Stop saying Colorado can't beat a zone defense

BOULDER — Before the No. 23 Colorado Buffaloes took the court to take on the visiting Washington Huskies, head coach Tad Boyle’s message was clear:

“Plays are not going to win this game for us. Making plays is what’s going to win this game for us.”

That’s not a contradiction, though the difference between the two is slim.

Essentially, Boyle knew that he wasn’t going to be able to scheme up a victory for CU. The Huskies’ zone defense was complex and it was going to take a lot more than arrows on a whiteboard to beat it.

What the Buffs needed to do was do the opposite of what they’d done against the zone defenses they’d faced this season. They needed to stop panicking. They needed to get back to the basics. They needed to read what the defense was doing and react and avoid deciding what they were going to do before the play even started. They needed to look for the best option and make the play.

They needed to make sound, decisive decisions.

“We made those sound, decisive decisions for the most part,” Boyle said after the game, a 76-62 win. “We put guys in positions to make plays and then it’s up to our players to make them and they made them tonight.”

Pretty simple, right?

Colorado’s shooting in the first half was fluky good. That’s the truth. It’s good to know that the Buffs are capable of opening a game with five 3-pointers without a miss and going 7-for-11 from deep in a half. That can’t be the expectation though, and the fluky shooting start did plenty to bust up the Washington zone.

What isn’t fluky is the open looks. Colorado whipped the ball around the court, bouncing it inside and out, from corner to corner and at the end of virtually every position, the Buffs found an open shot. That will translate to any game.

“Twenty-two assists, that’s a great, great number,” Boyle said. “We had some miscues, you always do. Washington’s long, they’re athletic, they’re going to get their hands on some balls. You’re not going to go through with zero turnovers.”

Prior to Saturday, Washington’s vaunted zone defense was the 33rd-best in the country in terms of points allowed per game. Factor in that it’s playing in a Power Five conference and it’s pretty easy to call it one of the nation’s elite. The Huskies hadn’t given up 76 or more points in a game since Dec. 8 when they lost to the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who are now ranked No. 2 in the country.

This wasn’t the grandaddy of all zone defenses that Colorado just took down, but it wasn’t all that far off either.

The Buffs didn’t play a perfect game. The offense sputtered on a few possessions down the stretch. Boyle called it “stagnant” and “a little stale.” Colorado didn’t make any of its eight 3-point attempts.

But dominating a conference opponent for 40 minutes is rare and an unreasonable expectation. Colorado never let the lead slip to single digits in the second half and that is a massive improvement in its pursuit to change the narrative surrounding its zone offense.

Now the question is how often the Buffs can replicate this performance.