You may have missed this floating bit of news last week.
It was easy to overlook since it started to develop the day after the Nuggets pulled out a huge victory over the Celtics and just prior to the flurry of Avalanche moves, in which the organization seemed to be partying like it was, not 1999, but 2001.
It may have slipped under your radar because it concerns college basketball, which around here this season, has been slightly more noticeable than those currently in the Witness Protection Program.
On that note, it's difficult to pick which issue seems like having longer odds: One local school making the NCAA Tournament or Colorado State coming up with one Mountain West Conference win. However, today is no day to pound on CSU----after all, opponents have been doing that pretty much all season long. Instead, it's time to examine the Rams most fierce rival.
After their sloppy and seemingly woeful 68-57 loss to Baylor, CU sits at 10-16 overall and 2-10 in the Big 12 Conference.
It is important to note as a point of comparision, that CU won SEVEN games TOTAL last season with Ricardo Patton, so this year, in the minds of many, they have already exceeded expectations. I disagree with that.
The reason they had no qualms about the less than amicable parting with Patton is because they always felt Jeff Bzdelik could do better. They are paying him $750,000 to make CU relevant in basketball. At this point, it looks like he is going to have to reach to earn every penny.
Granted, Bzdelik is coaching with Patton's players, but the notion that Bzdelik was going to make do in the interim by stressing defense and offensive discipline is just that----a notion.
Here are the facts. The Buffs are averaging only 61.8 points per game. They are averaging more than turnovers than they are forcing from their opponents, and the one that stands out the most-----they are getting crushed in the second half by the opposition.
With a quick calculation, it can be found that CU has been outscored by a total of one point in the first half this season. They are in the thick of most games going into the locker room. Coming out of the locker room, that's another story. I mean, if you are competitive in every game, how do you have just two wins in Big 12 Conference play? The answer? You wilt down the stretch or aren't mentally tough enough to survive. For now, Bzdelik can deal with the former. The latter, on the other hand, is inexcusable to any coach.
It is too early to be skeptical of Bzdelik, but the idea that his disciplned approach will work wonders----- is a hope at best ---and a fallacy at its worst. His previous system worked because his players at Air Force would DO ANYTHING he wanted and should be commended for their effort and grace in adjusting to one new coach after another.
At CU, the talent pool might be better than at Air Force, but, as a cohesive unit, it is worse and since college basketball is a team game, it should come as no surprise that the Buffs are a lower echelon program.
It is somewhat stated that Bzdelik has a prototypical player he wants in the program. Xavier Silas did not fit, so lost in the flurry of the Nuggets surviving and Peter Forsberg thriving, came news Silas was gone. The early reports seem to indicate that Bzdelik was sending a very strong message to the rest of his team by benching Silas.
Richard Roby, the team's best player, admitted that it was a "business" move by Bzdelik to show how serious he is about turning this program around. After all, if you're averaging 61.8 points per game, why would you release your third best scorer? Probably because he wasn't exerting the effort Bzdelik wanted. Admirable move by the coach, if not a little cold in its execution.
The day he was hired at CU, I thought this was an interesting move by Athletic Director Mike Bohn. Winning this Conference is ALMOST ALL about recruiting, something Bzdelik never had to worry as much about in Colorado Springs as he will in Boulder.
Since the Big 12 Conference began in 1996, the teams that have made the Final Four are Kansas (twice), Texas, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. All four of those teams had big star power that led them to college basketball's brightest stage.
Maybe I will be proven incorrect, but I just don't see Bzdelik going into a recruit's living room and wooing somebody the way Bill Self or Rick Barnes can. He just doesn't want to play the up-tempo style that other schools have chosen. That is a calculated decision, that in my estimation, doubles as a calculated risk.
Simply put, does a kid want to run up and down the floor or play a slow, defensive minded game that emphasizes offensive rigidity?
I know, that style won Bzdelik much praise and a high level of success at the Air Force Academy, but that was the Mountian West. This is the Big 12, that being said, there is no way around it, Bzdelik must come up BIG in recruiting, plain and simple or he'll just be the latest CU coach that promised everything and delivered nothing.
Have a great day, see you on Friday morning.
-"z"
