The Town Crier

[Tim Moungey]

I'd say it'll be at least a 5 year rebuilding project. Power 5 school and extended time as a bottom-feeder means a painful situation, especially with 7 scholarships to try and fill. Basically the Pac 12 version of the mess MM went through at UNLV after Chris Beard (May that bastard never get back to the Final Four with TT) screwed us over.

[PointGuard]

Assistant Coaching Changes

I sat down with each assistant separately. Here’s a summary of my comments and actions for each:

1st Assistant Jeff Favors: not enough money in recruiting budget so ran out of money quickly, bottom line you’re being paid $99K and landed no recruits, you’ve got a great rep, time to look for HC job---fired; he was subsequently hired by Purdue as 1st asst.

2nd Assistant Deshawn Reyes: was a previous head coach, need to get our budget in control so will be reducing assistant costs---fired; he was subsequently hired by VCU as 1st asst.

3rd Assistant Ivory Snoddy: discussed promotion but he wants too much $---keeping him on as 3rd assistant but will change his primary duties from practice/player development to recruiting.

Hired:

1st assistant: Bryant Marshack, rep of 19, player development rating of 66, $55K for 4 years; he was previously a 2nd assistant at Oakland and Rhode Island.

2nd assistant: Lamoni Martin, rep of 20, scouting rating of 62, $40K for 4 years; he was previously 2nd assistant at Pennsylvania and 1st assistant at Eastern Kentucky.

These actions will save $78K/yr to add to our recruiting budget. Gonna need it since we are likely to have have so many unfilled scholarships this coming year.

[PointGuard]

End of season recruiting:

7 unfilled scholarships and it’s April! With no remaining recruiting budget we can only make a series of phone calls. We made last ditch scholarships offers to 4 int’l and 3 national players (PG, 2 SG’s, SF, 2 PF’s, and C) on 4/9/23 with little hope any would accept since there was no money to otherwise contact or visit them.

#97 ranked PF Primoz Pohek signs on 4/16, he’s from Slovenia, 6-7, 204, 2.2 GPA (1100 SAT), averaged 13.9 ppg, 3.4 apg, 11.6 rpg, 1.8 spg, 2.6 bpg. No skill it getting this one, just pure blind luck, but I’m happy to get such a good potential player.

One of the SG’s signed elsewhere; offered a scholarship to another SG on 4/16.

None of the other 6 we had offers out to signed. Disappointing but not surprising.

So for the entire year Colorado had 1 signing and didn’t fill 6 available scholarships. The recruiting class was ranked as the 280th best in Division 1.

The University of Colorado should get a refund for a good portion of ex-HC Wright Kincade’s and ex-1st Asst Jeff Favors’ salaries. I wish Butler (who hired Kincade as HC) and Purdue (who hired Favors) the best of luck. Both of those guys sure did no “favors” for the Buffaloes lately. It might take a few seasons before the Buffaloes are good enough, but at some point I’d sure like to post an “L” onto both Butler and Purdue as a little bit of a payback to those two bozos.

[Wayne23]

Tough way to start. Check your messages. I just sent you one.

[PointGuard]

Roster for Colorado Buffaloes for 2023-2024 season:

Remaining roster for upcoming season consists of 9 players: 2 pg (1 of which is walk-on), 1 sg, 1 sf, 4 pf, 1 c (a walkon).

We have 8 scholarships to offer this coming year with a $100,500 recruiting budget. That’s too many recruits to try to land so we’ll see if there are some good transfer players who are willing to be part of a building program.

In June we signed 5 transfer players:

PG Matt Conley, 6-2 Sophomore from Belcourt, ND who was signed as the #489 ranked recruit in 2021 by Oklahoma. As freshman he played in 7 games averaging 4.3 mpg and 2.3 ppg.

SG Steve Jackson, 6-1 Sophomore from Mililani, HI who was signed as the #1489 ranked recruit in 2021 by Prairie View. As a freshman he started all 27 games and averaged 27.3 mpg, 16.4 ppg and hit 42% of his FGA, 37% of his 3PA, and 84% of his FTA. He was the SWAC Freshman of the Year.

SG Camah Griffin, 6-0 Sophomore from Inglewood, CA who was signed as the #647 ranked recruit in 2021 by Loyola Marymount. As a freshman he started all 29 games and averaged 26.2 mpg, 13.3 ppg, 2.1 apg, and 4.3 rpg and hit 39% of the FGA and 29% of his 3PA.

SF Charles Majors, 6-8 Sophomore from Dexter, NM who was signed as the #197 ranked recruit in 2021 by Washington. As a freshman he played in 31 games, averaging 16.0 mpg, 7.4 ppg and 3.0 rpg and hit 42% of his FGA, 39% of his 3PA, and 85% of his FTA.

PF Ryan Erickson, 6-7 Junior from Canada who was signed as the #361 ranked recruit in 2020 by Colgate. As a freshman he started 27 of 29 games averaging 29.0 mpg, 9.8 ppg and 6.2 rpg and hit 58% of his FGA. As a sophomore he started 1 of 9 games averaging 17.0 mpg, 8.7 ppg and 5.7 rpg and hit 74% of his FTA. He then became academically ineligible for the remainder of the season.

Of course, all 5 will be ineligible to play for us this season due to transferring. So sort of a quick fix (like patching a flat tire) for a year from now, but keeps us with a short bench for this upcoming season. While I don’t see any of the 5 being big stars for us, they will provide us with a solid core the season after this one and more importantly…

That leaves just 3 scholarships for us to fill during the upcoming recruiting season rather than 8. Much more manageable.

[PointGuard]

Meeting with our AD

Jake Meacolm, the Colorado AD, compliments me on my 154-73 record during my 7 years at Youngstown State and getting the Penguins to a post-season tournament in 6 of those seasons. He follows by saying with a record like that he’s expecting big things because the Buffaloes need to get back on track quickly. He then lists what he wants to see from the team and me this season.

His goals are laughable: Finish above .500, Finish in top half of conference, Qualify for NIT Tournament, Improve school prestige. WTF? Coming off such a dismal season last year and with the train wreck that was left when I arrived, none of these are realistically achievable this coming season. The best we can do is develop the players we’ve been left with and prepare the transfers to step in when they become eligible to play next season.

When I express this, he cuts me off saying, “We hired you because of your ability to turn things around rapidly. We have great confidence you will do it.” And with that, our meeting is concluded.

Wife’s Concerns

Jacqueline (Jacky) isn’t happy about my job change. She feels I took my actions without discussing things with her or considering her situation. She is staying in Youngstown to continue her work there until she can get a good marketing position in Boulder.

[PointGuard]

Summer/Fall Recruiting:

3 scholarships to fill…would like a SF and two big men.

By the beginning of October we had commitments from:

SF Rick Coffey, 6-7 from Mt. Vernon, SD, #57 ranked recruit, sweet shooter inside and outside, excellent scorer, extremely athletic, was in Top 5 at Houston Classic Camp.

SF Kenton Dunn, 6-6 from Cheyenne, WY, #73 ranked recruit, excellent shooting skills both inside and outside, great scorer, solid defender, tremendous work ethic, was in Top 25 at Indy Elite Camp.

PF Shawn Owes, 6-8 from Arvada, CO, #135 ranked recruit, excellent shooter inside who is a good scorer, hard worker.

I’m very pleased with the recruits we landed and the job Ivoree Snoddy did as my recruiting assistant.


Fall Practices:

Our practices this fall revealed what I feared. We are going to have a rough season. We set up a pretty weak pre-conference schedule, but I doubt that will even help us that much. The players who are eligible to play this season just aren’t that talented. Our starting five will be outclassed against most competition and our bench is very weak. And because we have so few returning players and just one freshman, we only have 10 eligible players (including walk-ons), so our bench will be short meaning we likely will wear down at points throughout the game.

To make things worse, there was just too much messing around during our practices. Players coming late, not focusing and slacking off, making rude comments to each other, and taking cheap shots. Apparently there was a lack of control by the previous coaching regime. I ended up having to continually pull players into my office and disciplining much more than I’ve ever done before. But it was necessary to exert control to keep things from getting out of hand and let the players know they had to change their habits and pull together.


Marital bliss?

When I honestly think about what’s going on, I have to admit a long-distance marriage is really tough to make work. In our case, I’m just having to put so much time into beginning the turnaround efforts for the Buffaloes that I haven’t been able to get back to Ohio as much as I’d said I would when I departed. And Jacky is still unhappy that I made the decision to leave Youngstown without taking her situation into consideration. I’m not sure how hard she’s trying to find a job here. And I think her boss is subverting any efforts by way of additional perks he’s been throwing her way recently. To say things are strained would be an understatement.

[Wayne23]

"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution." Groucho Marx

[PointGuard]

Game #1, Portland Pilots (0-0) at Colorado Buffaloes (0-0)

Before the game begins my eyes scan around Coors Events Center and I marvel at the size and beauty compared to the facilities where I’ve coached before. It holds over 11,000 people in much greater comfort than the arenas where I’ve played and coached. Lots of yellow seats and, while the center is not nearly filled to capacity, a fair number of fans wearing yellow. And here I am at age 44.





Our starters as the season begins are: PG Chris Smith, 6-1 Soph; SG Stacey Walker, 6-2 Sr; SF George Seamon, 6-8 Sr; PF Vefa Kurtbek, 6-6 Soph; C R.J. Reis, 6-10 Soph.

We host the Portland Pilots for our season opener. They’re strongly favored even though we are at home. We hung with them the first 10 minutes but then wilted and fell behind 41-25 at the half, letting them hit 63% of their shots. Our 13 turnovers in the half didn’t help. 21 of our 25 points were by our guards.

We stayed behind by 10-15 points through most of the half and ended up losing 80-61. The Pilots hit 63% of their shots. We had 20 turnovers. But we did hit 8 of 15 of our 3’s. We only have 3 guards on our roster, but the three carried what offense we were able to generate. They hit 13 of 24 from the field including 7 of 8 from beyond the arc. PG Chris Smith scored 19, PG J.B. Parker had 10, and SG Stacey Walker chipped in 9. None of our players had more than 3 rebounds. Reserve PF Larry Smith popped in 21 points for Portland.

[PointGuard]

Game #2, Brown Bears (1-1) at Colorado Buffaloes (0-1)

Again we have a home game and again we’re the underdog. It takes 2-1/2 minutes for either team to score, but we hit the first bucket and after 5 minutes of play we’re up 10-4. Is that an omen? But at the midpoint of the first half, Brown takes their first lead at 14-13. The Bears hold a small lead through most of the remainder of the half. But in the last two minutes we come back and on the last play of the half, we execute a perfect pick and roll and score just before the buzzer sounds to take a 32-30 lead into the locker room. Again we have too many turnovers (11) but shoot well (52%). SG Stacey Walker leads our scoring with 8 points, but we get good production from our entire starting five.

We pull ahead 40-32 after 4-1/2 minutes of play in the 2nd half. But we can’t maintain our momentum and let Brown come back to take a 42-41 lead. We make another run to lead 50-43 with 8-1/2 minutes remaining. Three minutes later we open our first double digit lead at 57-47. We hang on to come away with my first win at Colorado. The final score: Colorado-66, Brown-58.

We played well, out-rebounding the Bears 35-28 and out-shooting them 47% to 39%, but had 18 turnovers to the Bears’ 13. Ultimately the fact that we got to the line 20 more times than Brown and scored 13 more points at the free throw line was the difference in the game.

SG Stacey Walker finished with 14 points. PG Chris Smith put in 13 points plus had 5 assists, 7 rebounds, a steal and 2 blocks. PF Vela Kurtbek scored 12 and grabbed 8 boards. C Duez Jones scored 15 for Brown.