Brooks: Buffs Want To Be Gang That Can Shoot Straight
BOULDER – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – and Colorado men’s basketball is nowhere near broke. But minus any wholesale breakage, the Buffs still need a fix or two. Start with their perimeter shooting, an area that Tad Boyle knows must improve for his fifth CU team to be all that it can be.
And at Wednesday’s media day, Boyle had this to say about what his Buffs, Vol. No. 5, can be: “We have a chance to be pretty special.”
Pay close attention here, because Boyle is as inclined to slinging, ah, verbiage as a banker is to cashing bad checks. But for CU to reach that “pretty special” stage, the Buffs’ shooting percentage – most certainly from beyond the 3-point arc – must go up.
Boyle’s words to live by (at least on the basketball court) are rebounding and defense. Good thing, too. Last season, the Buffs won 20-plus games for the fourth time under Boyle and made their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance – a school record.
It didn’t happen because they shot the lights out. CU finished 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring (70.2 points a game), 11th in field goal percentage (43.5) and 11th in 3-point field goal percentage (31.8).
Can you say clank, clunk and thud?
On the flip side, which would be Boyle’s babies – defense and rebounding, the Buffs were fourth in the conference in scoring defense (68.2 points a game), second in rebounding margin (plus 5.9), second in defensive rebounding (31.4 a game) and second in offensive rebounding (37.3). CU trailed Arizona – the media’s preseason choice to win the Pac-12 – in all four categories.
So from those numbers, you might be able to determine where Boyle’s off-season emphasis was focused. In 2014-15, CU must be able to score more and score more efficiently.
He’s “tweaked” his offense, with tweaking in this case being in the eye of the 3-point shooter, the guys bringing the ball up the court, or maybe the big guys setting up in the low post. Boyle’s quest to tweak and boost the Buffs’ offensive numbers took him to Denver and a sit-down with former Nuggets coach George Karl, and brought former Boston College coach Steve Donahue to Boulder “to discuss concepts.”
YOU KNOW HOW IT WENT with Karl: “Run, run, run and when you think they’re tired, run some more.” That might be an exaggeration, but not by much. Here’s how Boyle described their meeting: “I spent some time with coach Karl trying to pick his brain on playing fast, playing a high-pace, high-possession game.”
The key, in Boyle’s mind, is to attack in triplicate, “which doesn’t mean you’re jacking up shots . . . maybe it’s an open three, maybe a player passes it up. But if we get past the first and second attacks, the third will get you any shot you want.”
Boyle also wants unselfishness in sharing the ball – and we’re not talking about run-of-the-mill unselfishness here. “I think anybody that has watched basketball over the last 12 months always talks about the San Antonio Spurs and how fun they were to watch in the NBA Finals and playoffs last year . . . the way they moved the ball and shared the ball,” he said.
Tall order, but then so are his expectations for this team.
The upshot is to get the Buffs to shift gears – going up, not down. If it’s all been absorbed and is ready to be implemented, here’s the offense senior guard Askia Booker says you’ll see at the Coors Events Center a week from Friday night (Nov. 14, 6 p.m.) when CU opens against Drexel:
“It’s faster, everything’s faster, whether it’s cuts or whatever. It’s an offensive spread. You can’t guard it, you can’t scout it. It’s playing basketball. Whether it’s a miss or a make, you get it out quick and you push it up somebody’s throat.”
I asked Booker if the “tweaked” offense allows for more freedom. He answered: “Yes, but it’s a lot more trust in the ball handlers to make the right decision, whether it’s slowing it down, taking the right shot, whatever it is. There’s a lot more trust than freedom.”
As for retaining set plays, Booker said, “Coach wants to get a shot in 12 seconds. That’s fast. That’s why we spread. If we can’t (shoot in 12 seconds), we have set plays. Plenty of them. Coach made a big emphasis on that. He wants to get the ball inside and attack inside out, whether that’s a guard getting in the lane and pitching it out for a shot or Josh (Scott) or Wesley (Gordon) getting low-post touches. That’s what he wants.”
As much as Boyle emphasizes defense and rebounding, there’s just as strong a focus on making the offense work inside-out. In Scott and Gordon, CU has a potentially elite front court that can defend, score and provide the inside-out option Boyle wants, provided Scott’s passing out of double teams has improved.
“I’ve admitted that I thought my passing was suspect at times last year and that’s why I spent the off-season working on getting other people the ball,” Scott said. “That’s the biggest thing I can do to help that shooting percentage.”
CU HAS A STABLE OF CAPABLE outside shooters, if not one particular marksman who is as consistent as the sunrise. Booker lists “everybody . . . myself, ‘XJ’ (Xavier Johnson), ‘XT’ (Xavier Talton), Jaron (Hopkins). All of our guys are capable of making plays off of ball screens, making the right reads. But I think the majority of the time it’s going to be myself, Talton or ‘XJ.’”
If you’ve watched Booker over the last three seasons as closely as Boyle has, you know that “Ski” has tons of ability as well as the capability to send his coach (and CU fans) up the CEC walls. Here’s what Boyle said about Booker on Wednesday: “The thing I want ‘Ski’ to understand is that he doesn’t need to do it all by himself, he needs his teammates, and just to make simple basketball plays. If he does that he’ll be fine, if he continues to fight the game and that gets in his head, then we’ll have more of the same. But it’s time to understand and I think he does; ‘Ski’s’ mindset is good right now and he’s ready for a good senior year.”
None of this is breaking news to Booker, who spent the off-season working on a mandate from Boyle and his staff to come back a more consistent shooter. He told me that in preseason work he’s been shooting about 51 percent from behind the arc, which would be a very nice upgrade from last season’s 27.2 percent (37-for-136). Boyle, said Booker, has “put a big emphasis on that (improved perimeter shooting), especially to me.”
I asked Boyle since practice began last month who had shown the most perimeter improvement, and his answer was surprising and possibly disconcerting. He answered George King, then quickly added that King, a 6-6 sophomore, was ticketed for a redshirt. Answer No. 2: Josh Fortune, a 6-5 transfer from Providence who must sit out this season. King’s redshirt plan could change depending on injuries or whatever else might befall the Buffs early on. Fortune sits regardless.
But even if King pulls on the redshirt and keeps it on, Booker believes a handful of Buffs can develop (and keep) hot hands from the perimeter. “Talton has been shooting really well, so has Xavier Johnson,” Booker said. “Wesley Gordon is tremendously better at outside shooting, and Josh has been working on his mid-range shots. I think we’re better overall, but we’re going to have to make shots.”
Boyle wants his team’s field goal percentage to flirt with “46 or 47 percent” and its 3-point shooting to climb to 35 percent. “If we get our field goal percentage to 46 percent we’ll be fine, we’ll win a lot of games,” he said. “I’d love 35 percent in threes, but anything above 33 is gravy.”
Boyle has an offensive template for his fifth CU team: his first CU team. The 2010-11 Buffs averaged 79.6 points a game, featuring scorers such Alec Burks, Cory Higgins, Levi Knutson and Marcus Relphorde. “It was our best offensive team, without a question, if you look at the numbers,” Boyle said. “Field goal percentage, fifth in the country, and free throw percentage, points per game . . .”
But there was a slight downside that puts Boyle in a dark mood: “I couldn’t get that team to guard,” he said. “But this team will guard . . . defense and rebounding will be what it’s about as long as I’m here.”
That’s become a glorious given in CU hoops. Count on that, and if the 2014-15 Buffs can shoot straight (or at least a bit better) they could be “pretty special” indeed.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU