Hadley lighting it up for Buffs
Forward-turned-guard blossoms into long-distance specialist
EUGENE, ORE. >> It wasn’t as if J’vonne Hadley failed to be aggressive last year. Quite the contrary.
However, Hadley opted to remain, diligently, within his comfort zone playing his first season at the power conference level. That comfort zone remained squarely in the paint until a broken finger ended Hadley’s season after 22 games.
Hadley vowed to return as a more versatile, well-rounded player. The culmination of that effort was on full display at Oregon on Thursday.
The 6-foot-6 forward-turnedguard enjoyed possibly his finest game at CU, going 4-for-4 on 3-pointers while posting his third double-double of the season in a critical 79-75 win at Oregon. The victory clinched third-place in the Pac-12 Conference for the Buffs and provided a big step forward in CU’S NCAA Tournament aspirations, but that progress will be nullified if CU fails to complete the road sweep at Oregon State on Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale.
“I’m a firm believer in that your work is going to show,” Hadley said. “I put a lot of reps up in the gym my whole life. I’m comfortable enough to step up and hit those shots. A shout-out to my teammates as well that find me game after game for wideopen threes and stuff like that. I wouldn’t have the ball without them passing it to me.”
Hadley was a solid long-range shooter during his lone season at Indian Hills Community College, but prior to that he launched only six 3-point attempts in 13 games off the bench as a true freshman at Northeastern.
After moving to CU last year, Hadley attempted just one 3-pointer. Through the first 11 games this season, Hadley attempted just four 3-pointers, missing all of them. Then, in the Pac-12 opener on Dec. 29, Hadley knocked one down against Washington. Since then, the proverbial long-range floodgates have opened.
Thursday’s effort left Hadley with a .500 mark (17-for-34) on 3-pointers. He finished 8-for11 overall at Oregon, pushing his field goal percentage to .571. After averaging 8.0 points and 5.9 rebounds last year, Hadley goes into the regular season finale averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 rebounds.