The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

Game #19: Colorado Buffaloes (10-8, 2-7) @ Stanford Cardinal (9-10, 3-6)

I’d sure like to extend our modest win streak. Plus if we win this one, we move into a tie for 9th with Stanford and get closer to the middle of the pack in the Pac-12. Stanford hasn’t been a good-shooting team, so if we can apply a stout defense, I think we’ve got a chance even though we’re playing them on the road.

We hung with the Cardinal throughout the 1st half but couldn’t take the lead and trailed 38-32 at the break. SF Rick Coffey scored 9 points for us. We needed to get tougher in the paint and begin attacking the boards more aggressively.

Stanford caught fire in the 2nd half while our guys seemed to be sleep walking through it. We fell behind by as much as 24 points and took an 81-63 beating. Stanford controlled the boards 44-29 and had a 12-9 turnover advantage. We hit just 35% of our shots compared to the Cardinal knocking down 46% of theirs.

SF Rick Coffey scored 17, PF/SF Charles Maors hit for 11, and SG Camah Griffin had 10 points. PF Gordon Dupree scored 15 and pulled down 12 boards for Stanford.

The biggest loss for us, though, was that SG Kenton Dunn broke his hand early in the game and will miss the remainder of the season. Dunn has averaged 11.9 ppg and been our best shooter from mid and long range. For a team that otherwise hasn’t shot well, that doesn’t bode well. Losing Dunn means restructuring the starting lineup so that Chris Smith will start at PG, Matt Conley at SG (and backfill at PG) , Rick Coffey at PF, Charles Maors at PF (and get minutes at SF as well), and Ryan Erickson at C. Fortunately Steve Jackson and Vee Kurtbek just came back off the injured list and Camah Griffin is back from his short suspension. Vee Kurtbek and Jacob Anderson will come off the bench and each play either PF or C. Mat Hunter will sub at PF and SF. Camah Griffin will sub at SG and PG and Steve Jackson will fill in at SG.

[PointGuard]

Game #20: Colorado Buffaloes (10-9, 2-8) @ Washington Huskies (14-6, 6-4)

Just a little over a week ago the Huskies were 14-3 overall and 6-1 in the conference. Then they lost 3 straight games on the road (to #1 Arizona, #23 Utah, and #25 USC). It would be nice to continue their losing streak. But they’re heavily favored at home against us. They employ a 1-3-1 zone defense primarily. Their players are ball hawks, averaging over 10 steals per game. Four of their five starters are averaging between 9.6 and 11.1 ppg. Washington probably feels like they’ve gotten respect this season. They’ve had a good record all season which includes wins over Wisconsin, Utah, Oregon, and UCLA plus they
ve been either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the Pac-12 the entire season, but the Huskies have never been voted into the top 25 in the polls.

We got to Seattle the day before our game. That night while in our hotel, a 6.0 earthquake occurred making the hotel shake and roll. There were some buildings damaged in a city about 50 miles away from Seattle.

C Ryan Erickson was tagged with 2 fouls in the first 2-1/2 minutes of the game. PG Chris Smith followed him to the bench a minute later with 2 fouls. But we were ahead 8-0 at that point. Washington then scored the next 9 points. With 5-1/2 minutes remaining in the half, the Huskies used hot shooting to expand their lead to 30-14. The half ended with Washington holding a 36-24 lead. We were outshot in the half 50% to 39% and made 13 turnovers compared to 8 by the Huskies. PG/SG Matt Conely led our scoring with 8 points.

After cutting the Huskies lead to 8 points early in the 2nd half, an earthquake aftershock occurred. This time it was a series of quick jolts. Some of the players who were moving about on the court didn’t even notice, but those of us who were sitting sure did. The game was stopped for several minutes during which the Huskies’ band soothed some rattled nerves and got the crowd laughing by striking up “Rock Around the Clock” and then a Bill Haley and the Comets version of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”.

When play resumed, we had trouble re-focusing and quickly fell behind by 13 points. As the half continued we regained our composure enough to get to within 9 points several times, but Washington continually had a response that allowed them to pull away each time. When the buzzer sounded, we had come up short by a score of 74-59. We didn’t play badly, but Washington simply was the better team.

SG Matt Conley, with 15 points, was our only player scoring in double figures.

Since in other games tonight Arizona State beat Oregon State and Washington State humbled USC, our loss dropped us back into uncontested last place in the conference. Arghh!

[Wayne23]

The famous earthquake defensive did you in.

[PointGuard]

You quake me up, Wayne!

But yes, I guess you could say....we were quaking in our shoes.

[PointGuard]

Game #21: Washington State Cougars (8-12, 3-8) @ Colorado Buffaloes (10-10, 2-9)

We returned home to a big snowstorm, but the weather warmed quickly the past two days, melting much of the snow before tonight’s game.

We need to win this game. The Cougars offense normally is centered around their two guards, Ryan Diggs (11.8 ppg) and Darrell Booker (10.5 ppg). Both have good shooting percentages.

Even though our offense wasn’t efficient, our defense was so that we took a 16-4 lead after 7 minutes of play. Even though the Cougars began hitting some of their shots, we still held a solid 38-25 halftime advantage. SF Rick Coffey and SG/PG Matt Conley both scored 7 points.

We scored the first 9 points of the 2nd half to open a 22 point lead. The tide quickly turned when we let Washington State score 10 unanswered points. We came back to lead by 19 but then let the Cougars narrow the deficit late in the game so that our winning margin was only 64-53.

SG/PG Matt Conley scored 12, PG Chris Smith popped in 11, and SF Rick Coffey had 10. While C Ryan Erickson only scored 2 points, he pulled down 11 rebounds, dished out 4 assists, and had 3 steals. For Washington State PG Darrell Booker scored 17 and SG Ryan Diggs had 12 points, 5 assists, 10 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.

The win moved us back into a tie with the Cougars and Arizona State in conference play. On the other end of the standings, Arizona is 1st with a 12-0 record, Cal is 2nd and Washington is in 3rd place. Tonight Washington hosted California and in that game there were 27 lead changes and 16 ties with Washington winning 81-78 in overtime to draw within one game of the 2nd place Golden Bears

[PointGuard]

Game #22: #6 California Golden Bears (20-4, 9-3) @ Colorado Buffaloes (11-10, 3-9)

While it’s good to be playing at home, having to take on the Golden Bears is no picnic. SG Matt Landrum is averaging 20.6 ppg, SF Jesse Herbert is averaging 13.3 ppg and C Cliff Mitchell is scoring 11.0 ppg. All three connect on a high percentage of their shots. Talented PG Mario Burleston broke his ankle and is out for the next month.

In our first 3 possessions, 3’s were sunk by PG Chris Smith, PF Charles Maor, and SF Rick Coffey. Then on our 5th possession, SG Matt Conley drained a 3. But Cal was hitting shots as well and went ahead 13-12 after 5 minutes of play. We hit our fifth 3 pointer with 13:25 to go in the half to give us a 19-13 and force Cal to call a time out. We continued to fight hard against the talented Golden Bears, and when the half ended, we were on top 35-32. SG/PF Matt Conley and C Ryan Erickson both scored 7 points with Erickson also grabbing 8 boards.

With 11:20 to go in the game, we went ahead 52-41 after PG Matt Conley got the ball inside to C Vee Kurtbek who then muscled up a shot that went down. PG Chris Smith drilled a 12 footer to put us ahead by 13 with 10 minutes to play and Cal called another time out as our fans were going wild. A minute later, SF Rick Coffey hit a baseline jumper to put us on top 58-41. We never let Cal get close and came away with a huge 72-61 upset win. We controlled the boards 40-34 and held a 17-13 turnover advantage.

SG/PG Matt Conley knocked down 16 points, PG Chris Smith had 14 points and 7 assists, SF Rick Coffey scored 10 and had 9 rebounds, SG Camah Griffin scored 10, and C Ryan Erickson scored 9 while hauling in 11 boards.

Our victory moved us into a 3-way tie with Oregon State and Arizona State for 9th place, a game ahead of last place Washington State.

[Ddevore65]

Lookout the momentum train is building up steam for a nice run coming up.

[PointGuard]

Player Problems

Bryant Marshack, my first assistant coach who is in charge of practices, came to me to let me know that Camah Griffin and Mat Hunter were pushing and shoving each other during a heated exchange after practice. I called each player into my office to address the problem. Camah Griffin apologized and said he’d try harder in the future. Mat Hunter said he didn’t think there was a problem. Since Hunter’s relationship with the team has gone into the drink recently, I let him know he was within a hair’s breadth of being suspended and that heneeds to turn things around and regain his standing with them and that any further problems would be dealt with severely.

We’ll see how he does, but I can’t have him being a cancer within the team. So even though he has played well for us in a reserve role and has another season of eligibility after this one, I won’t hesitate to cut him if he continues to create problems. If I do cut him, trying to fill his scholarship with a recruit this spring will be very difficult since we really don’t have any money in our recruiting budget and can’t make any power moves with respect to recruiting. We do have some recruits interested, but they have focused on other schools since we have no scholarships to offer at this point.

[PointGuard]

Game #23: Colorado Buffaloes (12-10, 4-9) @ USC Trojans (15-9, 5-8)

USC uses the 2-3 zone a lot, so I’m hoping our guys can hit some good clear shots from outside. After winning their first 10 games this season, the Trojans have fun hot and cold and have lost their last 3 games so they’re only a game ahead of in the Pac-12 standings. SG Ryan Kincade leads their scoring averaging 15.8 ppg. They also have the “anders twins”…Matt Flanders at PG and Courtney Sanders at C who are both averaging in double figures. The Trojans beat us earlier 75-60 on our court, but I think we have a chance of returning the “favor” and topping them on their court if we play well.

USC jumped out on top and opened an 8 point lead before we came roaring back and went ahead at the half by a 37-34 score. We shot particularly well from beyond the arc. PG Chris Smith was on fire, scoring 18 points in the half. USC’s SG Ryan Kincade countered with 14.

We maintained a small lead for the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half and then went on a run that put us up by 11. The Trojans made a couple minor runs but weren’t able to take the lead and we ended up delivering a 68-61 “back at ya” defeat to them. We exploited their 2-3 zone to hit 14 of 33 shots from beyond the arc.

PG Chris Smith had an awesome game, hitting 9 of 14 three-pointers and scoring 29 points while also dishing out 5 assists and getting 2 steals and 3 blocks. SF Rick Coffey scored 11 and had 7 rebounds and 4 assists. SG Ryan Kincade finished with 20 points for USC.

Our victory moved us up into a tie with the Trojans for 8th place in the conference. While I wish we were higher, it’s a helluva a lot better than we were a few short weeks ago. We’ve now won 5 of our last 7 games including 2 on the road.

In other Pac-12 games, Oregon barely held off a late rally by Washington State to win 81-78. A contested out of bounds play was awarded to Oregon in the final seconds to keep the Cougars from getting a chance to tie the game. Washington had to come from behind in the 2nd half to slip by a determined Stanford team 67-63. The Huskies C Kenyon Holmes scored 20 and picked off 12 rebounds.

[PointGuard]

Game #24: Arizona State Sun Devils (10-13, 4-10) @ Colorado Buffaloes (13-10, 5-9)

Our mission tonight is to keep Arizona State’s C Craig Jones (16.9 ppg and 6.1 rpg) in check. The Sun Devils beat us 72-67 when we played them in Tempe, a game in which Jones had 15 points and 12 boards. The Sun Devils like to use a 3-2 zone but their defense has not been particularly effective this season.

After going ahead 7-0 and then gaining a 10 point advantage midway through the half, we let Arizona State back into the game late in the first half. When the buzzer sounded we were ahead by a slim 39-37 margin. SF Rick Coffey tossed in 12 points and SG/PG Matt Conley had 5 assists for us. We failed to hold down the Sun Devils’ C Craig Jones who put 15 points on the board.

Arizona State immediately tied the game on the first possession of the 2nd half, but we then hit 4 straight buckets to regain an 8 point lead. We held onto a small lead but couldn’t pull away. The Sun Devils hit back-to-back 3’s so that with 6-1/2 minutes left in the game they went ahead 65-63. We regained the lead but with 3 minutes remaining were only on top 72-69. Then with 2:03 on the clock, a technical foul was called Arizona State’s coach when he laid into one of the refs. We sunk both resulting free throws to go up by 5. Both teams were infected by a series of turnovers but the Sun Devils hit a shot to reduce our lead to 74-71 with 51 seconds to go. We again threw the ball away with 37 ticks remaining giving Arizona State a chance to tie the game. After taking their last time out, Arizona State worked the ball in and out but their 3 point attempt was off the mark and we rebounded. The Sun Devils fouled at the 0:17 mark. Vee Kurtbek knocked down both shots to give us a 5 point advantage. Arizona State hit a 25 dart to make it 76-74 and fouled on the inbounds pass. Camah Griffin missed the first, but made the second free throw. The Sun Devils had 6 seconds to get off a 3 point attempt to tie the game. We pressed, but they broke it quickly and made three quick passes to find Travis Hawkins open. His shot rimmed around, bounced up on the glass and then dribbled off the rim letting us escape with a 77-74 victory. Looking at the stats we were fortunate to win since Arizona State held a 53% to 47% shooting advantage and controlled the boards 27-22. On the other had they made 19 turnovers to our 14. While we had a lead throughout most of the game, we could never shake the pesky Sun Devils who hung on and kept making runs so they deserve a lot of credit for nearly pulling off a road win which is always difficult to do.

SF Rick Coffey scored 23 and PF/SF Charles Maors, PF/C Vee Kurtbek , and SG Camah Griffin each put in 13 points. SG/PG Matt Conley failed to score but had 10 assists. For Arizona State, C Craig Jones put in 21 and SG Travis Hawkins had 20.

With our 4th straight win we moved into a tie with Stanford for 7th place in the Pac-12. Besides our nail biter, other close games in the Pac-12 included UCLA’s blockage of Washington’s final shot that allowed the Bruins to hold on for an 84-82 win and Oregon’s last second long 3 pointer that gave them an 88-87 victory over Stanford.