WBB: CU vs Arizona State

[BeBe]

Coors Event Center, Friday 1/18/13 at 7 PM. Come out and support your #21/#25 ranked CU Buffs as they take on the ASU Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils are coming off a winning weekend over Oregon and Oregon State and are currently 10-6 overall, 2-2 in the Pac-12. Our Buffs are fresh off of a home-and-home sweep against Utah, stand at 13-2 overall and are also 2-2 in conference play.
Your support will help the team and will be greatly appreciated. This game should be a Buffs win but ASU wants to knock off the ranked team on the road.

 

[absinthe]

come on Buffs!

 

[MarkW]

The Arizona games this weekend here in Boulder are huge for the Buffs as they are followed by road trips to California that will see them playing the other three ranked teams in the conference. They must get themselves to 4-2 before heading to the Bay Area.

CU, on paper is the better team than both of this weekends opponents, but they aren't good enough to win without concerted effort. And your support.

If you missed the last Utah game on TV you should know that they played solid defense, rebounded very well and got points from 9 of the 11 players that got on the floor, including 26 bench points. It seemed to me that they started to gain a bit of the confidence that they had in December, but they lost in the first ten minutes of the Stanford game.

IMHO this team is ahead of what I expected at this point. Prior to the season I figured they had a shot at the NCAA tourney, but it would take improvement in a lot of areas - turnovers, consistency in scoring, scoring in the paint were the big ones. For the most part they have really improved in all these areas. Ironically, the one area where they seem to have taken a step back is in three point shooting.

Bottom line here is there is no give-up in this team and they play solid defense. Get to the CEC on Friday night to support them.

BTW, nice article on Jen Reese and her return from injury:

http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=205990661

 

[Buffnik]

Couldn't make it to the Keg tonight. I'll be there with the fam on Sunday.

Was following on ESPN Gamecast.

1st half was not what we wanted and went into the locker room down 22-26.

But our girls woke up in the 2nd half by rolling the Sun Devils 35-17 to win by 14.

Chucky with another monster performance. 19 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 blocked shot.

B-Wil with a good job setting the table, chalking 5 assists.

Lexy is finding her stroke, going 2/4 from 3pt range.

Arielle continues her impressive freshman season with 7 pts and 11 rebs.

Reese has really upped her game lately. Tonight she had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.

Can't wait for Sunday. 14-2 now. Need to beat a solid Arizona team that escaped Utah with a 4pt win tonight.

 

[MarkW]

What you didn't see is that ASU played a physical man-to-man defense which really gave the Buffs fits in the first half. Many of CU's shots looked rushed and nervous. At the same time ASU was hitting their treys.

The second half was very different. ASU couldn't get to the basket and couldn't hit from the perimeter. At the same time CU was finally getting calls as which they weren't in the first half. They were able to pull away methodically and over the last few minutes the game was clearly over.

CU's rebounding was good as usual and they were able to make plays in the second half that were key in getting the game opened up.

CU hosts Arizona on Sunday afternoon.

 

[buffgal]

Nik, you can watch the women's games for free on the Pac 12 network.

Lappe made much needed adjustments at the half and CU looked like a different team in second half. What a season Chucky is having.

Jen has new goggles that are smaller. I'm hoping that means her vision isn't quite so impaired by the goggles themselves.

Is there a possibility that Lauren Huggins could be red shirted? I don't know how many games she played in before her injury. Kind of late in the season to get her in game shape.

Meagan Malcolm-Peck didn't play at all. Brian Howell from the Camera said on Twitter that he was not aware of any injury in her situation. Anybody else hear about an injury with her? I know her playing time has been diminishing this season as the underclassmen have come along.

 

[MarkW]

Howell reported in the article on the game that MMP suffered a shoulder injury in the Utah game that kept her out of the ASU game last night.

http://www.buffzone.com/cu-news/ci_22406713/womens-basketball-no-21-cu-buffs-rally-past

It seems like it's going to be tough for Huggins to find playing time when she is fit enough to get on the court again. Don't know the rules for % of games you have played in that would keep her from getting a redshirt season.

ASU shot 19% in the second half last night.

 

[BeBe]

Lauren cannot use a redshirt this season because she has played in a few games. If you play even one minute, you cannot redshirt. I think she was in a small enough number of games that she would be able to apply later on for a medical hardship waiver to regain the year of eligibility if she doesn't return to the court this season. Coach has said that her latest MRI showed the stress fractures to be healed but she has a lot of work to do to get back into game condition. She has been working on her shot (from a chair) to get the delivery to be consistent.

Meagan injured her shoulder in the game last Sunday at Utah. I couldn't tell exactly what happened but it was about 6 minutes into the second half. She was guarding Plouffe. In the middle of the play, MMP grabbed her right shoulder and was in obvious pain when she left the court. The trainer worked on the shoulder some and she was holding the arm/shoulder and flexing the shoulder while on the bench. She did come back in the game with about 5 minutes to go but was only in for about a minute then back to the bench and holding the shoulder again. During the handshake line after the game, she was holding her right arm against her body and using her left to tap hands with the Utes.

 

[Buffnik]

Nik, you can watch the women's games for free on the Pac 12 network.

Lappe made much needed adjustments at the half and CU looked like a different team in second half. What a season Chucky is having.

Jen has new goggles that are smaller. I'm hoping that means her vision isn't quite so impaired by the goggles themselves.

Is there a possibility that Lauren Huggins could be red shirted? I don't know how many games she played in before her injury. Kind of late in the season to get her in game shape.

Meagan Malcolm-Peck didn't play at all. Brian Howell from the Camera said on Twitter that he was not aware of any injury in her situation. Anybody else hear about an injury with her? I know her playing time has been diminishing this season as the underclassmen have come along.

Thank you. I didn't remember that.

 

[buffgal]

Meagan injured her shoulder in the game last Sunday at Utah. I couldn't tell exactly what happened but it was about 6 minutes into the second half. She was guarding Plouffe. In the middle of the play, MMP grabbed her right shoulder and was in obvious pain when she left the court. The trainer worked on the shoulder some and she was holding the arm/shoulder and flexing the shoulder while on the bench. She did come back in the game with about 5 minutes to go but was only in for about a minute then back to the bench and holding the shoulder again. During the handshake line after the game, she was holding her right arm against her body and using her left to tap hands with the Utes.

Thanks for the update on MPP. I did see that while watching the Utah game. Will have to let my friend know who thinks MPP is getting short changed by not playing much her senior year.