Why CU Fans Shouldn't Panic About the Wyoming Disaster

As I'm sure many of you did, I spent my Saturday night pondering my choices in life. Why do I call the Colorado Buffaloes my team of choice? What makes me so masochistic with my sporting allegiance? How many Swedish Fish can I eat before my blood becomes high fructose corn syrup? These are the burning questions one must ask after watching such a dismantling at Wyoming. After being depressed, per the usual, at the halftime of the football game, I was expecting to watch some beautiful basketball and get back to the happy days. Well, Larry Shyatt and Larry Nance Jr. stomped on my dreams and the Buffs' throats. Colorado was an absolute mess offensively, and defensively, to put it in different terms, you could have put on Benny Hill music to go with all the pointless chasing CU did to try to catch up with Wyoming's passes. Simply put, disaster struck in Laramie. However, people have taken their already ridiculous football PANIC button and pressed it on Tad Boyle. TAD BOYLE. If there is one person in the state of Colorado who has earned your trust during the past four years, it is the legend himself. Now, I'm not saying there isn't cause for concern; there is and it was painfully obvious that CU was the worst team in the Dome of Doom. I'm saying, in the words of Aaron Rodgers, R-E-L-A-X.

As the fan base makes the transition from football to basketball, sometimes they forget to switch their mindset. I can't speak for all, but for me to thoroughly enjoy both, I have to have completely different frames of mind during the games. Basketball is a game of runs, while in football, every possession counts for so much more. Individual effort affects the game of basketball much more than football, substitutions are huge, the list goes on. The main difference, in CU's case, is the judgment of upper management. While the decade of ineptitude has left Buff fans acting like a scorned lover, distrustful and quick to turn on the one we have placed trust in. Time will tell if Mike MacIntyre is "the one", though early returns (except for wins) look promising, but with football season almost over, it's time to transition to basketball, where Tad Boyle has proven that he can work miracles. He has his flaws, such as zones, slow tempo, and passing (all on display against the Pokes, unfortunately), but he brings a consistently winning style of basketball that is fundamentally sound and pays off. He has recruited well so far, and has continued to raise the expectations of this program year after year. Essentially, this is a long roundabout way of me saying that he knows what he's doing. After Coach Mac kept Jordan Gehrke in for half of the 3rd quarter, you had to question his judgment, and the fact that Gerkhe is being considered for the Utah game is further evidence of questionable decision making in my book. Tad Boyle saw the same game that we saw in Laramie, and unlike the football program, he has a history of success. He knows what it takes to win, and he knew exactly what his team didn't do to achieve that goal. Boyle will mix things up and make the necessary adjustments for this team to have a good season because it's in his nature. In Tad we trust.

You may have been thinking, "Jack, you're so stupid, half of those thoughts were about football, and you're writing about basketball, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Well, football no more, because we're talking about the players! That's right, the young men that crapped the bed. I'm here to tell you that this game is the last time they crap the bed this year, a bold prediction, but a prediction nonetheless. The past two road games have been absolute drubbings for the Buffs. Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament was a horrible loss for the program, and the blowout in Laramie was arguably worse. Josh Scott and Askia Booker, the leaders of this program, have been around the block in a CU uniform, and they have taken their share of devastating losses. I'm willing to bet Ski is pissed right now. He hasn't been playing well in a role that doesn't fit him, his senior season has not had a storybook start, and he just got outplayed by human Ed Hardy shirt Josh Adams. Booker will work even harder and put up even more shots, and his play will regress towards the mean, as things tend to do. He'll get back to double digit scoring, and hopefully he'll get back to looking like he's having fun out there, because he looks miserable right now. Next, a man who looks the same throughout the game, Josh Scott. Almost in contrast to Booker, the big fella ate the first two games, averaging almost a double double. Then he received a criminally low amount of touches against Wyoming, which is puzzling, considering he is the only guaranteed zone breaker on the team. Tad Boyle recognizes that, even called his team out for not feeding the big man. Again, another regression towards the mean, and expect some nice stat lines for Scott going forward. For some pure positives of the game, HOW ABOUT DOMINIQUE COLLIER. He is everything we unfairly expected and more. First two possessions are two clutch threes, and he penetrated and dished better than any other guard on this roster. Even with no practice for a month and little to no conditioning, he was the 2nd best player on the court for the Buffs. He has a very bright future and may just steady this team's ship during the more important games.

33 points should never be in the conversation for a basketball game, let alone a CU basketball one. But here we are, and we are not used to it. We are not used to disappointment from a Tad Boyle team. He isn't used to it either, and the players aren't used to disappointing. Here's the thing: everything concerning that we saw, everything that sounded the alarm bell, Boyle saw and called his team out on it. Rest assured, this team will not forget how poor that performance was, and they won't let it happen again. In Tad We Trust and Go Buffs.