The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

Game #21: Stanford Cardinal (13-6, 5-4) @ #19 Colorado Buffaloes (16-4, 6-3)

All 6 of Stanford’s losses have been to ranked teams. They have yet to defeat a ranked team and we hope to keep those both of those streaks intact.

PF Vefa Kurtbek has a strained hamstring and will miss tonight’s game and possibly our next game as well.

Stanford’s SF Eric Cohen hit 3’s on the first 2 possessions for the Cardinal. We came back to take a 10-8 lead after 4 minutes of play. As we opened a small lead our crowd roared forcing Stanford to call a couple early time outs. Stanford came back to take a 27-26 lead with 7 minutes left in the first half. Although the Cardinal hit a bunch of early 3’s, we chipped in 3’s in the latter stages of the half (conncting on 7 or 9 from beyond the arc in the entire first half) to take a 49-39 lead at the break. We hit 56% of our shots while Stanford hit 46% of theirs and we had a 9-2 turnover advantage. PG Chris Smith fired in 12 points and C Ryan Erickson added 10.

Stanford reduced our lead to 2 points after just 4-1/2 minutes of play in the 2nd half. The Cardinal then had a series of turnovers that allowed us to open a 63-53 lead with 10:48 remaining. We then steadily added to our lead to win going away 87-64. We finished by outshooting the Cardinal 48% to 38%. We forced Stanford to make 19 turnovers and only had 4 turnovers of our own.

Leading our scoring was PG Chris Smith with 18 points to go along with 7 assists. SG Kenton Dunn hit for 15 points while grabbing 9 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists and getting 3 steals and a block. C Ryan Erickson scored 11 and PF/SF Charles Maors, SG Steve Jackson, and SF Rick Coffey each chipped in 10 points. Coffee also had 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks. Stanford’s PF Jero Okesola had a double-double (10 points and 12 rebounds).

Pac-12 results tonight:

#4 Arizona-79, #1 UCLA-38 (wow, a real beat-down with UCLA hitting just 19% of their shots)
#2 Oregon-81, Arizona State-58
Oregon State-87, #13 California-74 (a big road win for the lowly Beavers)
#18 Washington-72, USC-57
Utah-65, Washington State-62 (big 2nd half comeback win for the visiting Utes)

Even with their embarrassing loss to Arizona, UCLA remained ranked #1 with Oregon ranked #2 and Arizona ranked #3. California is now ranked #14, Colorado is #17 and Washington is #18.

[PointGuard]

Recruiting News

We're losing almost the entire front line to graduation after this season, so it will be interesting to see if some of this season's recruits can step in and contribute immediately. CU recruits pretty well, but playing at Brutal recruiting level, the Buffaloes aren't able to compete with the elite programs for the best recruits.

I had hoped to steal a very good recruit with a pretty low GPA whose interest level for CU had risen to #1 on his list. So I was figuring to offer him a scholarship if he'd gotten a decent SAT score...but alas, his SAT score SUCKED. We also were working on another pretty decent recruit…again his SAT scores didn’t meet the minimum SAT requirements for our school.

Very disappointing, but there are some other good recruits on our list as we try to fill our last remaining scholarship…so back to the drawing board. While I generally prefer to recruit a high school senior who can develop over 4 seasons with us, it might be better to go after a good interior JC player who is more likely to contribute immediately for this coming season.

[PointGuard]

Game #22: #18 Washington Huskies (16-4, 7-3) @ #17 Colorado Buffaloes (17-4, 7-3)

The Huskies and my team are pretty similar. But the Huskies defense is a little better than ours. Washington primarily uses a 1-3-1 zone defense. The Huskies’ defense comes away with a lot of steals (10.1 per game which is 8th best in the nation) and yields few points (64.9 per game which is 22nd best in the nation).

We had a rough start, shooting horribly and turning the ball over repeatedly. But after Washington took a 5 point lead, we shut the Huskies down and took a 10-9 lead when PF Primoz Pohek scored from 10 feet away and converted the resulting free throw with 10:31 left in the half. Sloppy play by both teams continued throughout the half. The half ended with the scored knotted at 33-33. Washington had 8 turnovers and we had 9. Both teams his 41% of their shots. PG Matt Conley led our scoring with 7 points. SF Thomas Richardson came off the bench for the Huskies and hit 4 of 5 three-pointers to finish with 12 points.

Ugly basketball continued to be the name of the game in the 2nd half. The refs whistle seemed to work only against us but fortunately the Huskies missed over half of their many free throw attempts. But with 1:09 to go we trailed 64-62. We called a time out and our give-and-go worked with Kenton Dunn hitting a 12 foot jumper to tie the game. Washington ran the shot clock down but missed a 3. We rebounded but threw the ball away with 22 seconds to go. The Huskies knocked down a shot with 7 seconds remaining to go up by 2. Chris Smith put up a last second 3 but it rimmed out and we lost a heart-breaker 66-64. Team stats were very similar except for fouls (20 against us and only 8 against Washington) and free throws (27 attempts by the Huskies…they made 13 at the line…and just 10 attempts for us…we sunk 9 of those). Washington's defense definitely disrupted our game and led to poor play on our part, including us making uncharacteristic fouls due to frustration. Losing at home puts us in a real hole in this conference and means we need to make up for it with an unexpected road victory.

SG Kenton Dunn scored 19 and had 4 steals and a block. C Ryan Erickson added 10 points.

Results of other Pac-12 Games:

#2 Oregon-83, #3 Arizona-76 (OT)
Arizona State-80, Oregon State-69
#14 California-68, Stanford-58
Washington State-72, USC-60
Utah-75, #1 UCLA-63

Our loss dropped us into a tie for 5th with California a game behind 4 teams tied for 1st (Oregon, UCLA, Arizona and Washington).

[PointGuard]

Game #23: #17 Colorado Buffaloes (17-5, 7-4) @ Washington State Cougars (7-13, 3-8)

Following our home loss to Washington, it’s important that we turn things around and win on the road against the Cougars. While the Cougars have taken their lumps this season, two high points include a win over Georgetown (which was ranked #15 at the time) on the road and a recent home win against #14 California (which was ranked #9 at that point).

We missed our first 7 FG attempts, trailed 8-0 after letting Washington State score on 3 driving layups after intercepted passes, and didn’t score for the first 4-1/2 minutes. We didn’t begin putting things together until 10 minutes into the half and finally, led by our subs and their 12-0 run, took a 19-17 lead with 6:15 remaining in the first half. With our defense completely stymying the Cougars in the final 10 minutes of the half, we took a 27-20 lead to the locker room. We hit 34% of our shots (and 1 of 10 from beyond the arc) while WSU hit 33% (and 1 of 8 from 3-point distance). We held an 11-5 turnover advantage. PG Matt Conley came off the bench to score 11 points.

We came out cold in the 2nd half. The Cougars quickly cut our lead to a single point. We held on to maintain a small lead. With 3 minutes to go Washington State tied the score at 51-51. Then with 2:24 on the clock, the Cougars sunk 2 free throws to go up 53-51. With 1:39 remaining we called a timeout and Steve Jackson and Matt Conley executed a perfect pick and roll, with Jackson scoring on a driving layup to tie the game. The Cougars tossed the ball away on their succeeding possession. We missed a shot then Washington State missed a 3 but grabbed the rebound and hit another 3 point attempt, putting us down 56-53 with 32 seconds left. We called a time out to set up a 3 point shot but Steve Jackson’s shot missed. Ryan Erickson pulled down the rebound, got the ball to Kenton Dunn who tossed it to Matt Conley who found Jackson in the corner. Jackson lofted up another 3 that slipped cleanly through the cords to knot the score at 56-56 with 13 seconds remaining. With fouls to give, I decided that rather than give them a last shot, we would foul before a shot could be taken and take the game to overtime. But as Jackson fouled, SG Stephen Hunter threw up a 3 point attempt that had no possibility of connecting but gave the Cougars 3 foul shots. Smart move on Hunter's part, bad luck on ours. Hunter made 2 of 3 free throws with 4 seconds to go. Matt Conley brought the ball quickly over the center court line and put up a desperation 3 that was off the mark, and we went down to a 58-56 defeat.

While we didn’t play well enough to win, my calling for us to foul on the Cougars’ last possession didn’t work and caused us to lose. Big strategic mistake on my part. This was a road game I had hoped to win. Damn! Hang the coach.

PG Matt Conley scored 17 points and had 6 assists and SG Steve Jackson hit for 15 points while hauling down 6 rebounds. Washington State’s SF Barry Stacey scored 11, grabbed 10 rebounds and had 6 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks.

Other Pac-12 results:

#3 Arizona-76, Oregon State-53
Stanford-74, Arizona State-67
#18 Washington-86, #14 California-76
#1 UCLA-74, USC-56
Utah-89, #2 Oregon-76

Our second straight loss put us into a 3-way tie for 5th place two games out of 1st place. We dropped to #19 in the polls. 6 other Pac-12 teams are ranked in the polls: UCLA-1, Oregon-2, Arizona-4, California-16, Washington-17, and Utah-22.

My old team, the Youngstown State Penguins, now have an 8-4 league record which ties them with Northern Kentucky for the Horizon League lead. After winning their first 6 league games, the Penguins have dropped 4 of their last 6 games. The Penguins overall season record presently is 13-8. SG Doylan Anderson leads the team’s scoring with 18.7 ppg followed by SF Rolan LeBarrie at 14.5 ppg and C Scott Duany who is averaging 10.1 ppg. PF Donnie Williams leads their rebounding with 4.8 rpg while PG Mike Lofton has the most assists with 4.3 apg.

Elsewhere in the nation: While only ranked 5th in the polls, the Pittsburgh Panthers are having a great season. The Panthers have a 21-2 record overall and are leading the ACC with an 11-1 conference record, 2 games better than their nearest rival. Pittsburgh is 16-0 at home.

[PointGuard]

Game #24: #19 Colorado Buffaloes (17-6, 7-5) @ #16 California Golden Bears (16-7, 7-5)

Both teams have had a couple difficult weeks. We’ve won just 3 of our last 7 games while Cal has won but 2 of their last 6 games. Unfortunately we have to take on the Golden Bears on their home court where they have won 10 of 12 games. The Golden Bears are heavily favored to beat us. SG Mario Burleston and SF Jesse Herbert have combined to average 31.2 ppg. I’d like to shut down one of them without letting the other go ballistic, but that’s no small challenge.

Cal took advantage of some early turnovers by us to jump out to an 18-10 lead. The Golden Bears then caught fire to put us in a 38-18 hole with 8:33 remaining in the half. At that point Cal was hitting nearly 75% of their FG attempts and over 60% of their 3’s. In the final 5 minutes of the first half we struck back to narrow the Golden Bears lead to 44-32. For the entire half California outshot us 65% to 41%. SG Kenton Dunn scored 13 points for us, but Cal’s PG Monty Camby was a perfect 6 for 6 from the field (including hitting all 3 of his 3’s) to score 15.

Poor shooting in the 2nd half by us kept us from making a serious run to narrow the lead even though California’s shooting cooled a little. We ended up taking a 73-62 beating. California ended up hitting 54% of their shots for the entire game while we could only manage to knock down 37% of ours.

SG Kenton Dunn finished with 19 points.

Here’s how other Pac-12 teams fared:

#4 Arizona-90, #22 Utah-82
USC-66, Arizona State-61
#1 UCLA-72, Washington State-54
#17 Washington-76, #2 Oregon-65
Stanford-71, Oregon State-60

We’re now tied with Stanford for 6th place in the Pac-12.

After the game Mat Hunter got into a loud argument with Camah Griffin and then complained about not getting enough playing time and how he should be playing instead of Vefa Kurtbek. Hunter’s attitude is becoming poisonous so I pulled him aside to talk with him and he got mad. I’d had enough of his bitching so suspended him for a week.

[PointGuard]

Game #25: USC Trojans (7-15,2-11) @ #19 Colorado Buffaloes (17-7,7-6)

USC broke a 9-game losing streak when they beat Arizona State earlier this week. They are led by their guards, Brendan Trilli (13.0 ppg) and Dennis Evans (10.9 ppg). They employ a 2-3 zone which caused us problems when we played the Trojans on their home court. We hit just 39.6% of our shots and ended up losing 82-66.

We harassed USC early forcing them to turn the ball over 6 times (3 of which were steals leading to baskets by us) in the first 3-1/2 minutes. At that point we led 14-3. As our defense continued to play havoc with the Trojans offense, our lead ballooned to 27-7 with 9-1/2 minutes remaining in the first half. USC’s offense began clicking late in the half to narrow our halftime advantage to 40-26. We outshot the Trojans 53% to 38% (although they hit 6 of 10 from 3 point range) and also held a 13-6 turnover advantage. SG Kenton Dunn dropped in 13 points and SF Rick Coffey scored 9 for us. USC was led by PG Dennis Evan’s 11 points.

With 12 minutes left to play, SF Rick Coffey hit a 3 that gave us a 54-32 lead. Even though our offense cooled down, we still thumped the Trojans by a final score of 74-52. We outshot USC 46% to 33%, forced them to make 21 turnovers (although we made an uncharacteristic 16), and out-rebounded the Trojans 38-28. Nice to get back in the win column. I hope that it helps us get our footing again for the closing weeks of the season.

SG Kenton Dunn hit for 20 points, SF Rick Coffey scored 12, and PG Matt Conley added 10. USC’s PG Dennis Evans scored 22.

Other Pac-12 results tonight:

#4 Arizona-81, #16 California-79 (Arizona won this game as time was expiring)
Arizona State-81, #22 Utah-80 (Utah made a late run but came up just short)
#17 Washington-82, Stanford-67
#1 UCLA-83, Oregon State-54
#2 Oregon-71, Washington State-62

We now are tied for 5th place with California in the Pac-12 standings. UCLA, Arizona and Washington are tied for the lead with 11-3 records and Oregon sits alone in 4th place with a 10-4 record. 3 of our remaining 4 games this season are on the road including games at Utah and UCLA. Our lone home game is against Arizona. We will need to get some upset wins to avoid dropping down in the standings.

In the polls, UCLA, Oregon and Arizona hold down the top 3 places with Washington ranked #15, California #18, and Colorado #20. We have the 13th best RPI in the nation.

[PointGuard]

Game #26: #20 Colorado Buffaloes (18-7, 8-6) @ Arizona State Sun Devils (11-12, 4-10)

This is a game we need to win. After this game we play at Utah, then host Arizona and finally travel to take on UCLA. We handled the Sun Devils easily (78-55) when we played them on our court. But playing on their court will mean we have to play well to win again. Arizona State primarily employs a 3-2 defense.

Our shooting was ice-cold at the beginning of the game as we fell behind 7-2, but with 12:36 remaining in the half, we took our first lead at 10-8. We hit just 3 of our first 18 shots, but fortunately Arizona State hit just 3 of their first 15 FG attempts. The first half ended with us on top 28-23, but it was an example of how NOT to play basketball. We hit just 32% of our shots and the Sun Devils hit only 33% of theirs. We had 10 turnovers and Arizona State had 8. SG Kenton Dunn scored 9 points and PF Vefa Kurtbek had 6 points and 8 rebounds.

We played atrociously in the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half and fell behind 36-30. We regained a 37-36 lead with 14-1/2 minutes left. The two teams slogged through the rest of the half but we were able to gain a lead and slowly increase it to as much as 7 points. Then Arizona State hit some big 3’s in the final 2 minutes and our lead shrunk to 67-65 with 32 seconds when the Sun Devils called a time out with them in possession of the ball. Arizona connected from inside with 5 seconds to go. We missed our final shot and the game went to overtime knotted at 67-67.

We jumped ahead in the OT, but the Sun Devils reeled us back in and outscored us in the final minute to knock us off 79-77. We got control in each half and the OT but couldn’t maintain it. It’s disappointing that we let this game get away from us.

PF/SF Charles Maors scored 20 and pulled down 8 boards and SG Kenton Dunn finished with 13 points.

Scores from other Pac-12 games:

#18 California-78, Utah-71
USC-75, #3 Arizona-72
#2 Oregon-87, Stanford-51
Oregon State-88, Washington State-79
#15 Washington-86, #1 UCLA-73

Washington’s victory over UCLA combined with Arizona’s loss to USC catapulted the Huskies into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12. Oregon is now tied for 2nd with UCLA and Arizona. We slid unceremoniously into 6th place in the conference.

[WarEagle13]

Tough loss. Those on the road are hard to take, especially in OT

Good luck the rest of the way...hopefully you can pull it in a little better for tourney seeding upcoming

Need that UCLA upset

[PointGuard]

Game #27: #20 Colorado Buffaloes (18-8, 8-7) @ Utah Utes (16-10, 7-8)

We may be ranked while Utah isn’t, but they are prohibitive favorites in this game. We were only able to edge them 69-63 playing on our court so taking them on in Salt Lake City is a formidable mountain to climb. PF Mark Wall is averaging 15.2 ppg. Together with C Jeff Odle, who averages 11.4 ppg and 9.2 rpg, the Utes have a strong inside game.

We scored the first 7 points in the game and held a solid lead until we got sloppy and turned the ball over repeatedly allowing the Utes to tie us at 25-25 with 4-1/2 minutes left in the first half. We finished the half with a 33-31 lead. SF Rick Coffey topped our scoring with 10 points. C Jeff Odle had 9 points and 5 rebounds for Utah.

The lead continually shifted back and forth throughout the 2nd half. Our extremely poor shooting kept us from being able to pull away. Then two successive blocks by Utah late in the game with subsequent scores put them on top 64-61 with just over a minute to play. We called a time out, but Rick Coffey’s 3 point shot was off the mark and the Utes rebounded. We were forced to foul but the Utes converted both free throws. When we were unable to do anything offensively, we had to foul and ended up losing the game 69-61. We hit just 30% of our FG attempts and 17% of our 3PA’s.

SF Rick Coffey and PG Matt Conley both scored 10 for us.

Pac-12 results:

#18 California-59, USC-52
#3 Arizona-94, Arizona State-59
#15 Washington-79, Oregon State-65
Washington State-71, Stanford-60
#1 UCLA-83, #2 Oregon-65

We’re now tied for 6th place with Utah as what started as a great season self-destructs. Deservedly, we’ve now fallen out of the top 25 in the polls.

[PointGuard]

Game #28: #3 Arizona Wildcats (21-6, 12-4) @ Colorado Buffaloes (18-9, 8-8)

C Antwan Minor is averaging 16.7 ppg and 11.7 rpg while PG Lamont Nielsen is scoring 16.3 ppg for Arizona.

The refs called 7 fouls on us in the first 6-1/2 minutes while calling none against Arizona. But we led 25-19 with 4-1/2 minutes to go in the half due to a tenacious defense. The half ended with us on top 32-28. Even though we hit only 36% of our shots, we held the Wildcats’ shooting to 30%. SG Kenton Dunn tossed in 9 points.

In the 2nd half we continued to keep Arizona in check and led 53-44 with 8:49 remaining in the game. Arizona made some runs but we were able to shut them off and regain our lead every time. We came away with a stunning 76-64 victory. The key to our victory was that our players were employing both our man-to-man and 2-3 zone defenses to perfection. And the interchange of these 2 defenses throughout the game kept the Wildcats off balance and out-of-synch.

SG Kenton Dunn had an awesome game and scored 28 points. PG Chris Smith had 12 points. For Arizona, PG Lamont Nielsen played the entire 40 minutes of the game and scored 20.

Scores from other Pac-12 games:

#16 California-71, Arizona State-60
Utah-60, USC-49
#2 Oregon-70, Oregon State-49
Stanford-76, #1 UCLA-67
#10 Washington-84, Washington State-61

We remain in a tie with Utah for 6th place in the conference. Washington nailed down the conference title as their 14-3 record is 2 games ahead of UCLA and Arizona with one game remaining.