The Town Crier

[Ddevore65]

Nice win Coach, now go get those Wildcats! They ain’t so big and bad. I know you have a strategy for them just like when you went to battle against those mighty teams from Detroit Mercy and pulled off the upset.

Meanwhile at the Lazy Dog Sports Bar in Boulder the fans were watching the game, drinking and cheering loudly as the Buffs pulled off the win against USC.

1st fan - You know, these guys have really improved over this season, maybe this Coach Dust isn’t so bad.

2nd fan - He’s better than whoever the last idiot was.

Fan 1 and 2 look at the 3rd guy with them.

Fan 3 - They will still get destroyed by Arizona or any of the other 6 teams left. Is that the type of team you guys want? We need someone to lead us to the top of this conference!

Fan 1 - Come on Rome wasn’t build overnight. He is on the right track with the players he has coming in

Fan 2 - Yeah Jim Rome is the best

Fan 3 - Shut up both of you and help me with this online petition to get this Coach Dusty Fired.

[PointGuard]

Pac-12 Conference Tournament—Quarterfinals

5th seed #20 ranked UCLA Bruins (20-8, 11-7) vs 4th seed Washington Huskies (20-8, 12-6): The game was close throughout the 1st half with Washington coming away with a 36-32 lead at the break. The Huskies maintained control in the 2nd half and slowly pulled away knock of UCLA 77-65. PG Kelly Phillips led the Huskies with 20 points. For UCLA, SF George Mahorn scored 14 and pulled down 8 boards.

6th seed Utah Utes (19-10, 10-8) vs 3rd seed #8 ranked Oregon Ducks (21-6, 13-5): Utah jumped ahead at the beginning of the game, but Oregon passed and pulled away from the Utes to go ahead 43-26 at the half. The Ducks waddled way past Utah in the 2nd half going up by as much as 26 points. Utah cut into their lead but still lost 75-62. Oregon’s SG John Barnes poured in 21 points. Utah was led by PF Mark Wall who scored 17.

7th seed Stanford Cardinal (14-15, 7-11) vs 2nd seed #13 ranked California Golden Bears (24-6, 13-5): The Golden Bears were in control for the entire game. They applied a staunch defense in the first half to take a 48-23 halftime lead. They then coasted through the second half to throttle Stanford by a final score of 78-60. For Cal, C Cliff Mitchell scored 21 and SF Jesse Herbert tossed in 20. C Jon Montross scored 12 for Stanford.

8th seed Colorado Buffaloes (16-12, 7-11) vs 1st seed #1 ranked Arizona Wildcats (30-0, 18-0): We lost to the Wildcats twice by 21 and 23 points. Arizona has rolled over opponents throughout their schedule this season. Thus far all higher seeds have won their games in this tournament, so the odds are exceptionally against us pulling off a totally unexpected upset. We definitely can not let Arizona’s PG Kelvin Smith put up 26 points like he did in our last loss to the Wildcats.

We trailed Arizona but hung close for the first 10 minutes but then let the Wildcats pull away. When the buzzer sounded ending the first half, Arizona led 41-25. SG/PG Matt Conley hit for 8 points for us, but was outshone by Arizona’s PG Kelvin Smith who poured in 16 points.

We continually made inroads on cutting into the Wildcats’ lead, but Arizona was relentless of fighting back to knock down baskets to regain their solid lead. Our best efforts were for naught and Arizona stayed unbeaten by winning 82-60. Becoming the 31st team to succumb to the dominating Wildcats meant the end of our Pac-12 conference play this season. By losing 3 times to them by 21, 22, and 23 points just shows they definitely are a giant step beyond us.

Reserve SG Steve Jackson led our scoring with 14 points. The game’s top scorer was Arizona’s PG Kelvin Smith with 20 points while the Wildcats’ C Cliff Rivera scored 16 and had 11 rebounds.

[PointGuard]

Pac-12 Conference Tournament—Semifinals

3rd seed #8 ranked Oregon Ducks (22-6, 13-5) vs 2nd seed #13 ranked California Golden Bears (25-6, 13-5): The game was close in the early going, but Oregon broke the game open midway through the first half and blazed away to a 40-25 halftime advantage. The Ducks continued to derail the Golden Bears in the 2nd half, opening a 29 point lead and winning by an 80-57 score. Oregon’s SG John Barnes scored 27 and PF Matt Reeves had 20. For California SF Jesse Herbert led their scoring with 16 points.

4th seed Washington Huskies (21-8, 12-6) vs 1st seed #1 ranked Arizona Wildcats (31-0, 18-0): Arizona steadily crept away from the Huskies and finished the half ahead 40-30. The Wildcats came out strong in the 2nd half to move ahead by 20 but then Washington trimmed their lead. Arizona held the Huskies off to win 70-60. PF Marques Smith hit for 17 points for Arizona while Washington’s PG Kelly Phillips led all scorers with 24 points.

Pac-12 Conference Tournament—Championship

3rd seed #8 ranked Oregon Ducks (23-6, 13-5) vs 1st seed #1 ranked Arizona Wildcats (32-0, 18-0): The score remained close throughout the first half with Arizona taking a 43-35 lead at the break. The Wildcats put the game away in the 2nd half as they continued their perfect season with a commanding 89-73 victory. SG John Barnes dropped in 19 points for the Wildcats. Oregon was led by C Cliff Rivera’s 20 points.

Colorado Buffaloes Player and Team Stats

[PointGuard]

NCAA Selection Show

#1 seeds: Arizona (33-0), Syracuse (26-5), Oregon (23-7), Seton Hall (26-5)

Pac-12 teams selected for the NCAA Tournament:

Arizona (33-0)…#1 seed in East
Utah (19-11)…#7 seed in Midwest
Oregon (23-7)…#1 seed in South
Washington (21-9)…#6 seed in South
UCLA (20-9)…#3 seed in West

[California (25-7) and ranked #15 in the polls is presently on probation (2 years no post-season and 4 years no scholarships)]

Pac-12 Teams in Other Post-Season Tournaments:

Colorado (16-13)…#7 in East Region of CBI Tournament…matched up against #2 seed Robert Morris
USC (15-15)…#2 seed in West Region of CIT Tournament…matched up against #7 seed Eastern Illinois
We were excited to get the news that we’d be participating in a post-season tournament.

Youngstown State finished the season with an overall record of 15-14 and a Horizon League record of 9-9 so they were in a 3-way tie for 5th place in the league. No post-season tourney for the Penguins. SG Doylan Anderson was their leading scorer averaging 16.8 ppg

[PointGuard]

Mail Call:

The day after receiving the invitation to play in the NIT tournament, I received an envelope in my mailbox containing a small sheet of paper on which was written: “16-13. Watch Your Back!” Nothing else on the paper or in the envelope but the envelope was postmarked as coming from Boulder. I can only scratch my head wondering: What the hell is this all about?

With our CBI Tournament game fast approaching, my focus has to be on our team and our first round opponent, not on some ambiguous threat. As the lower seed, we have to play the game on the home court of Robert Morris, so that makes the challenge greater. Playing in Pennsylvania means we will have few fans in the stands.

[PointGuard]

CBI:

Round 1:

7th seed Colorado Buffaloes (16-13) vs 2nd seed Robert Morris Colonials (19-9)

The Colonials are from Moon Township, Pennsylvania. They completed their Northeast Conference schedule with a 12-6 record, which was good for 2nd place a game behind Mount St. Mary’s. They then lost to Wagner in the first round of their conference tournament. In pre-conference play they went up against two top 25 teams, Duke and Oklahoma State and lost both of those games on the road. But they lost by just 5 points to Duke and 2 points to Oklahoma State.

Robert Morris is led offensively by SG Brett Mapp who is averaging 18.3 ppg. PG Nick Johnson and SF Ryan Fry are averaging 9.1 and 9.0 ppg and both hit a high percentage of their shots. Since over 70% of the Colonials’ points come from the perimeter and they shoot well from outside, including beyond the arc, we need to keep their perimeter players in check so we will start by deploying a man-to-man defense. The team is averaging 76.9 ppg (43rd highest in the nation) while giving up 70.3 ppg to their opponents.

In the first half, Robert Morris hit their shots, we didn’t. That put us in a 41-28 hole at the break. C Ryan Erickson and PG Chris Smith both had 6 points for us. The Colonials’ SG Brett Mapp tattooed the hoop for 16 points.

We scored the first 9 points of the 2nd half to get back into contention. But we then let the momentum swing back to the Colonials when they began again hitting their shots and soon the lead was back up to 11. Slowly we chipped away at that lead and with 5:32 to go Chris Smith knocked down both ends of a one-and-one to make it 56-54 in favor of Robert Morris. But we simply couldn’t get over the hump and Robert Morris again expanded their lead. In the final couple minutes we were forced to foul and ended up losing 71-61 to complete our season.

SG/PG Matt Conley scored 15 and PG Chris Smith added 10. Robert Morris’ SG Brett Mapp ended up scoring 19 points.

CIT:

Round 1: USC Trojans-96, Eastern Illinois Panthers-77--USC took the lead at the onset and never gave it up. At the half the Trojans were on top 51-36. They went on to crush the Panthers 96-77 PG Ryan Kincade scored 22 points and PF Slavi Kraka had 13 points and 10 rebounds for USC.

Round 2: USC Trojans-56, Arkansas State Red Wolves-54—The Trojans jumped out to a 31-22 halftime lead. The Red Wolves missed a shot at the buzzer so USC escaped razor 2 point victory. Leading USC was SG Ryan Kincade with 10 points.

Round 3: Southern Jaguars-67, USC Trojans-58—The score remained very close throughout the first half with Southern coming out on top 31-29. But the Jaguars leapt out to a 15 point lead in the 2nd half and put an end to the Trojans season by only allowing USC to hit 31% of their shots. PF Slavi Kraka was the top scorer for USC with 15 points.

NCAA:

Round 1:

Arizona Wildcats-97, Albany Great Danes-73: The Wildcats took care of business with PG Kelvin Smith scoring 23 and SG Darrell Walker hitting for 21.

Utah Utes-73, UNLV Runnin’ Rebels-69 (OT): The first half ended up knotted 33-33 and the game was still tied at 64-64 when regulation time expired. But Utah tightened its defense in OT to win by 4. PF Mark Wall dropped in 24 points for Utah.

Oregon Ducks-59, Northern Arizona Lumberjacks-46: Oregon escaped the first half with a 30-29 lead. The Ducks then put a defensive squeeze on the Lumberjacks to pull ahead and win convincingly. C Larry Graves scored 18 points and hauled in 10 boards for Oregon.

Washington Huskies-82, New Mexico Lobos-67: The Huskies started slow but built up 37-26 advantage. Washington then gradually windened their lead to win easily. The Huskies were led by 2 reserves as David Smith and Richie Bell both scored 16.

UAB Blazers-71, UCLA Bruins-65: The Bruins had a disastrous first half and trailed the Blazers 40-25 at the intermission. UCLA came back in the 2nd half but had too much ground to make up. Leading UCLA was C Jamal Magloires with 16 points.

Round 2:

Arizona Wildcats-91, Georgia Bulldogs-65: Georgia came out on fire and took an early 10 point lead, but Arizona seem unfazed and surgically began cutting up Georgia’s defense. By the end of the first half, the Wildcats had a 44-36 lead. The 2nd half was all Arizona as they steadily added to their lead and won going away. SG Darrell Walker had his 2nd straight strong game, scoring 27, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing out 4 assists, and getting 2 steals and 4 blocks while holding Georgia’s SG Jack Wall to just 4 points.

Maryland Terrapins-69, Utah Utes-55: Utah was in charge in the first half and led 37-32 at the break. But the Terrapins wilted the Utes’ offense in the 2nd half with a defense that allowed Utah to score just 18 second half points. Maryland methodically eliminated their scoring deficit and then slowly but surely pulled away for what turned out to be an easy win. Utah’s PF Mark Wall scored 19 points but no other Utes scored in double figures.

Oregon Ducks-83, West Virginia Mountaineers-78: Neither team could open more than a 7 point advantage throughout the entire game. There were 14 lead changes and 10 ties during the game. At the end of the first half, Oregon held a 43-39 lead. The outcome remained in doubt, though, in the 2nd half. For the Ducks PF Matt Reeves score 18 while C Larry Graves had 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Washington Huskies-76, Miami (OH) Red Hawks-61: The lead jockeyed back and forth early in the game, but the Huskies took control midway though the half and held a 39-31 lead when the teams went to the locker room. Washington continued to dominate throughout the 2nd half and was never seriously threatened by the Red Hawks who came in ranked 6th in the polls. Washington’s PG Kelly Phillips dropped in 22 points.

3rd Round (Sweet 16):

Arizona Wildcats-75, Oklahoma Sooners-58: The Sooners hung with the Wildcats throughout the 1st half and trailed by just 35-30 score at the break. Arizona quickly dispelled any concerns about an upset in the 2nd half and built a 24 point lead before breezing to another sure-fire victory. C Cliff Rivera led the Wildcats’ with 19 points and PF Marques Smith had a double-double (15 points and 11 rebounds).

Oregon Ducks-81, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets-69: Oregon quickly asserted their dominance and took a 46-31 lead after the end of the first 20 minutes of play. The Ducks maintained a solid double digit lead throughout the 2nd half to put together another impressive victory. C Larry Graves poured in 28 points while hauling down 9 boards.

Iowa Hawkeyes-67, Washington Huskies-59: Washington jumped out to an 11 point lead but Iowa came back and cruised to their largest lead of the game as the first half ended with Hawkeyes ahead 39-28. The Huskies fought back early in the 2nd half and regained the lead. The lead see-sawed for several minutes before the Hawkeyes pulled away late to knock the Huskies out of the tournament. Even though Washington outshot Iowa, the Hawkeyes totally dominated the boards which was the difference in this game. Washington’s C Stanley Towers scored 15 points.

Round 4 (Elite 8):

Arizona Wildcats-86, Indiana Hoosiers-73: The first half was a donnybrook. Indiana controlled the early going but then the Wildcats caught up. At the buzzer ending the first stanza, Indiana led 37-36. Arizona came out used a rebounding and turnover advantage in the 2nd half to score 50 points in the half and open an 18 point lead before settling for a solid win. PG Kelvin Smith led the scoring for Arizona with 19 points and C Cliff Rivera scored 15 and picked off 12 boards.

Oregon Ducks-65, Iowa Hawkeyes-63: Iowa held sway throughout the first half and led 29-23 at the break. The Ducks got their offense in gear in the 2nd half, scoring particularly well inside but could never lead by more than 4 points. During the game there were 15 lead changes and 8 ties. With the score tied with 18 seconds to go, Oregon played for thee last shot and worked the ball inside for a contested but successful 6 foot turn around jumper by C Larry Graves who was the leading scorer for Oregon with 18 points to go along with his 13 rebounds. PF Matt Reeves also had a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards.

Round 5 (Final 4):

The NCAA Selection Committee did a great job this year since all of the final four were #1 seeds.

Syracuse Orange-83, Arizona Wildcats-81: This was the game of the tournament with an amazing 28 lead changes and 17 ties. Syracuse held a slim 38-37 lead at the end of the first half. The two teams battled throughout the entire 2nd half and with Arizona on top by a single point, Syracuse beat the Wildcats’ full court press, and as the buzzer was sounding, PG Gamal Lyde lofted up a 30 footer that went cleaning through the hoop to disappoint the Arizona faithful and pin the solitary loss of the entire season on the Wildcats. PG Kelvin Smith knocked down 25 points and SG Darrell Walker hit for 22 and PF Marques Smith had 10 points and 10 boards. Syracuse’s PF Justin Madsen scored 26 while PG Gamal Lyde finished with 20 and C Walter Harper had a double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds).

Oregon Ducks-81, Seton Hall Pirates-70: The first half was very close all the way as Seton Hall came away with a 41-39 halftime advantage. The game continued to be close for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half (there had been 17 lead changes and 8 ties up to that point in the game). But Oregon then clamped down defensively and pulled away to move on to the championship game. SG John Barnes scored 25 points and had 7 rebounds for Oregon.

Round 6 (Championship):

Oregon Ducks-69, Syracuse Orange-54: Syracuse looked to be on their way to a victory in the first half as they opened a 10 point lead, but the Ducks narrowed the gap to 37-35 at the break. Then in the 2nd half, Oregon totally shut down the Orange offense allowing them to score just 17 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Meanwhile the Ducks doubled Syracuse’s 2nd point output to come away with a dominating victory. C Larry Graves completed an extremely successful NCAA Tournament with 26 points and 8 rebounds while teammate SG John Barnes had similar success throughout the tournament, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds while getting 3 steals and 2 blocks. Larry Graves was selected as the tournament’s MVP.

[PointGuard]

Interview of Coach KD Durst (KD) by Carlos Ortez (CO) of Denver’s KDVR-TV:

CO: Coach now that you’ve completed two seasons coaching the Buffaloes basketball team, how would you compare the two seasons?
KD: The first season was definitely difficult. We were short-handed and weren’t able to compete well within the Pac-12 conference. I’d characterize this past season as a building year during which we brought in some good new players and acquainted them with our offensive and defensive strategies. Our early efforts in Pac-12 play were disappointing but I think we matured and played well during the 2nd half of the conference schedule even though we lost our best scorer to a season-ending injury. We were happy to get into a post-season tournament but having to play the opening round on the road kept us from being successful in the CBI Tourney.
CO: What are your expectations for next season?
KD: I’m very optimistic, Carlos. We are bringing back everyone since we had no seniors this year. We’re on the right trajectory, and I think we will move up in the conference standings. But as you saw, we had 5 good teams get into the NCAA Tournament and with both Oregon and Arizona making it into the Final Four and Oregon winning it all, there obviously will continue to be some teams next season with a lot more talent than we possess.
CO: Who do you expect will be your team’s leaders next season?
KD: We’ve got a lot of players who could fill that role. We didn’t have one stand-out player this past season, but several all of our starters and a number of our reserves who played well. We’ll just have to wait and see who develops the most. At this point, I think all starting positions are in play since we had a very good bench this past year.
CO: What aspect of the game do you feel your team needs to improve the most upon?
KD: I think we need to learn how to get free for good open shots so we can improve our shooting percentage which was a sore point during many of our games this past season. I think with the increased maturity and experience we will have this coming year, we will be more confident and develop more of a killer instinct so we player tougher in the waning moments of games. Another thing is that we really don’t have a scholarship player who is a true center. But we do have some power forwards who did a pretty good job playing the center position this past season. With the big, strong and exceptionally talented centers some of the Pac-12 teams have, it’s a real challenge for our players to contest them. Since we didn’t have any scholarships opening, we weren’t able to recruit a center this year, but I expect a few of players we have to continue to improve.
CO: Rumors have it that your job has been in peril this season. Are you worried?
KD: What? Me worry? (laughing) You know, that’s something totally out of my control. My staff and I have worked hard to develop our players. I think the team made some excellent progress this season and we have the makings of a solid team next year.
CO: What’s your plans for the off-season?
KD: You know a college coach really has no off-season. There are always things to do and work on. In fact my assistant coaches and I are already making plans for the coming season.

[PointGuard]

Reconciliation?

Two months of thought and many discussions lead to no resolution. But we agreed that I will go back to Youngstown after the basketball season and the two of us will spend time together to see if we can work things out.

[PointGuard]

National Awards garnered by the Pac-12:

Arizona’s Paul Jones was the NCAA Coach of the Year.
UCLA’s Jamal Magloire was a 2nd Team All-American
Arizona’s Darrell Walker was a 2nd Team All-American
USC’s Ryan Kincade was a 2nd Team All-American

Other Awards:

No Colorado players gained national or Pac-12 awards

Andre Lilly of Youngstown State was the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year
Doylan Anderson of Youngstown State was Horizon League 1st Team All-Conference
Andre Lilly of Youngstown State was Horizon League 1st Team All-Conference

[PointGuard]

Meeting with Jake Meacolm, Athletic Director for Colorado:

Even though Wayne Dewayne, a rather strange dude on Sportsnet Radio has been repeatedly saying Bryant Marshack, my 1st Assistant Coach, should take over from me as head coach since the team has never lost a game that Bryant has coached (he filled in for me when the team beat Utah so has a 1-0 record), I made it through my performance review with the AD and will return next season as the Buffaloes head coach. Jake does mention that he received a “fan” petition calling for my head. Since I met 2 of the 4 goals Meacolm had set (finishing above .500 and improving school prestige (from 40 to 42), as well as qualifying for the CBI Tournament) while failing to meet two (finish in top half of the conference and qualify for the NIT Tournament), Meacolm was generally supportive although not effusive in his praise. He still wants more rapid improvements to the program and mentioned how much higher conference prestige (83) was than ours (42). But I got the feeling that my job security was a tad higher than it was midway through the season.
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I asked for a budget increase but that was denied. Our budget remains much lower than most all other schools in the Pac-12. So that makes the message…compete with the big boys, but not with big boy resources.

I let Jake know that I’d like to upgrade our pre-conference schedule for this coming season. I think we need to take on a few good teams before conference play begins this year. He said he’d do what he can.

His goals for us remain the same: (1) finish over .500; (2) finish in the top half of the conference; (3) qualify for the NIT Tourney; and (4) improve school prestige. I think all four are reasonable expectations. In fact, our team goal exceeds his in that we focused on getting to the NCAA Tourney rather than the NIT.