Buffs look for sweep of Utah
BOULDER» It hasn’t necessarily been an alarming trend. Not yet, anyway. But Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle knows getting on an extended hot streak will require polishing a few stratches from the Buffaloes’ recent glass work.
Going into the final 10 games of the regular season, a run that begins Saturday afternoon against Utah, the Buffs remain firmly in charge of their own possible NCAA Tournament fate. Winning the Pac-12 Conference along the way will require a little more help, and a little more attention to the smaller details.
That includes the Buffs’ rebounding. In the past two games, both wins against Washington State, CU was outrebounded after getting outrebounded just three times through the season’s first 15 games. Granted, the Cougars didn’t exactly dominate on the glass — WSU outrebounded the Buffs 3130 last week in Pullman and 29-27 on Wednesday at CU — but it continued a recent trend Boyle is looking to get corrected soon.
“We’ve got to address it,” Boyle said. “One of the things we’ve really talked about the last few days is finishing. Finishing at the rim offensively, or finishing possessions defensively. We had a couple possessions against Washington State where we got the stop, but we didn’t get the ball. We didn’t get the rebound. And they had 10 offensive rebounds. That’s way too many.
“Rebounding is always going to be something that we stress and really, really emphasize.”
CU has surrendered at least 10 offensive rebounds in three of the past four games, including Wednesday’s win against Washington State and during last week’s loss at Washington despite the Huskies shooting nearly 50 percent that night.
Again, the shortcoming hasn’t been a glaring one. CU was even with the Cougars on Wednesday in second chance points (10-10). And, thanks to 15 offensive rebounds of their own, the Buffs actually posted a 19-12 edge on second-chance points during that loss at Washington. CU enters Saturday’s game ranked fourth in the Pac-12 in average rebounding margin (plus-3.9), but there seemingly is room for improvement.
Utah might offer just that sort of opportunity. During CU’s 65-58 win at Utah on Jan. 11, the Buffs outrebounded the Utes 49-31, including a 15-4 advantage on offensive rebounds.
That remains CU’s largest overall rebounding advantage of the season and the second-lowest offensive rebounding total by a Buffs’ opponent.
Utah offers an interesting challenge defensively for the Buffs, as the Utes enter the game ranked second in the Pac-12 in league games in overall field goal percentage (.461) but last in 3-point percentage (.299).
“Before we played Washington, they were shooting 29 percent from three as a team. And they came out and shot 45 percent against us,” Boyle said. “Just because (Utah’s) number is 29 percent does not mean they can’t shoot the ball. Rylan Jones is a good 3-point shooter. Alfonso Plummer, there’s not a better one in the league. His percentage numbers are down a little bit, but he can get hot in a hurry.”