Colorado Postgame Report

[TheFlash1971]

Finally a team that wins along with a really good coach.

GO VOLS BB!!!!!

 

[VOLED]

Good write up Chris.

1) I felt like we got abused on the glass, but it was 38-32 so maybe that is just me.
2) Lots of sloppy, ill timed passes which should clean up.
3) Our ball handling was much worse than I expected. We might just have 2 secure ball handlers (3 if you want to count JJJ).
4) Our D has a chance to be stifling. I really didn't see a weak spot in this.
5) We won against a solid team and only brought our C game. Defense will keep you in games.

 

[therealitytheory]

If we shoot a reasonable pct. from 10-15ft. in the middle of their zone then it's a blowout. Seems like an easy fix - Pons, Fulky, and EJ practice a couple thousand of those before Saturday.

 

[Volfanatic_20]

Thanks for the write up @cncchris33. Wasn't able to watch the game and could sparingly catch some action on the radio.

I know it's game 1 and you have to think the freshman will get better/see more minutes. Do you think we are ranked correctly, under/overrated?

 

[Volfanatic_20]

Rob is the hoops expert so he knows way more than me, but just a couple of observations...

Tonight was perfect for Barnes and this team. They won. They flashed some really good moments and they played poorly/sloppy at times. Barnes has tape against someone else to teach off of and there is plenty of to teach as you would expect. Clearly this team got tired at times and it showed. Not practicing for two weeks will hurt conditioning, but they will be fine.

Defensively, I love where they are in game one. Much better on the ball defense, didn't over help on a regular basis like a year ago. Their length and quickness showed up. Their defense should be able to keep them in any game even if the offense struggles.

And this offense struggled against the zone. Someone is going to have to show they can hit a 15 footer because they will see more zone. My guess is that they haven't repped a ton of zone offense since returning to practice.

This team is clearly behind because of how the pre-season has gone, but I think this win was perfect for Barnes. Great teaching tape. Great for he and his staff to learn about combinations, rotation of players, etc. Tonight wasn't pretty. I didn't expect it to be, but to me there's no major red flags coming out of game one for this team.

-VQ

 

[Jpcisco]

Kinda ugly win to start the season but a win is a win. If the Vols big's are able to hit those open mid-range shots it would have been a blowout. It was evident for the entire game who the better team was, Tennessee is just so deep its almost mind blowing. Tennessee had probably 6 guys who had they been on Colorado's team they would have easily been the best player. Once they are able to work out the kinks and get into a flow this could be one of the best teams in program history. Talent everywhere. It was kinda ugly but I could see the potential this team has. Did Corey Walker play at all? Dont remember seeing him at all.

 

[BeecherVol]

For a first game, you take it. Colorado isnt a google team.

The talent is there, the biggest hurdle IMO is getting all the pieces functioning together in an odd (mildly put) year.

 

[BruinVol]

I am so proud of this board. We had a projected lottery pick have more TOs Than points in his first game, play very few minutes and no one is here complaining about it.

well done and that’s exactly how we should be approaching Keon right now. Stud athlete that needs some time to grow offensively. It’s going to be fun watching him develop boys!

 

[njvols]

No disrespect to JJJ , but Keon is what a real 5* player looks like. I agree, he will replace JJJ in starting lineup by mid- season. Springer is going to be a huge contributor as well

Don't see JJJ coming off the floor. Plenty opportunity for them both to be on the floor at same time. No one's talking about JJJ last night, but he had the best stat line on the team 8-6-3-3. I literally think there will be nights where we have 6-7 go double digits, and there may also be nights where certain individuals just go off. Pember and Cricket didn't play last night...this team could legit go 12-13 deep

 

[jmva1]

I’m honestly not too worried about the struggles with zone last night. They were getting the ball to the center of the floor like they needed to (even if they did have some sloppy passes trying to), but Fulky/Pons/Anosike missed almost every shot from that center of the floor area and just stopped shooting it after a while. Offense against that zone gets real tough if the defense doesn’t have to respect that shot. It’s a shot Fulky and Pons hit quite a bit last season and are fully capable of making consistently like they did in the Washington game last year. They’ll be fine.

Was surprised at first to see Bailey start but I think it’s clear Barnes wants his maturity and shooting ability out there. Would have liked to see him dive on the floor for the loose ball. He’ll get an earful from Barnes about that for sure. He was impressive though.

Still wanna see JJJ attack and finish at the basket. Thought he was still solid and looked much more poised and comfortable out there. Loved his tip in and 1, was a big basket.

Keon’s on ball defense, movement, way he gets around screens is next level. Low post guys better not think about dribbling the ball in his vicinity.

Would maybe even like to see Vescovi shoot a few more threes if he has the looks. Can tell he hesitates a bit as he doesn’t want to be selfish and spread the ball around (and doesn’t have the quickest shooting motion), but he’s such a pure shooter wouldn’t mind him shooting 5-6 a game.

Solid first win against a good team without us playing our best. Gonna be a fun season

 

[cncchris33]

Thanks for the write up @cncchris33. Wasn't able to watch the game and could sparingly catch some action on the radio.

I know it's game 1 and you have to think the freshman will get better/see more minutes. Do you think we are ranked correctly, under/overrated?

Kind of hard to say based on one game. A more talented team would have beaten us last night, but everyone else has something we don’t at this point; games under their belt. I’ll be interested to see how much we improve from now until Saturday.

I’d guess, based on what I saw that we are a little high, but based solely on us being behind everyone else in game reps. I think it would have been completely fair to knock us down the rankings a bit for missing all those games, despite it being outside our control, because it affects where we stand in experience at that point in time. That is a contributing factor.

Our defense was really, really good. We held their leading scorer to 9 pts on 8 attempts. He averages 22 points on 14 attempts, and he is a senior. He got shut down by a freshman in Keon Johnson. Come to think of it, he might not have scored the entire game when KJ guarded him. His 9 points may come on switches or with Springer and Bailey on him. They held their own, as well.

The offense was great for 10 minutes, and then it hit a wall. The zone frustrated us and we didn’t attack it well. When we did, we missed open shots. That will improve.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

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.

Thanks for the write up, you always do a nice job. Vols did what they had to do and got the win against a solid opponent. That was a game offensively for most of the players that they just need to put behind them. The defensive effort was good to see. We appear to be a deep team with lots of length and athleticism. The starting 5 CRB decided to go with was the right choice IMO. However, Keon looks extremely talented and will probably make his way into the first team lineup. Getting tested this early & securing the victory will only help this team grow. Hate to beat a dead horse but the zebras were dreadful last night. Steve Hamer did a great job as a commentator. GBO!

 

[cncchris33]

Thanks for the write up, you always do a nice job. Vols did what they had to do and got the win against a solid opponent. That was a game offensively for most of the players that they just need to put behind them. The defensive effort was good to see. We appear to be a deep team with lots of length and athleticism. The starting 5 CRB decided to go with was the right choice IMO. However, Keon looks extremely talented and will probably make his way into the first team lineup. Getting tested this early & securing the victory will only help this team grow. Hate to beat a dead horse but the zebras were dreadful last night. Steve Hamer did a great job as a commentator. GBO!

Thanks! Yeah, ole Steve wasn’t afraid to call an ace an ace, last night re: the officials.

 

[ndubvols]

Overall, about all you could realistically ask for from that game. Jumped to a big lead and don’t think we have it up the whole game.

Not too concerned with the zone offense as we were pretty good against it last year. Although, if pons/fulky/EJ struggle to hit that jumper I wouldn’t mind seeing JJJ at the high post against it. Don’t think it was an option last night though, as I’m not sure he could’ve held up against their big man defensively. Overall I think it was just something we hadn’t prepared for a whole lot to this point.

Only concern that I wasn’t really expecting was I’m not sure we have any elite ball handlers. Probably going to be a committee approach there, but hopefully one of the freshmen can setup up and help alleviate that concern.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

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.

I don’t believe Vescovi will lose his starting PG spot. The offense was very fluid with him at PG during our best offensive stretch in the first half going up 26-10. He does have some things to clean up though. SV is also the best long-range shooter on the team IMO.

 

[volroadwarrior]

For the first game with limited practice and preparation they did good against a good team. They usually play a few cream puffs to get their legs under them, but CO is no pushover.

 

[Lefteye]

First game out of the box with less than optimal pre season and pre game prep situation against a veteran team with 2 games already under their belt.

Was a good outcome and will be a great building block for the team.

Agree 100%. The conditioning should only improve as well. That contributed to Fulk getting into foul trouble. Imo He was slow getting to his spots so he was out of position a lot of the time and fouled trying to catch up. He was sucking air hard a couple of times. I think Pons and JJJ were sucking air hard a few times as well, and it felt like their shot came up short all night.

Was really happy with the way both Springer and Johnson played. And I hope their both okay with coming off the bench because that ALL LEFTY STARTING FIVE WAS AWESOME!!!! lol

 

[golfballs]

Yves and Anosike 2-13 woof. EJ didn’t grab a single defensive rebound which is kind of stunning. It was a weakness of ours last year and I was hopeful that he would be our horse on the defensive glass.

Agree w OP about ball handling. Hopefully it has more to do w being the first game. Vescovi did force it at times which he did last year too, so hopefully continues to improve. But OP is right there too... seemed like the most complete player for us, and I don’t really know what to make of that. JJJ went 0-3 from 3 but I thought he also looked pretty solid all-round.

Overall though pretty pleased considering the circumstances. D effort was great and the O will start to gel

 

[PEPPERJAX]

Yves and Anosike 2-13 woof. EJ didn’t grab a single defensive rebound which is kind of stunning. It was a weakness of ours last year and I was hopeful that he would be our horse on the defensive glass.

Agree w OP about ball handling. Hopefully it has more to do w being the first game. Vescovi did force it at times which he did last year too, so hopefully continues to improve. But OP is right there too... seemed like the most complete player for us, and I don’t really know what to make of that. JJJ went 0-3 from 3 but I thought he also looked pretty solid all-round.

Overall though pretty pleased considering the circumstances. D effort was great and the O will start to gel

When Pons shot the ball, it looked flat all night. Hopefully the game last night will be his worst offensive showing of the year. EJ needs to pass up some of those mid-range jumpers and it get it to someone else IMO. Hamer said the same thing calling the game last night. He needs to be putting up garbage buckets and lay ups.

 

[VolunteerCeltic]

It was a solid win over a good Pac-12 team, you could tell that the team needed to work out the kinks and the lack of playing over the past couple of weeks really affected the team not being able to get into a rhythm last night. I am excited about Bailey and the Freshmen, this team has a chance to be really really good!!!

 

[golfballs]

When Pons shot the ball, it looked flat all night. Hopefully the game last night will be his worst offensive showing of the year. EJ needs to pass up some of those mid-range jumpers and it get it to someone else IMO. Hamer said the same thing calling the game last night. He needs to be putting up garbage buckets and lay ups.

EJ shot 43% from mid range last year. He can do it, but obviously not going to be the focus of his game.

 

[cncchris33]

When Pons shot the ball, it looked flat all night. Hopefully the game last night will be his worst offensive showing of the year. EJ needs to pass up some of those mid-range jumpers and it get it to someone else IMO. Hamer said the same thing calling the game last night. He needs to be putting up garbage buckets and lay ups.

Every single one of them. I noticed it, too. I meant to put that in my report if I forgot to.

 

[golfballs]

Also agree about the refs. Where did they find these guys?

 

[VOLED]

I am so proud of this board. We had a projected lottery pick have more TOs Than points in his first game, play very few minutes and no one is here complaining about it.

well done and that’s exactly how we should be approaching Keon right now. Stud athlete that needs some time to grow offensively. It’s going to be fun watching him develop boys!

Keon has a chance to be one of the best defenders we have had in a while on the perimeter. His length, quickness, want to, and anticipation are outstanding. I expected the first 3 of these, but maybe not the anticipation as much. Has elite defender written all over him.

 

[cncchris33]

Also agree about the refs. Where did they find these guys?

Gerry Pollard, the older white guy...I have no idea what he saw half the night. He was especially bad.