Brooks: Pivotal Four-Game Stretch Looming For Boyle’s Buffs
November 29, 2016 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
CSU kicks it off with Wednesday night visit to Coors Events Center
BOULDER – Quite naturally, Tad Boyle's focus is on Colorado State, his Colorado men's basketball team's next opponent and fierce in-state rival. But being a big-picture guy, Boyle also is quite aware, thank you, of the four-game stretch being launched by the Rams' Wednesday night visit to the Coors Events Center.
Talk about telling . . .
By midnight on Dec. 10th the Buffs should have a fairly solid idea of how solid they are, if their identity and what Boyle intends for them are in harmony.
On that night they play at BYU, concluding a pivotal non-conference run that first matches them against CSU (7 p.m. tip, Pac-12 Networks), sends them to Portland (Saturday, Dec. 3), pits them against Xavier (Wednesday, Dec. 7, CEC) and concludes just over the Rockies in Provo, Utah.
Boyle's team currently is 5-1, but a very unpredictable and inconsistent 5-1. The Buffs have had their moments, such as the 68-54 win over then-No. 22 Texas in the consolation game of the Legends Classic. But other moments haven't shone so brightly – such as the first half of their 89-83 Legends loss to Notre Dame and the first half of their 75-60 win on Sunday against Wofford.
Those halves leave Boyle wholly perplexed, not because he doesn't have an answer but because he's struggling to get his players to provide it. Don't get him wrong, the Wofford win was like any other – he'll gladly take it.
At the same time, it left him "really disappointed." After reviewing the tape, "I thought the first half was even worse than I thought it was during the game. I knew it wasn't great during the game but it was unacceptable."
MOST UNACCEPTABLE, HE SAID, was a lack of "energy and effort on the defensive end. That's where it's at. These guys want it to be easy, they don't realize that to be good is hard. They think it's easy, if you show up people are going to bow down to you. Life doesn't work like that and these guys don't understand that."
If you've heard Boyle say this before, then rest assured you'll hear him say it again. The team identity that we mentioned above is rooted in defense and rebounding, which won't change as long as Boyle is upright and in charge of CU hoops.
When I asked him Monday morning about this team establishing the ID he wants, he responded, "I don't know, you'd have to ask the players. I'm a broken record; I've been talking about the same stuff for the last six years. Maybe they're tone deaf to me, I don't know. Again, I thought Notre Dame – we would have learned from that experience. But we obviously didn't. So hopefully we'll learn from the Wofford experience.
"Do we have an identity? I know what I want it to be – defense and rebounding. Our numbers are pretty good but they come and they go. The first half Wofford outrebounds us by one . . . the second half we outrebound them by eight, OK? What's the difference? These guys don't have an answer, other than looking in the mirror."
I didn't poll every player about the team's identity, but I did ask sophomore Thomas Akyazili and junior George King. Akyazili said, essentially, that establishing the defense/rebounding ID that Boyle wants is a work in progress.
"I don't think (it's there yet)," he said. "We're six games in, so I think that's normal. I think when we're about to go into the Pac-12 we'll have our identity."
King was more blunt: "I think we know what it is but honestly I don't think it's our identity yet. All good teams have an identity and I might be contradicting myself, but speaking from (Sunday) I don't think we had it. Offensively I think we are gifted but we haven't established our identity (in defense and rebounding)."
Against the Rams, who pride themselves on hard-nosed board work, the rebounding component will be critical for the Buffs. Through six games they've out-boarded their opponents by an average of 44-35. By contrast, through six games (CSU also is 5-1) the Rams own a 43-32 rebounding advantage. In their 88-77 win last season in Fort Collins, the Buffs outrebounded the Rams 42-36.
Boyle has a veteran team; seven members of his rotation are juniors/seniors. You might think leadership from the upperclassmen is a given. But then . . .
I asked Boyle how much of establishing an identity is tied to leadership and he answered, "Everything . . . all of it. And look, the bottom line is that it all falls on me. I'm the head coach. So I'm not going to put it on the players, I'm going to put it on myself. What I've got to do a better job of is when it's not there, sub it (in)."
KING AND HIS FELLOW VETERAN Buffs know how intense the Rams will be on Wednesday night. Boyle will be dismayed and distraught if his team doesn't match it.
"Look, I hope I don't have to worry about our energy and effort on Wednesday night," he said. "But the difference between good and average teams is the good teams do it consistently. They do it on the road and at home. They do it if the game is tipped off at noon or nine o'clock at night.
"It doesn't matter where, when or who they play. They play, and they play the way they're supposed to play. This group . . . now maybe a half of the Notre Dame game and a half against Wofford they've been pretty good. But a half isn't good enough to win."
And competing for one half in each of the four upcoming games would be disastrous. Akyazili concedes that in Sunday's first half against Wofford "we didn't bring enough energy, not enough effort. If we do that and we take care of business on defense and rebound we'll be fine."
King echoed that, but added his overall game is not merely a couple of steps from where it needs to be. "There's another four or five, maybe six steps for me to take, for sure. From the first game of the season to this last one I haven't played to the best of my capabilities. (Consistency) is not there – all of the above."
Boyle believes the Buffs grasp the significance of Wednesday night's game and the three games that follow. But a coach never really knows until the ball is tossed up and the final buzzer sounds.
"We'll find out," he said. "These next two weeks are going to tell a lot about this team. I wish I could say with confidence that, yeah, absolutely (his players grasp it). If we could have come back against Wofford and had a little bit more of the eye of the tiger and energy on the defensive end, I'd say, yeah, I think so."
Of course, he'd like to replace "think" with something more definitive but the Buffs' inconsistency thus far won't allow it. Maybe that's about to change? It's time.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Talk about telling . . .
By midnight on Dec. 10th the Buffs should have a fairly solid idea of how solid they are, if their identity and what Boyle intends for them are in harmony.
On that night they play at BYU, concluding a pivotal non-conference run that first matches them against CSU (7 p.m. tip, Pac-12 Networks), sends them to Portland (Saturday, Dec. 3), pits them against Xavier (Wednesday, Dec. 7, CEC) and concludes just over the Rockies in Provo, Utah.
Boyle's team currently is 5-1, but a very unpredictable and inconsistent 5-1. The Buffs have had their moments, such as the 68-54 win over then-No. 22 Texas in the consolation game of the Legends Classic. But other moments haven't shone so brightly – such as the first half of their 89-83 Legends loss to Notre Dame and the first half of their 75-60 win on Sunday against Wofford.
Those halves leave Boyle wholly perplexed, not because he doesn't have an answer but because he's struggling to get his players to provide it. Don't get him wrong, the Wofford win was like any other – he'll gladly take it.
At the same time, it left him "really disappointed." After reviewing the tape, "I thought the first half was even worse than I thought it was during the game. I knew it wasn't great during the game but it was unacceptable."
MOST UNACCEPTABLE, HE SAID, was a lack of "energy and effort on the defensive end. That's where it's at. These guys want it to be easy, they don't realize that to be good is hard. They think it's easy, if you show up people are going to bow down to you. Life doesn't work like that and these guys don't understand that."
If you've heard Boyle say this before, then rest assured you'll hear him say it again. The team identity that we mentioned above is rooted in defense and rebounding, which won't change as long as Boyle is upright and in charge of CU hoops.
When I asked him Monday morning about this team establishing the ID he wants, he responded, "I don't know, you'd have to ask the players. I'm a broken record; I've been talking about the same stuff for the last six years. Maybe they're tone deaf to me, I don't know. Again, I thought Notre Dame – we would have learned from that experience. But we obviously didn't. So hopefully we'll learn from the Wofford experience.
"Do we have an identity? I know what I want it to be – defense and rebounding. Our numbers are pretty good but they come and they go. The first half Wofford outrebounds us by one . . . the second half we outrebound them by eight, OK? What's the difference? These guys don't have an answer, other than looking in the mirror."
I didn't poll every player about the team's identity, but I did ask sophomore Thomas Akyazili and junior George King. Akyazili said, essentially, that establishing the defense/rebounding ID that Boyle wants is a work in progress.
"I don't think (it's there yet)," he said. "We're six games in, so I think that's normal. I think when we're about to go into the Pac-12 we'll have our identity."
King was more blunt: "I think we know what it is but honestly I don't think it's our identity yet. All good teams have an identity and I might be contradicting myself, but speaking from (Sunday) I don't think we had it. Offensively I think we are gifted but we haven't established our identity (in defense and rebounding)."
Against the Rams, who pride themselves on hard-nosed board work, the rebounding component will be critical for the Buffs. Through six games they've out-boarded their opponents by an average of 44-35. By contrast, through six games (CSU also is 5-1) the Rams own a 43-32 rebounding advantage. In their 88-77 win last season in Fort Collins, the Buffs outrebounded the Rams 42-36.
Boyle has a veteran team; seven members of his rotation are juniors/seniors. You might think leadership from the upperclassmen is a given. But then . . .
I asked Boyle how much of establishing an identity is tied to leadership and he answered, "Everything . . . all of it. And look, the bottom line is that it all falls on me. I'm the head coach. So I'm not going to put it on the players, I'm going to put it on myself. What I've got to do a better job of is when it's not there, sub it (in)."
KING AND HIS FELLOW VETERAN Buffs know how intense the Rams will be on Wednesday night. Boyle will be dismayed and distraught if his team doesn't match it.
"Look, I hope I don't have to worry about our energy and effort on Wednesday night," he said. "But the difference between good and average teams is the good teams do it consistently. They do it on the road and at home. They do it if the game is tipped off at noon or nine o'clock at night.
"It doesn't matter where, when or who they play. They play, and they play the way they're supposed to play. This group . . . now maybe a half of the Notre Dame game and a half against Wofford they've been pretty good. But a half isn't good enough to win."
And competing for one half in each of the four upcoming games would be disastrous. Akyazili concedes that in Sunday's first half against Wofford "we didn't bring enough energy, not enough effort. If we do that and we take care of business on defense and rebound we'll be fine."
King echoed that, but added his overall game is not merely a couple of steps from where it needs to be. "There's another four or five, maybe six steps for me to take, for sure. From the first game of the season to this last one I haven't played to the best of my capabilities. (Consistency) is not there – all of the above."
Boyle believes the Buffs grasp the significance of Wednesday night's game and the three games that follow. But a coach never really knows until the ball is tossed up and the final buzzer sounds.
"We'll find out," he said. "These next two weeks are going to tell a lot about this team. I wish I could say with confidence that, yeah, absolutely (his players grasp it). If we could have come back against Wofford and had a little bit more of the eye of the tiger and energy on the defensive end, I'd say, yeah, I think so."
Of course, he'd like to replace "think" with something more definitive but the Buffs' inconsistency thus far won't allow it. Maybe that's about to change? It's time.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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