BOULDER – “We’re rolling baby, we’re rolling,” head coach Tad Boyle touted as he turned away from the press following the Buffaloes 81-49 rout of the Cougars.
Indeed, Colorado was first-class on defense tonight, forcing Washington State into 24 turnovers. Colorado capitalized too, scoring 34 off the Cougars’ misplays.
It wasn’t just a shellacking either, it was an efficient one at that. The Buffaloes bolstered a 52 percent field goal percentage which was led by Derrick White’s 23 on nine-of-11 from the field. It was about as pretty as possible, even Bryce Peters added an efficient and electric 12.
Now winners of five-of-their-last-six following an 0-7 start to Pac-12 play, Colorado is steadily climbing out of the conference’s cellar.
Following a sluggish start from both sides, the Buffs were able to hop out to a noticeable lead about halfway through the first half. Terrific ball movement and knock down shooting were what caught Colorado ahead.
“I think that was as good of an all-around performance as we’ve had all year,” Boyle said. “I thought our guys defended, we rebounded, we turned them over 24 times, 16 assists and 11 turnovers, which is a good ratio. Great team victory. We’ve talked all week long about the mantra, ‘it’s not about you, it’s about us.’ That’s the mindset we want every player on our team to have. It’s not about you as an individual it’s about us as a team. If we can buy into that we can have a lot of success.”
It was more of the same in the second half as the only desperate moments came regarding whether CU would win by 20 or more and cover for the folks in Vegas. They did so pretty easily.
“They for us is ball movement,” Boyle continued. “Whether it’s against a match up zone or man to man, they key s that we get the ball moving. The bottom line is we got good shots, and when you shoot 52 percent a lot of that comes from getting the ball into the paint and attacking the basket.”
Xavier Johnson and Wes Gordon returned to Colorado’s lineup after a two-game suspension due to a violation of team rules. The pair combined for 12 boards, 11 points and five assists in 20 minutes of action each. Neither stood out but their presence was pertinent.
The defense of the Buffaloes was remarkable Sunday. With 11 steals, the Buffs hounded the Cougars into tough shot after tough shot.
“I would say that it has to do with a lot with our energy,” Peters said. “Guys have been coming out as if we were down 20 at the jump and playing better on the defensive end Most people do not talk about playing together on the defensive end, when we start playing together, and that is when we go on runs.”
“We guarded the three-point line better,” Boyle described. “Our post guys really took on a challenge… really what it comes down to is, we guarded their post guys really well, we guarded their perimeter guys well too. We held them to 38 percent and we out-redounded them by 13. When we hit our defensive numbers, which we haven’t done in a while, you don’t even have to look at the score, you know we’re going to win.”
Colorado returns to action on Thursday night in Oregon as they take on the Beavers. Tip is at 7 p.m and they’ll play that contest just ahead of taking on the Ducks on Saturday afternoon.
