MEN’S BASKETBALL Simpson named Pac-12 player of the week
Head coach Tad Boyle once again expressed a measure of frustration at that lack of national recognition for guard KJ Simpson.
Yet Simpson’s name, and feats, continue to resonate loud and clear within the Pac-12.
On Monday, Simpson was named the Pac-12 player of the week after scoring 28 points to lead CU’S home rout of Utah on Saturday. It is Simpson’s first weekly honor this season and the third player of the week award of his career after winning it twice a year ago.
It is Simpson’s fifth weekly Pac-12 honor overall, including a pair of freshman of the week honors two years ago. It is CU’S third weekly honor of the season, as Tristan da Silva was named the player of the week on Dec. 11 while Cody Williams collected the freshman of the week award on Jan. 22.
Simpson went 10-for-15 overall and 5-for-8 on 3-pointers in the win against Utah, posting his 16th 20-point game of the season. That’s the most by any CU player since Alec Burks recorded 24 20-point games in 2010-11. He went 3-for-3 on free throws, increasing his team-record-pace free throw percentage to .884, while collecting four rebounds and three assists with only one turnover in 35-plus minutes.
After going just 1-for-7 with a season-low four points in a loss at UCLA on Feb. 15, Simpson has averaged 29 points in the past two games, both CU victories, while going 19-for-32 overall (.594) and 11-for-17 on 3-pointers (.647). Simpson is the only Pac12 player to record three 30-point games this season, and he begins the week ranked third in Pac-12 games in scoring (19.3) while also ranking third in assists per game (4.6), fourth in 3-point percentage (.438) and 10th in rebounds per game (6.3).
“He’s so tough-minded. He never has a bad day or a bad game in terms of his motor and his energy and his enthusiasm,” Boyle said. “The key for any point guard, and we’ve had some good ones here when you think about Spencer (Dinwiddie) and Derrick (White) and Mckinley (Wright), is finding that balance. We want them to be scorers, we need them
to score for us … but they got to think about outside of themselves. And that’s what KJ has started to do this year.
“I can’t say enough about KJ Simpson. He’s playing like an All-american. Bottom line. It’s no national love at all, which really pisses me off.”
Schedule shift
Since the Buffs opened Pac-12 play on Dec. 29, they have played a schedule defined almost exclusively by Thursday-saturday matchups. The lone exception was playing at Washington on Jan. 24, a Wednesday, before completing the trip that following Saturday at Washington State.
That schedule changes this week, as the Buffs host California on Wednesday (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network) before facing Stanford in the final regular season home game on Sunday (7 p.m., FS1).
“Towards this part of the season, it’s all about taking care of your body,” Simpson said. “Training like a pro, in a sense. Understanding what you need to get out of a practice. If you need treatment, going to get extra treatment. Doing the things you need to do in order to get better for the next game. Our mentality doesn’t change.”
Notable
The details for the March 7 date at Oregon have been settled, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. MT for a game that will air on ESPN2. … Washington State’s Rueben Chinyelu was named the Pac-12 freshman of the week after recording his first career double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in the Cougars’ road win against Arizona. … Arizona dropped two spots to No. 6 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25, while WSU moved up two spots to No. 19.