Colorado 1/15 9:00 ESPN+

[swilsonsp4]

The Buffs are down at the half to WV in Boulder, 40-29. They trailed virtually the entire half.

CO are prone to turning the ball over, and the first half was no different. The Mountaineers, who do force TO's, have given the Buffaloes trouble (11 TO's).

Both teams have played exclusively man-to-man.

[sedz]

Oops, wrong thread

[Rufus]

I don't know if it would be a real indicator of who could coach more so than who could create chemistry or not. In today's game you may have five new starters on the team every year, and chemistry can't be forced. Before we could watch a freshmen learn how to be a bearcat through the years until in his senior year when he then became that vocal leader on the floor. Today we fan's have to learn new names and numbers every year and no one to carry the brand to the next version. I think in large part that is wrong this year, we have no upper classmen to show how it's done. D. Skillings theoretically should be that guy this year but just don't have the makeup to do it. I think that's what Leo refers to as a floor leader.

[bearcatlifer]

I heard someone say 2 or 3 years ago, when the transfer portal was just heating up,"now we are going to see who can really coach "vs. who can just sit back and gather in the best players based on their program.
Since then we've seen coach K resign and Calipari flounder to name just 2. Are we going to see if our man can really coach?

[Bearcat93]

It’s a hash mark in the “W” column, but CO missing their top two scorers and the overall flow of the game doesn’t offer much relief in my eyes. The FT shooting was the difference in the game. Only thing to do now is see how the next few games play out. I’m just not a proponent of aspiring to only winning the games that are less challenging and accepting the losses against the ranked teams. I’d really like to see Wes out coach someone, beat a high net team. Heck, the Dayton win looks poor now.

[bearcatbret]

Pregame article. https://fanrecap.com/buffaloes-face-...FBm8e1Aa8DpG_Q

[sedz]

has anyone, all year, tried to take a charge this year?

Charging has nearly been eliminated from college basketball. With the restricted arc and the rule that secondary defenders must be set when the offensive player begins his upward motion, all the calls that used to be 50/50 block/charge are now all called blocks (or no call). Gone is the era of help defenders planting their feet in front of slashers and I think the game is better for it. It's too bad Jarron Cumberland couldn't have played in this era. The rule changed just a couple years after he left.

[CatCane]

Page is much better offensively than Aziz. However whenever I saw CU drive the lane for a wide open layup I saw Page standing outside the rim looking on. When he learns to play defense I think he will be solid.

[longtimefan]

A road win in the Big 12 is huge against anybody. Interestingly, if both teams shot their normal FT percentage, UC would have lost.

[leo from jersey]

I'm happy that we changed things up on offense a bit. We ran a lot of inverted sets in the second half. Check out these two plays: https://x.com/bendog28/status/1879744104437051558

Simas sets up on the block and Aziz stays at the top of the key throughout both plays. Jizzle gives up the ball and then just goes and stands in the corner. Simas can then come off of down screens or handoffs and the interior is left wide open for the wings (in this case Mitchell) to cut into. The offense flows much better when Jizzle doesn't have the ball in his hands at the top. This is the same concept as the point forward I've been wanting to try. Everything is focused on Simas in the middle of the floor here. More of that please.

when there was effort to get SL open, he came through mostly. Much better than the last few games. I expect more, but its a start.

[sedz]

I'm happy that we changed things up on offense a bit. We ran a lot of inverted sets in the second half. Check out these two plays: https://x.com/bendog28/status/1879744104437051558

Simas sets up on the block and Aziz stays at the top of the key throughout both plays. Jizzle gives up the ball and then just goes and stands in the corner. Simas can then come off of down screens or handoffs and the interior is left wide open for the wings (in this case Mitchell) to cut into. The offense flows much better when Jizzle doesn't have the ball in his hands at the top. This is the same concept as the point forward I've been wanting to try. Everything is focused on Simas in the middle of the floor here. More of that please.

[leeraymond]

Day Day got a bulk of his points from his drives. Has to be clear-outs, but he did drive into some traffic successfully.

Yeah Leo, I checked that out too. To me, Thomas needs to shoot the ball from the three-point line a little more. Thomas is shooting 39.5% overall on the season from three. In conference play he is shooting just 30.8%. However, James compared to Thomas, is shooting a dismal 7.7% (1-13) in conference play. In fact, James went into the CU game 0-12 (.000) from three. He hit the first one last night. On the season overall, James is shooting 28.6% from three. It seems to me, from the lead guard spot, Thomas gives UC its best chance to get long range scoring. However, it appears that right now, Thomas is focused on getting the ball into the paint. You would think that Thomas would get to the free throw line a little more.

A side note: Thomas also got his shot blocked a few times last night trying to drive on the 6'11" big. Thomas surprised me when he just laid the ball up on the break-away instead of trying to jam it. Maybe he is learning how to win. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[sedz]

We scored under a point per possession yet again, but it was good enough for a win. Simas was our best player with 4.2 net points, finally connecting on a few triples. Reed came in second with 3.8 net points in only 13 minutes. He posted a whopping 16.4 defensive BPM, even besting Colorado's Dak and his 8 blocks. 3 steals, 3 defensive boards, 2 assists, and zero turnovers is a solid line for only a third of the game. Day Day and Jizzle had the worst games - we only got 2 assists from the PG spot.

[GoBearcats31]

After going 16/21 from the FT line last night, UC has vaulted ... up to 341 out of 355 DI teams in free throw percentage.

UC (63.87%) is one spot behind #340 Utah (63.98% but on 109 more attempts by Utah) - UC faces Utah twice in the next four weeks. TCU is even worse at 62.81%.

Colorado is one of the better FT shooting teams in the country (and trailing only UCF and Texas Tech ever so slightly among tops in the conference) despite a very Bearcat-like 13/21 last night.

[Gmann]

JJ still in a funk, Aziz contributed nothing whatsoever offensively or defensively, Mitchell raised his free throw pct but otherwise was held to single digit in offense. They got the monkey off their back but I saw nothing in the way of correcting the myriad of issues that they have. But a win is a win and a road win. However it was good to CJ out for significant minutes and even scoring. Hopefully he can get his bball balance established and be a major contributor this season. As it looks were gonna need all the shooters we can get our hands on. One more thing who on here thinks we would be better off with Page starting / and or getting Aziz' minutes?

I'd like to see Page get more minutes over Aziz. At least they need to guard Page unlike Aziz. I see Aziz' value on the boards and defense but he is a major liability on offense. They need someone who is a threat to score at the basket in order to open up shots from the perimeter. These guys need to finish with strength and through contact. There is too much fading away and flipping it up aimlessly.