Colorado Postgame Report

#1
cncchris33

cncchris33

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#1
1. Tale of two games. At the 10:00 mark of the first half we had a 23-8 lead. We won 56-47. On pace for 92 points and we finish with 56. The 2-3 zone that Colorado went to really caused us problems.

2. When we managed to get the ball in the middle of that zone, our bigs couldn't buy a basket from 15 feet and in. Fulk, Pons, EJA, Nkamhoua, and Plavsic finished a combined 7-29 from the field.

3. Pons looked particularly off. His shot was flat and short all night long. Not all was lost, however. He did manage to lead the team in rebounds, which is the area I believed he could improve the most. He finished with 10 boards.

4. As I predicted, our length and athleticism, defensively, frustrated Wright (CU's leading scorer). We held him to 9 points while he came in averaging 22 ppg. Keon Johnson, particularly, seemed to aggravate him with his length and ability to recover. He only managed to get off 8 shots while averaging 14 attempts per game, and he turned it over 5 times.

5. Keon Johnson looked pretty solid defensively, and he got in a bit more of a rhythm on offense as the game went on. He was a little loose and careless with the ball, leading the team in TOs. He is aggressive on defense and looked to be pretty vocal and energized.

6. Springer looked better offensively than defensively, which I didnt expect. He got lost a couple times defensively, but hit two big 3s. He is going to need to attack the basket more going forward and work on his FT shooting. He took one and missed badly.

7. Bailey led the team in minutes, helping to contain Wright on defense. His stroke is really pretty and he had some big shots in the first half.

8. Anosike is strong as an ox, though he may have gone against the biggest guy he'll play against tonight in Battey. Battey made EJA look small. His shot was off tonight, but he got some big boards, early on.

9. Our ball-handling as a team looked really sloppy, at times. Vescovi has improved his right hand quite a bit, but he is still very left dominant. Bailey was loose, James was loose. Johnson and Springer looked like freshmen handling the ball. Hopefully that improves.

10. Vescovi looked like the most complete player on the floor in this particular game. Still has a pretty shot, finds open guys, still forced a couple things, and probably wakes up with a shiner in the morning courtesy of Keon.

11. Refs were awful, tonight. Just really bad and inconsistent, especially with regards to block/charge calls and deflections.
 
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#5
#5
Overall, it was a solid win. Colorado is a good team. I think the team we saw the first 7 minutes of the game is the potential that this team has once they can clean up some early season jitters.

I don’t want to overreact or under react, but hey that’s what this board is for, right? So here are my thoughts.

#1) Pons and Fulkerson. What a disappointment. I expected more from the veterans and I believe their struggles are largely the reason the game was as close as it was. I’ll cut everyone some slack because of the weird off-season, but with all the talent on this team Pons might regret not declaring for the draft if he doesn’t shape up. He was abysmal on the offensive end which is the biggest reason he came back, to improve it.

#2) Keon and Jaden should be starting. I feel like in a few games, we’ll be seeing Santi and Josiah coming off the bench. It’s just one game, but I was far more impressed by the freshmen than I thought I would be by the end of the game.

#3) We still struggle with all the classic Rick Barnes’ coached-team flaws. Long stretches without any baskets and frequent turnovers. You have to mitigate those droughts or it’s going to cost you come tournament time. Just one year I’d like to see a Barnes’ team be more consistent with this but I know it’s tough.

#4) The defense is elite. Not much else needs to be said. It’s championship caliber. Bravo.
 
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#7
#7
cncchris33 said:
1. Tale of two games. At the 10:00 mark of the first half we had a 23-8 lead. We won 56-47. On pace for 92 points and we finish with 56. The 2-3 zone that Colorado went to really caused us problems.

2. When we managed to get the ball in the middle of that zone, our bigs couldn't buy a basket from 15 feet and in. Fulk, Pons, EJA, Nkamhoua, and Plavsic finished a combined 7-29 from the field.

3. Pons looked particularly off. His shot was flat and short all night long. Not all was lost, however. He did manage to lead the team in rebounds, which is the area I believed he could improve the most. He finished with 10 boards.

4. As I predicted, our length and athleticism, defensively, frustrated Wright (CU's leading scorer). We held him to 9 points while he came in averaging 22 ppg. Keon Johnson, particularly, seemed to aggravate him with his length and ability to recover. He only managed to get off 8 shots while averaging 14 attempts per game, and he turned it over 5 times.

5. Keon Johnson looked pretty solid defensively, and he got in a bit more of a rhythm on offense as the game went on. He was a little loose and careless with the ball, leading the team in TOs. He is aggressive on defense and looked to be pretty vocal and energized.

6. Springer looked better offensively than defensively, which I didnt expect. He got lost a couple times defensively, but hit two big 3s. He is going to need to attack the basket more going forward and work on his FT shooting. He took one and missed badly.

7. Bailey led the team in minutes, helping to contain Wright on defense. His stroke is really pretty and he had some big shots in the first half.

8. Anosike is strong as an ox, though he may have gone against the biggest guy he'll play against tonight in Battey. Battey made EJA look small. His shot was off tonight, but he got some big boards, early on.

9. Our ball-handling as a team looked really sloppy, at times. Vescovi has improved his right hand quite a bit, but he is still very left dominant. Bailey was loose, James was loose. Johnson and Springer looked like freshmen handling the ball. Hopefully that improves.

10. Vescovi looked like the most complete player on the floor in this particular game. Still has a pretty shot, finds open guys, still forced a couple things, and probably wakes up with a shiner in the morning courtesy of Keon.

11. Refs were awful, tonight. Just really bad and inconsistent, especially with regards to block/charge calls and deflections.
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Thanks for the write-up chris. I wasn't able to watch the game. Listened to some of it. Always enjoy your write-ups
 
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#9
#9
Agreed on all points, especially on Vescovi. I was throwing hands and yelling at the TV when he turned the ball over against that weak half court trap all because he refused to go right. No clue how that hasn’t been fixed more by now, but I’m gonna try to reserve judgement for a few games. This team plays like the did they first 10 minutes and there’s not many out there who are capable of beating us.
 
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#12
#12
Good write up Chris.

The thing that bothered me most is how our offense struggled against the 2-3 zone, we struggled with it last year as well but seemed to really struggle tonight. They really extended it to try and take the 3 away while in the zone which they did fairly well, opting to leave the middle open and we could t take advantage of it. There was multiple opportunities for lobs and skip passes in to the baseline roamed under the basket, usually was Pons and some Fulky, that wasn’t taken advantage of. But you’re right, 8-15 feet from basket our forwards and centers were downright awful, shooting and interior passing. Schofield and Williams were really good at that so that gives hope we can improve there.
I also thought the guards were very hesitant to penetrate the zone. Keon did a couple times and created good looks just before his back to back TO’s sent him to the bench. With him, Santi, and Springer there’s no reason dribble penetration should be an issue for us this year.

And Keon is special. Playing defense like that in his first college game, just wow... Once he learns to limit his TO’s and that he can’t make certain passes in college, and gets more comfortable with his dribble penetration, he could start over Santi at point and even be one of the best guards in the SEC if not the country.
 
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#14
#14
Peyton Berry said:
Good write up Chris.

The thing that bothered me most is how our offense struggled against the 2-3 zone, we struggled with it last year as well but seemed to really struggle tonight. They really extended it to try and take the 3 away while in the zone which they did fairly well, opting to leave the middle open and we could t take advantage of it. There was multiple opportunities for lobs and skip passes in to the baseline roamed under the basket, usually was Pons and some Fulky, that wasn’t taken advantage of. But you’re right, 8-15 feet from basket our forwards and centers were downright awful, shooting and interior passing. Schofield and Williams were really good at that so that gives hope we can improve there.
I also thought the guards were very hesitant to penetrate the zone. Keon did a couple times and created good looks just before his back to back TO’s sent him to the bench. With him, Santi, and Springer there’s no reason dribble penetration should be an issue for us this year.

And Keon is special. Playing defense like that in his first college game, just wow... Once he learns to limit his TO’s and that he can’t make certain passes in college, and gets more comfortable with his dribble penetration, he could start over Santi at point and even be one of the best guards in the SEC if not the country.
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Yeah, I’m not too worried about the 2-3 zone. As another poster pointed out somewhere, last year Washington ran the same thing and we cooked them. Pons and John will get back to hitting those mid range zone busters with more regularity once they’ve got their legs back
 
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#17
#17
BruinVol said:
Keon was exactly what most of us that had seen him in person excepted

A physical dominant stud on Defense and raw on offense
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Yep! His added weight has made him a monster defensively I think. Another thing, he's always been great along the baselines on both ends, he's dominant in that space.
 
#20
#20
I disagree about the freshman starting. Vescovi is not losing his spot unless this changes quite a bit for him. He brings something offensively that neither of the freshman bring. And he is vastly improved defensively. Never going to be elite defender but he is a "contributing defender" now and that will help his minutes because of what he brings on offense. Keon starting for JJJ is not a stretch at all. That might happen sooner rather than later. The way Keon moves is just different. The bounce and quickness he possesses with his size and length is unfair. And he plays with great energy.

Peoples view of Springer is boosted by the fact that he hit two wide-open 3s. But everything else he did was not good, offensively or defensively. I don't say that to insinuate that he is not good. I really like his HS film and think he will be really good eventually. But Keon looks much more ready to contribute early. That is based on just one game so who knows. Going to enjoy whatever happens because this team is elite and his quality depth. I thought Nkamhoua looked much more comfortable and confident.

TheMookieMonster said:
Overall, it was a solid win. Colorado is a good team. I think the team we saw the first 7 minutes of the game is the potential that this team has once they can clean up some early season jitters.

I don’t want to overreact or under react, but hey that’s what this board is for, right? So here are my thoughts.

#1) Pons and Fulkerson. What a disappointment. I expected more from the veterans and I believe their struggles are largely the reason the game was as close as it was. I’ll cut everyone some slack because of the weird off-season, but with all the talent on this team Pons might regret not declaring for the draft if he doesn’t shape up. He was abysmal on the offensive end which is the biggest reason he came back, to improve it.

#2) Keon and Jaden should be starting. I feel like in a few games, we’ll be seeing Santi and Josiah coming off the bench. It’s just one game, but I was far more impressed by the freshmen than I thought I would be by the end of the game.

#3) We still struggle with all the classic Rick Barnes’ coached-team flaws. Long stretches without any baskets and frequent turnovers. You have to mitigate those droughts or it’s going to cost you come tournament time. Just one year I’d like to see a Barnes’ team be more consistent with this but I know it’s tough.

#4) The defense is elite. Not much else needs to be said. It’s championship caliber. Bravo.
Click to expand...
 
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