in the nation). Just ask our Canadian Duck friend about Wilcox who went 6-of-8 from 3 against the Ducks in their last game. The Huskies are a good shooting team who can rebound well. It's going to take one hell of an effort for the Buffs to pull off the victory.
As for Wazzou, they're a tough team to read. They're a middle of the pack team to be brutally honest. They've only played 3 away games (not counting the 3 "neutral court" games they played for the 76 Classic in which they went 0-3), and they're 2-1 with all of the games going as expected (beating Idaho & Portland and losing to Gonzaga). They did beat Oregon State this weekend, but it's hard to accurately judge that one considering no one really knows how good Oregon State is either. Faisal Aden, their senior guard, is the player to watch. He has the ball, a lot, and when he does have it there's a good chance he's shooting it. Want proof? He's a volume scorer, so it'll be interesting to see how the Buffs handle him. Do they let him shoot and focus on making sure no one else does anything or do they try to stop him?
As for the women's team, they go on the road this week. Washington State is only 8-6, but they're ranked 42nd in RPI. The Huskies are 8-4 and 122nd in RPI. The Buffs are ranked 90th, so I don't think a split is unreasonable. Winning both games would be huge though. You have to imagine that a 14-0 Buffs team would be ranked heading into their biggest week of the season -- hosting Cal (#53 RPI) and Stanford (#4 in the polls and RPI).
| Colorado Offense | Colorado Defense | Washington Offense | Washington Defense | D1 Average | |
| eFG% | 51.4% | 47.1% | 53.0% | 47.1% | 48.7% |
| Turnover % | 21.0% | 18.4% | 19.3% | 19.1% | 21.0% |
| Off. Reb % | 33.8% | 29.6% | 37.2% | 31.8% | 32.6% |
| FTA/FGA | 47.5 | 30.8 | 33.5 | 37.9 | 36.6 |
| Colorado Offense | Colorado Defense | Wash St. Offense | Wash St. Defense | D1 Average | |
| eFG% | 51.4% | 47.1% | 54.5% | 47.5% | 48.7% |
| Turnover % | 21.0% | 18.4% | 21.6% | 20.4% | 21.0% |
| Off. Reb % | 33.8% | 29.6% | 32.1% | 31.7% | 32.6% |
| FTA/FGA | 47.5 | 30.8 | 42.8 | 33.9 | 36.6 |
SEASON NUMBERS TO FOLLOW
| Offensive Efficiency | Defensive Efficiency | Pace | |
| Colorado | 103.5 | 99.0 | 66.0 |
| D1 Average | 100.1 | 100.1 | 67.2 |
