3 takeaways from Colorado's 65-54 win over Milwaukee

BOULDER — Don’t let the score fool you, Colorado played another tight game against a low-level opponent on Friday.

The Buffs hosted the Milwaukee Panthers at the CU Events Center on Friday, and beat them 65-54. Colorado improves to 8-3 on the season.

But Colorado only led by one point with three minutes to go.

CU needed to convert down the stretch, like it has in most of it’s contests this season. As has been the case more often than not, the Buffs converted.

Here’s what you need to know:

Another slow start

Colorado didn’t score in the first five minutes of the game.

Let that sink in.

It was just as brutal as you’re imagining.

This is a team that has struggled to get anything going offensively in the early going of most of its games this season. It’s a young team that takes time to settle into games. Against some teams, that’s fine. Against Tennessee, for example, it’s almost a death knell.

When Colorado finally broke the seal, it wasn’t the usual cast of characters who brought the Buffs to life.

Lawson Lovering hit the first shot.

Then Luke O’Brien scored two points on a goaltend.

Then Nique Clifford.

Then O’Brien twice more.

Evan Battey was the first starter to score for CU, and his layup didn’t come until more than 12 minutes into the game.

It’s great to see a bench unit that didn’t score a point in the second half against Eastern Washington on Wednesday bounce back and provide a crucial spark.

It’s terrible to see the CU starters unable to find points until deep into the first half.

Keeshawn and Jabari struggle

Jabari Walker missed his first seven shots, before making a contested layup and converting the and-one. By the end of the game, he’d made 4-of-14 shots and scored 14 points. High volume, low efficiency.

In Walker’s defense, he stole the ball at half court, dunked it, drew a foul and made the free throw with 2:36 left in the game to extend the lead to six. Then he hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to nine with 1:40 on the clock. Walker iced the game.

The late-game performance is a major caveat.

Meanwhile, Keeshawn Barthelemy missed his first four shots, and three of them were deep. He finished 2-for-7 from the field and only scored four points, continuing a string of struggles.

Barthelemy started hot from three this season, making 11 of his 16 attempts in the first five games of the year. Since that point, he’s missed 20 of 21 shots form deep.

Singling out just two players who struggled on Friday is unfair—Tristan da Silva only score two points on six shots—but Walker is the team’s star and Barthelemy is the starting point guard. Plus, we know both players are capable of much more than they showed against Milwaukee.

At this point in the season, Colorado is lacking an offensive centerpiece. Nobody on the team is capable of being the first option on the offensive end of the floor night-in and night-out.

Possessing a No. 1 option makes the game simpler; you give him the ball off the bat and let him cook. If he can put up some early points, the defense needs to help early, or defend out deeper, or just send a straight-up double team. For some teams, defenses don’t even need to get beat by a No. 1 to commit more defensive focus toward him.

The point is that nobody is taking the defense’s attention off of his teammates, because opponents have been able to guard the Buffs straight up and find positive results.

The season will be a grind until somebody proves they can score consistently in one-on-one situations.

Evan Battey gets back to his steady self

Colorado’s steady hand coming into the season was supposed to be Evan Battey. He delivered in the first few games, but has struggled recently.

In the three games leading up to Friday, he’d made 9-of-29 shots.

On Friday, Battey hit six of his eight attempts and scored a team-high 15 points. He also provided five rebounds, a block and a steal. It was a solid night from CU’s big man, and one that was desparately needed.

The only knock is a lone turnover and a couple of mental lapses that gave up easy points in the game’s early going.

Colorado doesn’t need Battey to be a superstar, it just needs him to provide consistent good work down low. He looked like he’s back on that track.