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Recapping your Colorado Buffaloes' Women's NIT, Men's NCAA Tournament, and Football Offseason News, Links, and Stories
Linda Lappe's CU Buffs look to overcome South Dakota in WNIT road game - Buffzone
"It's a tough road trip," head coach Linda Lappe said. "At the same time, it's good for our team. We've been in situations like this before and I think it's always good to have to play on the road in the WNIT because it makes you really appreciate your home games."
"I think we've done a pretty good job of establishing ourselves on the road," Malcolm-Peck said. "That's where we've struggled in the past. I think that's a big focus for us and it makes it even more special to win on the road because it's a little harder to do."After a rough stretch of games late in the season, CU has played very well in its last four. They are 3-1 in those games and had a good performance in the one loss, to NCAA Tournament-bound California.
After growing up this year, Tad Boyle's CU Buffs will be younger next year - Buffzone
"This win gives us confidence and that's important in college basketball," Boyle said at the time. "We're going to get mentally tougher for our upcoming games."
"Our young guys, I love. The backups need to have great offseasons. And the new guys coming in have got to strap it on because we're going to be young next year," Boyle said. "We're going to have one senior (Chen) instead of four. It's going to be a different group, just like this year's was, but I expect us to get better as the year goes on.
"I'm as optimistic about Colorado basketball today as I've ever been. It's a testament to what this team has done the last two weeks to put us in this position."
With three weather delays including one because of hail, the No. 15 University of Colorado women's golf team kept its composure and put the wraps on the most dominating performance in school history Sunday here at the 2012 Clover Cup. The Buffs finished with the top three players on the leader board and shot a final round 9-over par 297 to win by 31 strokes.
"The weather was miserable," Kelly said. "It was in the 40s all day, the wind chill had to be much lower than that, and it was raining and breezy all day. We had three delays. It was just a long day. But it was definitely a good day, too." For the first time in school history, the Buffs finished 1-2-3 in the final individual standings with senior Jess Wallace edging out sophomore Alex Stewart and senior Emily Talley for medalist honors.
Pacific Takes polled people who know Pac-12 Basketball, and they named Andre Roberson Pac-12 Defensive player of the year. Or did they? Or didn't they? They did.
Spring Practice Notes " CU At the Game - A CU Football blog by Stuart Whitehair
A day after the first scrimmage of the spring, the Buffs spent their Sunday. "It was more about learning, cleaning up some of the mistakes that we’ve been having, making sure guys understand their assignments a little bit better," said head coach Jon Embree after Sunday’s practice.
Other Embree post-practice quotes: On having David Bahktiari, the starter at left tackle last spring, taking some reps at left guard – "I don’t know how much it has been from a percentage standpoint (earlier this week, Bahktiari estimated he was still going about 80% at left tackle), but him and Alex (Lewis) are both doing well on that left side. They’re both doing good. We still have nine practices left …
We’ll evaluate these first eight days after we get through this next scrimmage on Thursday, and we’ll figure out what we need to do for the second half of spring ball. We’ll get a feel for where we are at, whether it’s those two guys switching around, or whether it’s other people, to make sure that when we get to fall camp, we’re not bouncing guys around."
Pressure's on Nick Kasa to catch on with CU Buffs - Buffzone
"Yeah, of course," Kasa said when asked if he feels pressure this spring. "I really do want to help out and I know they need me. I'm just doing everything I can every day to get there." Brookhart said Kasa has been an eager pupil.
"He shows a lot of 'want to' and he's making a commitment like he's never done before. But to cram an old lineman into a skill guy, it's going to be a lot of work," Brookhart said.
"There are going to be some things that he does well, but it's very foreign territory to him. Every day are big jumps. He's got a long way to go, but he's got the ability to be a good player. Now catching the ball is not something he's done his whole life. He's had his hand on the ground. That just doesn't happen. The pass game, it's a foreign language right now, but that being said, he's showing exactly what it takes to get it. So he's working at it."
He missed several recent sessions with a concussion. He was able to participate in parts of Sunday's practice and says he expects to be fully cleared this week.
"I was (angry) when I got the concussion," Kasa said. "I need every practice I can get so that I can make those mistakes and correct them. My coaches know I'm going to make them just because I'm not used to offense at all."
NCAA Tournament Results: Colorado Meets Its Better Version In Baylor - Pacific Takes
Ultimately, Colorado just ran into a better version of themselves. Baylor is a more athletic team with stronger forwards and better guards with a coherent offense. While the Buffaloes were disruptive enough to score a string of impressive upsets, they were in many ways exploiting teams that had discernible flaws.
Baylor is the elite of the elite (with at least two NBA talents and possibly one or two more), and Colorado's offensive struggles caught up with them on that faithful 21-3 run that sent them home. There's a lot for Colorado to look forward to. They return Roberson, who is a likely frontrunner for next year's Pac-12 Player of the Year, and promising freshman guard Spencer Dinwiddie, and Askia Booker has talent at the point.
With the new recruiting class the Buffs have, Colorado should compete for the conference title once again. For now, after a year of feeling like they'd been snubbed, they'll have to live with the surprise and satisfaction of the Round of 32. I expect the consensus will trend positive.
Pac-12 Basketball Internet Awards: Andre Roberson, Defensive Player Of The Year - Pacific Takes
The best Pac-12 basketball writers have come together to vote on the best in the conference. Today's award: Defensive player of the year. Andre Roberson is undoubtedly the biggest reason the Colorado Buffaloes got to the NCAA Tournament, as his development through the season and into the postseason brought them a Pac-12 tournament championship and an automatic bid.
The Colorado interior defense and rebounding is the main reason the Buffs have been so successful this season. Roberson received six of the ten first place votes, with the official Pac-12 defensive player of the year Jorge Gutierrez of Cal getting three of the remaining votes and Jared Cunningham of Oregon State getting the tenth.
Click the link to see all the good things the different bloggers had to say about Andre...
David Piper, Addicted to Quack: Andre Roberson -- Colorado. The only other guys I seriously considered were Gutierrez and Cunningham. Ultimately, Cunningham, for all his steals, isn't a great defender, and while very good, Gutierrez doesn't mean as much for his team as Roberson does for his. Colorado was, at times, absolutely nightmarish on defense. Roberson's ability to dominate on the boards, block shots, and not pick up fouls made him the anchor of that defense.
Avinash Kunnath, Pacific Takes: Andre Roberson. Nothing against Jorge, but Roberson was on another level for Colorado. Having a defensive rebounding rate over 30% second in the country (trailing only Thomas Robinson) is pretty insane, even in a Pac-12 lead deficient of quality big man talent.
And Remember, Andre's just a sophomore... Go Buffs!