Recapping Colorado Buffaloes Basketball & Athletics and Pac-12 News, Links, and Stories
Recruiting: CU Buffs stocking up on QBs - Buffzone
"I think it sends a message because the quarterback is your leader most of the time," Embree said speaking in general about recruiting top quarterbacks and not about any specific player. "It sends a message to other great players out there, Hey, you know what? If I'm a receiver or a tight end or even a running back, you want to go be around that because it makes it easier to run the ball because they're going to play some form of two safeties. If you're a receiver, you know you've got a guy who can get you the ball. A trigger man. And then up front, to have a chance to play and protect, if you have a very good quarterback, he's going to be evaluated by NFL scouts and that's giving you more opportunities to be evaluated, too.
"I think it's a snowball effect."
I know this was already linked in a fan post, but I wanted to highlight Embree's quote about recruiting quarterbacks. If we're thinking recruiting-wise of a QB being the lynch-pin of a class, then it really simplifies how you recruit other skill players. If it's true, then it really kind-of solves the chicken/egg question of rebuilding via recruiting.
Do y'all agree/disagree?
Three players from D.C. high school committed to CU Buffs - Buffzone
A year ago after cobbling together a recruiting class in just a few weeks, Colorado coach Jon Embree said he planned to get away from sending assistant coaches to the four corners of America to recruit, as was done by his predecessor, and re-focus the program's efforts in traditional strongholds of Colorado, California and Texas.
Yet, here we are on the verge of another signing day and the argument can be made that some of the most talented players in Embree's first full-cycle recruiting class hail from the East Coast. In fact, Embree seems to have established a pipeline to a talent-rich high school in the nation's capitol where he had been working as tight ends coach of the Washington Redskins before taking over at his alma mater.
Colorado signed cornerback Sherrard Harrington from Woodson High School in Washington D.C., last year and is set to sign three more players from the school on national signing day Wednesday. This is the first time since 1985 the Colorado program has recruited three players from the same high school in the same class.
Which CU sports teams won over the weekend? Click to actually find out!
The University of Colorado has been nominated as one of the top college basketball student sections in the country and is asking for fan support to help win the prestigious title. Buff fans will now have a say in determining the most deserving student section by voting for the Naismith Student Section of the Year Award. By visiting www.facebook.com/ILoveCollegeHoops, Colorado fans can vote for the C-Unit as the top student section in college basketball.
"I told them they are the heartbeat of this arena, they are the difference makers," said CU head coach Tad Boyle of the Coors Events Center crowd after a recent home victory. "The community has been great all year when the students were gone on break. To have that (student) section full was key and I just want them to know that we appreciate and we need them."
FRIDAY PROPOSED: THE PLACE WHERE YOU ARE FROM SUCKS - Every Day Should Be Saturday
Being on the internet long enough will, after a while, turn you into the most bored rhetorical kung-fu seifu ever. Ad hominem? Deflect to side with humor block, ignore with Dragon Makes Wanking Motion. Single-issue screed? The Phoenix Lists To The West, blocks, then administers Slap of Inhumanity to the neck. Then, tea and the lotus pose over the Cat Gif Gorge, and your day on the internet is complete.
Opening the mailbag: Griping about grades - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
Kohler from Boise writes: I'm a bit confused about your end of season rankings. A 7-6 Washington, that finished #3 in the Pac-12 is given a final grade of a C. Meanwhile, a 4-8 WSU is ALSO given a final grade of a C? The Huskies Defense was horrible in 2011, but they still managed to overcome that and rise to the top of the league. I'd throw in some comment about how you must hate the Huskies, but I'm not one of those Duck haters who just looks for a reason to complain about your writing.
Ted Miller: A fair question...
Season grade: Pac-12 - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
The 2011 season is over. That means report cards are due.
And our last grade: Pac-12Offense: The Pac-12 is known for offense and QBs, and 2011 was no different. Stanford's Andrew Luck and USC's Matt Barkley were among the best in the nation, but Oregon again was the conference's top offense in total offense, scoring and rushing...
Defense: It was not a great year on defense in the conference. No team produced an elite defense. Utah ranked 19th in the nation in scoring defense (without playing Oregon or Stanford), and California ranked 25th in total defense...
Overall: The inaugural year of the Pac-12 produced three elite teams: Oregon, USC and Stanford. All three finished ranked in the top 7. The conference went 1-1 in BCS bowl games, with Oregon winning the Rose Bowl and Stanford falling a late field goal short of beating No. 3 Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. No season that produces two BCS bowl teams is a failure because that puts extra cash in every team's pocket...
Grade: ___
The University of Colorado women's tennis team rallied to win four out of six singles points to defeat the University of Houston, 4-3, Saturday afternoon at Houston's John E. Hoff Courts. The win improves the Buffaloes record to 2-1 on the season. The Buffs bounced back from their 7-0 loss last week to LSU by coming from behind to defeat the Cougars in their home opener.
"Today was a great team effort from top to bottom and involving everyone on the team," said CU head coach Nicole Kenneally. "The players have done a great job early in the season showing their tenacity considering we have come back from two doubles points down."
New Year’s Plati-‘Tudes - CUBuffs.com - Official Athletics Web site of the University of Colorado
Going back to that competition between traditions on ESPN.com last summer, that was the opinion by more than a handful of people of the mid-June competition that pitted CU’s tradition of running out behind Ralphie against Michigan’s team. Just under 80,000 votes were cast, and Michigan’s banner beat out the live buffalo, 62-38%. Huh? Well, if that’s what the vote actually was, so be it; it means 49,300 or so voted for UM, not even half of their attendance for an average home game. That’s just under our total number for a home game, so they had the fan base advantage from the get-go. But many people looked inside the numbers, including myself.
Colorado won 42 states, Washington D.C. and the world vote; Michigan won eight states: Michigan (91% of the vote), with its next largest win in Alaska (56%, receiving 33 of 59 total votes cast); after that came Illinois, New Hampshire and Ohio (all 54%), and then Indiana, Iowa and New York (all 51%). Colorado won Colorado with 90 percent, four states with 70 percent of the votes, and then 22 others with 60-plus percent (five of those were 69%). In short, when adding the vote counts assigned per state, Ralphie was well over 6,000 votes ahead of a plastic banner and the total votes added to almost 55,000.
But the map showed 79,533 votes; where were the other 24,000? I had to know, being a stat geek and all. I sent an e-mail to ESPN.com editor David Albright about what was happening.
He answered within minutes and here’s initial response (verbatim):
"Polling is handled within our SportsNation group so I reached out to them for an explanation ... there appears to be a map data collection error that is resulting in some of the total votes not being accounted for in the map display ... but they said the overall vote total represented in the bar chart is correct ... the production and engineering folks are going to further explore the problem and I will let you know if I get any more information ..."
Then after I asked if the had any more information since the margin grew to just under 24,000 votes, again seemingly each one to Michigan, this was the response:
"We’ve moved on to the quarterfinal round ... and we’re not showing the maps moving forward because there’s still an inconsistency between total votes and what’s showing on the maps ... so the total votes are what’s being used to determine the winners in each matchup ..."
I’ll take David at his word, he’s been a stand-up guy many times before in our Email exchanges and he’s not with SportsNation; but something stinks. How does an inconsistency add up to 24,000 votes all going to one school (I mean, is this a Chicago mayoral election?). One thing for sure is that I will not be forwarding any more e-mails with links for people to vote as these, as several of you pointed out, appear to be predetermined and it’s all about collecting website hits for advertising rates (or the site was hacked by a Michigan fan who pulled off some shenanigans; interesting that in round 2, the Michigan match-up with Clemson again was well ahead of the other pairings, including Nebraska-Oklahoma (now that made no sense at all—I’d figure that’d be the one getting the most attention). But without being able to explain it, for the time being, SportsNation appears to be a giant fraud that suckered many of us in.
The University of Colorado men's track and field team placed second, while the women took third at the Air Force Team Challenge on Saturday at Cadet Field House. Joe Morris, Eileen Gerhing, Jana Stolting, Martin Medina, Mark Jones and the women's mile relay earned top honors in their respective events. Morris broke the 60-meter dash tape in 6.77 seconds.
Morris won the first heat by .05 seconds, defeating Utah Valley's Allah Laryea-Akrong who finishing in 6.82. Shaw Gifford placed sixth overall, clocking a time of 6.97 after winning the second section. Morris also placed second in the 200, finishing in 21.41. Gifford improved from his 60 finish, this time taking fourth in 21.79. Kyle MacIntosh was sixth for the Buffs (21.92).Gehring won the women's 400-meter dash after racing to a personal record of 56.17 in the first section of the race. Two other Buff racers scored in the 400; Brianne Beemer placed third (57.12) and Lindsy Mattson was sixth (57.37). MacIntosh was the runner-up in the men's 400, finishing with a PR of his own at 48.59. Matt Butcher also picked up points for the Buffs, placing seventh (49.97) and Blake Reimer took eighth (50.01).
RINGO: Football recruiting an indicator of future, reminder of past - Buffzone
How well you do in recruiting -- just as in the draft at the pro level -- is an indicator of where your team might be in the future. It's not the only indicator and certainly isn't something to be losing sleep over, but it is an indicator to be sure. There are politics involved in the rankings. There are dozens of overrated recruits and dozens of under-appreciated prospects. It's an imperfect system but a pretty effective one top to bottom, year in and year out.
The class Jon Embree has assembled and is putting the finishing touches on in these final few days, appears to be pretty good. No, it's not in the top 10 or even the top 25 in rankings from Scout.com and Rivals.com, but as of Sunday evening, it was rated No. 29 by Scout and No. 31 by Rivals. That's not bad considering the Buffs haven't been in the top-25 polls during the season since 2005.
...
The players being recruited in this cycle were in sixth grade the last time the Buffs had a winning record. They were in second grade the last time the Buffs played in a Bowl Championship Series bowl game and won a conference title. They didn't grow up thinking of Colorado football as a powerhouse the way many who follow Colorado recruiting do. Embree and his assistants were hired a year ago with expectations of them in recruiting. They seem to be meeting those expectations.
If they can recruit a top-30 class following a 3-10 season in which they lost seven games by two touchdowns or more, imagine how they might do when they start to win some games with these recruits.
Go Buffs!