One of these teams does not seem to belong. See if you can figure out which one: Gonzaga, Cincinnati, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
If you said Colorado you are absolutely right!
The other six teams mentioned are college basketball powers. Teams that have achieved great things over the years, placing them in the pantheon of great programs, with great coaches, in great conferences. They are almost shoe ins to be in the field of 64 come march baring some horrific tragedy that would drop them to the lowly ranks of the, gulp, NIT.
Then there’s Colorado. The Buffaloes basketball tradition, in recent years, can be summed up as the good years (the two seasons Chauncey Billups stared in Boulder), and the dark years (every year since Billups left). The Buffaloes are coming off of a 9-22 season, their third straight season they recorded twenty losses and are expected to finish no better than DFL (Dead F*&#ing Last) in the Big 12.
With all this being said, it should be no surprise that the Buffs are expected to finish no better than seventh in the eight team EA Sports Maui Invitational field (thank god for Chaminade), however CU entered the tournament 3-0 on the season, the first time they have reached that mark since the 2001-02 season, and had set their sights on introducing themselves on a national stage.
Their first round opponent, Gonzaga.
The game started off as expected as Gonzaga jumped out to a six-point lead. But the Buffaloes fought back. Keegan Hornbuckel drained a three-pointer with 12:06 left in the first half to tie the score at 18. The run continued when Casey Crawford converted an easy lay in that gave CU a 20-18 lead with 11:20 to go in the opening frame.
Austin Dufault’s three-pointer at the 7:32 mark extended the Colorado lead to ten. In all, the Buffaloes fired off an 18-3, giving CU a 36-21 lead. The Buffs were in complete control of the game and looked like they may pull of the biggest win of this early season.
Gonzaga, however, was not ready to go quietly into that good night. The Zags answered CU’s run with a 8-4 run to cut Colorado’s halftime lead to eleven, 40-29.
Crawford lead the Buffs in scoring in the first half, tallying eight points and making two out of three shots from behind the arc.
The Buffaloes were electric from all areas of the court. CU shot 55.6 percent from the field and made seven of eleven shots from behind the arc. They also made all three of their free throw attempts. Junior guard Cory Higgins, who came into the game as the Buffs leading scorer, had seven first half points as well as four rebounds.
Gonzaga, on the other hand, seemed lost. The Zags had a miserable 39.1 percentage from the field and made only 66.7 percent from the charity stripe. Steven Gray led the Zags with 14 first half points, and senior Matt Bouldin, a Colorado native, recorded five points and four rebounds.
The start of the second half belonged to Gonzaga center Robert Sacre, who scored the Zags first five points of the second half, helping them cut the lead to eight.
Sacre starred the Gonzaga scoring in the second half, but it was Gray and Bouldin who finished it. The Zags fought back and, with 4:35 left in the game, Boudin converted two free throws, giving them their first lead since the 12:17 mark in the first half.
The two teams would trade blows until the 1:31 mark, when Gray made one of two free throw attempts, giving the Zags a three point lead.
Colorado would answer on their next possession. Freshaman Alec Burks made a lay-up in traffic to pull the Buffs with in one, but that would be as good as it would get.
Bouldin would hit a jumper with 39 seconds left to stretch back to three.
The Zags would add a free throw, icing the win, 76-72.
Bouldin and Gray scored 17 of the Zags final 19 points, bringing their game totals to 21 and 27 respectively. Bouldin also added five assists and three steals to his stat line.
Gonzaga improved their shooting in the second half, making 54.2 percent of their shots from the field and 76 percent of their free throws.
“At halftime, I knew [the Zags] were going to come back,” Colorado assistant Steve McClain said, “That team isn’t where they are at because they quit.”
The Buffs, on the other hand, were unable to maintain the torrid pace of the first half. They did shoot a respectable 50 precent from the field but did not make a single three point attempt. Colorado was also out rebounded, 30-24, making this the third time in four games this season that CU’s opponent has been more active on the glass.
Higgins led Colorado in scoring, with 19 points, and tied for the team lead in rebounds, with six. Burks continued to show promise, scoring eleven points and grabbing six boards but his inexperience did show as he committed five turnovers and showed that his court vision is limited at times.
The drops Colorado to 3-1 on the season and is the teams tenth loss by six or fewer points since the beginning of last season.
The Buffs do look to be improved but are still missing a big man in the post. Prized freshman Shane Harris-Tunks may end up becoming that stud post player, but he is going to need to bulk up (he currently stands 6’11” and weighs 225 lbs. By comparison, Sacre, the center for Gonzaga, is one inch taller and 22 pounds heavier), and need to learn to limit his mistakes (Harris-Tunks notched committed four fouls in only six minutes of playing time). Until these issues are addressed, the Buffaloes are going to have to rely on their jump shooting to carry them. This can be both a blessing and a curse, as they showed in this game.
In the first half, the Buffs shot lights out, especially from beyond the arc, pushing the Zags to their limits. But in the second half CU couldn’t make a shot from distance, and lost their lead and the game.
There is little time for the Buffs to nurse their wounds. They will take the court today against an Arizona team steeped in tradition and coming off a four point loss to Big 10 power Wisconsin. The Buffs have a chance to win this game if they can stay patient, run their offense, and, most importantly, knock down shots for the full 40 minutes. If they shoot like they did in the second half of yesterday’s game, then you can count on a date Wednesday with Chaminade to decide who takes last place in the tournament.
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