Five things the CU Buffs must correct in order to be successful in Pac-12 play

 

It has been a whirlwind of a start for the Colorado Buffaloes on the court. Some have seen the non-conference portion of their schedule as disappointing, but, thanks to the lack of competition the Buffs have played so far, they sit at 10-3 and can still quickly turn the season around.

“This team right now, it’s late December, not mid-December, we haven’t played to our capabilities yet,” head coach Tad Boyle said after the lackadaisical win over Air Force. “Part of that is encouraging, part of that is like what the hell are we waiting for.”

So why don’t we look at the part that is encouraging. Here are five things the Buffaloes need to fix come Pac-12 conference play.

Rebounding

Rebounding is something that Boyle stresses at every practice and every game. He believes that, along with other things, if the Buffs can have a +8 rebounding margin that they’ll have a good chance of winning the game.

“Right now we are not a good rebounding team which concerns me as we move into Pac-12 play,” Boyle told. “It’s something we’ve talked about in practice, before games, after games, in scouting reports, half-time talks.”

The first person to turn to for rebounding is the 6-foot-9, 245-pound starting center Wesley Gordon. With the matchups that Gordon has had against smaller teams such as Air Force, Wofford, Fort Hays State and Portland he should be averaging over ten rebounds a game. Right now he’s averaging 8.5 per contest. Xavier Johnson, with his 225-pound frame, should be able to use his size against smaller fours to get boards. He’s averaging a mere 5.8 rebounds per game.

“Defensive rebounding is not one person’s job,” Boyle described. “It’s our guard’s job, long shots equal long rebounds. They took 23 threes tonight, and long shots mean long rebounds, guards have to get their share of those long rebounds.”

That would fall onto the likes of George King and Josh Fortune. King has the ability to pick up an abundance of boards, in which he has shown flashes of in games against Notre Dame, Texas, Xavier and BYU, all of which he had at least 10 rebounds. Fortune has yet to have a game with more than seven boards, albeit he has been playing further out onto the perimeter than King.

Get better looks from three

The Buffaloes have some great three-point shooters. King and Dominique Collier were first and second in the Pac-12 in three-point shooting percentage with 45.6% and 43.3% respectively last season. They also have Fortune who has shown flashes of being a good three-point shooter and Derrick White, who has been able to show his ability to knock them down from long range.

This season, however, the Buffs have continuously struggled to shoot the ball from beyond the arc consistently. They’re currently shooting 33.8% from downtown, a five percentage point decrease from last year’s mark. In order to improve, the Buffs have to start getting their three-point shooters open more often so they’re not taking as many ill-advised shots. The Golden State Warriors are a team that has an abundance three-point shooters, they’re able to knock down their shots because the rest of the players are setting screens and working to get their teammates open, something that CU has failed to do after their first 13 games. At times the Buffs offense has been extremely stagnate.

“We really haven’t been shooting the ball that well from three,” Boyle said after the win over Eastern Washington. “When we get everybody clicking offensively on the same night, we’re going to be really dangerous. If we rebound at a high level, we’re dangerous.”

The one bright spot has been freshman Deleon Brown. Along with his stellar defensive play, he is currently hitting 44% of his shots from beyond the arc and appears to be the only guy that doesn’t force ill-advised threes.

Get George King going

Heading into this season, a lot of people believed that King would be ‘the guy’ for the Buffaloes. Last season he was second on the team in scoring at 13.8 PPG, with the majority of his minutes coming off of the bench as a sixth man. People believed that he would flourish in his new role as a starter and put up much greater numbers than last season. Not only that, but he was honored as the most improved player in the conference just a season ago.

That hasn’t quite come into fruition with King struggling to find much of a rhythm offensively. He has yet to lead the team outright in scoring this season after doing it in nine different games last season. He has also yet to have a 20-point game this season after reaching that mark eight times a year ago. King is currently shooting a dismal 29.8% from the three-point line, which is about 14 percentage points down from last season. To put it lightly, King is struggling to put up the same numbers he had last year.

If Colorado is going to win games in the Pac-12 conference, King must start shooting to a level near to where he was last season. The fact that he has yet to lead the team in scoring this season is flat out unacceptable. King is a scorer and he should be ‘the guy’ or at least White’s right-hand man for the Buffaloes but if he continues to have moments in games where he disappears, the Buffaloes hopes for March may follow.

Find a leader

This CU basketball team needs to find its leader, and find him fast. The Buffs are a team that has played too many games thus far in which they’ve looked lackadaisical and going through the motions almost as if they are playing a pick-up basketball game. They need to find a player that’s willing to get into someone’s face and tell them to pick it up. One of the major reasons for “The Rise” on the football field is their leadership. They hold each other accountable for their mistakes and that’s something that’s not apparent on the court. The basketball team has four fifth-year seniors and a fourth-year junior in the starting five, it shouldn’t be hard to find a guy that’s willing to step up and take on the role. Whether it’s White, Johnson, Gordon or anybody else someone has got to do it in order to lift up the play of the rest of their teammates.

Play to their potential

The game against the Xavier Musketeers on Dec. 7 was far and away CU’s best game to date. It was the one game in which the Buffs players seemed like they were up to the challenge and CU fans went home with a smile on their face. Colorado was stellar on the defensive end of the court and were able to hit big shots in crucial times on the other end. The Buffaloes had their best game from beyond the arc since the opener, hitting 45% of the shots from deep. They will need to play to this level in their contest against UCLA, Arizona and Oregon.