Colorado Hosts Exhibition With CSU-Pueblo Saturday
THE GAME: The University of Colorado hosts Colorado State-Pueblo in an exhibition women’s basketball game on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. at the Coors Events Center. Admission for Saturday’s game is free.
BROADCAST: Saturday’s game will not be carried on the radio, however a free live video stream will be available through Colorado’s Pac-12.com video player. All CU women’s basketball home games that are not televised will be available through Pac-12.com at this link
http://pac-12.com/videos/university-colorado
Non-televised Pac-12 road games are scheduled to be available on the opponents’ similar video player, free of charge.
SEASON PREVIEW: Every new season brings its own unique set of challenges. A year ago Colorado was coming off an NCAA Tournament berth, but injuries and some heart-breaking near misses left the Buffaloes just short of making a return trip to the Big Dance, although a fourth straight winning season (19-15) and a modest run in the Postseason WNIT set a foundation to build upon.
Colorado will be able to rely on a solid senior class that has played a lot of minutes as well as some talented younger players. The bulk of this program has experienced a good level of success, with all returners playing in some sort of postseason play over the last three years.
“We need to have the commitment to continue to work on our individual game on the offensive side, and our overall strength and fitness,” head coach Linda Lappe said. “I feel like we’re a really strong team right now, just looking at us in the weight room, and I really think that will translate onto the court as we begin practice.
“We need to improve our leadership and our defense. Normally, we’re a good defensive team, but that wasn’t the case at times last year. We need to have that leadership on the floor in those late game situations, to execute plays, and to get stops on the defensive end.”
Colorado has already been presented with one significant challenge. Junior forward Arielle Roberson, last year’s leading scorer and rebounder, will miss the season with a torn ACL in her left knee suffered in a routine drill during individual workouts just a week before the start of fall practice.
While her contributions will certainly be missed the Buffaloes have good depth in the front court and will look to a number of players to fill that void.
“Anytime there is an injury there is an opportunity for another player to step up,” Lappe said. “We’ll have the time with practice for players to seize that opportunity.”
Junior Jamee Swan could have a big year for Colorado and her play will be critical even more so with the loss of Roberson. Swan led Colorado in both field-goal percentage (.505) and blocked shots (36) while ranking third in rebounding (5.3 rpg). She had flashes of dominance, including a 25-point outburst against Washington, and a 20-point, 13-rebound effort against No. 4 Stanford.
“Jamee is going to be key for us,” Lappe said. “She’s already played a major role for us and now as a junior, she needs to continue to evolve into a bigger inside presence. We’re going to rely on our rebounding and athleticism at the rim.”
Senior forward Jen Reese was second in scoring and rebounding for the Buffaloes before missing the final seven games with a shoulder injury. She finished just a fraction behind Roberson for the scoring lead at 12 per game while hitting 48 percent from the field and pulling down nearly six rebounds per contest.
Sophomore forward Zoe Beard-Fails has entered fall practice in great shape. She had spurts of success in limited time as a freshman, and has improved her strength and quickness in the offseason.
A pair of newcomers will add depth, especially if the Buffaloes show a big lineup. Sophomore center Bri Watts, didn’t play in a game last year, but a year of conditioning and practice with the program should help. Freshman center Zoe Correal averaged 11.2 points and 8.2 rebounds for her Salesian High School team that made it to the state title game in California’s top division.
“(Zoe Correal) has been impressive with her ability to learn and also compete,” Lappe said. “She never quits and does everything at 110 percent. We still need to work with her on her skill set, but our fans will enjoy seeing her resolve to get things done.”
Colorado’s other early season story line comes in the back court, specifically at the point guard position. The Buffaloes are excited about the prospects of true freshman Brecca Thomas, who had a storied career at The Kinkaid School in the Houston area, but also realize the transition at that position from high school to the Pac-12 is a tough one. Fortunately, senior Lexy Kresl will be able to help ease that process.
Though, naturally, more of a shooting guard, Kresl has played plenty of minutes at the point for Colorado, with a good deal of success. Kresl had an outstanding nonconference season as a junior; she was named the MVP of the Omni Classic, averaging 15.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. She also had fantastic game in one of the nation’s toughest venues, scoring 17 points with eight rebounds at No. 7 Louisville.
The growth in her all-around game is what has been the most beneficial to the Buffaloes. She led Colorado in assists and was third in steals as a junior. And, let’s not forget, she can shoot. Kresl enters her senior year 10th in career 3-pointers with 124 and is a career 84 percent shooter from the free throw line.
All this allows the Buffaloes to be patient with Thomas, although the ideal situation may be to have them on the court at the same time. Thomas was a four-year All-South Zone and All-South Preparatory Conference selection, helping her team to a pair of SPC championships. She averaged 18.6 points, 5.0 assists, 3.5 steals and 3.4 rebounds for The Kinkaid School as a senior and was ranked the 25th best point guard in the nation by ESPN HoopGurlz.
“Brecca will have to have a lot of reps from the get go and I’ve really liked what I’ve seen so far from her and what she’s been able to do,” Lappe said. “She becomes more prepared every single day. The good thing for her is we have Lexy who played a lot at the point for us last year and can be in that spot as well, but the best thing for Lexy and our team is to be able to utilize her at the 2-guard a lot more.”
The backcourt is strong and has the ability to extend the floor with numerous players. Colorado is eagerly anticipating the return of senior Jasmine Sborov who really started to come into her own last year during the preseason before a foot injury abruptly ended her season prematurely after 14 games.
Sborov had averaged 7.8 points and 4.6 rebounds prior to her injury and was beginning to showcase the hard work she had put in on her shot in the previous offseason. She had extended her game past the 3-point line, hitting a solid 37 percent from beyond the arc. Sborov also shot 72 percent from the free line and iced road games against Colorado State and Wyoming from the stripe.
“Jas has made tremendous strides in her career, from the time she was a freshman to now,” Lappe said. “I know she’s looking forward to being out there with her teammates and really playing for them.”
When Sborov went down, someone had to take her place. Much like the Buffaloes will have to do with Roberson’s absence, someone had to step up and last year it was Haley Smith, then a true freshman. Despite some natural bumps, Smith got better and better as the season went along pitching just under three points and four rebounds per game. Now a year later, her experience makes Colorado that much deeper on the wing.
“Haley is a prime example of a player that stepped into a role that was void once another player was injured,” Lappe said. “Haley was able to step in and be that wing for us that was just steady. When you think of Haley, she’s someone that is tough, consistent and we’re going to rely on those same things this year with a little additional load on her shoulders to score and defend multiple positions.”
Colorado’s guard play also benefits from long-range shooter Lauren Huggins, who ranked among the Pac-12’s most accurate 3-point shooters last year, hitting on 36 percent. Sophomore Desiree Harris will also give Colorado minutes; a smart, quick, off-guard that can shoot from outside and also drive into the lane to either score or distribute.
Possibly the ‘X-Factor’ for the Buffaloes is freshman guard Alina Hartmann, from Bamberg, Germany; Colorado’s first European player in six years. Hartmann is a veteran of several very successful German junior national teams, including the U20 team that placed first at the 2014 European Championships for Women this past August, where she averaged 8.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists. She played club basketball for DJK Brose Bamberg in the German 1st Division, averaging 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while hitting 43 percent from the field in 22 games in 2013-14.
“Alina played with her German National team this summer, came in here and raised the standard in a lot of ways,” Lappe said. “She’s in fantastic shape, the best of our freshmen, and competes with our returners for that title. Alina has such a high level of intensity, has a great sense of urgency and is a sponge in what she’s told, although sometimes she doesn’t really understand it, she watches, and is very perceptive, and imitates whatever she sees in front of her on the floor and will do exactly what we are trying to get done.”
Colorado has a challenging nonconference schedule, especially on the road. The Buffaloes will see both the SEC (at Missouri) at Big Ten (at Iowa) with potential games with perennial power Penn State or defending Big 12 Champion West Virginia in the Postseason WNIT. Colorado has its early Pac-12 work cut out for them, starting with a road trip to defending Pac-12 Champion Stanford and California. Five of the Buffaloes’ first eight Pac-12 games are on the road, but similar to two years ago, Colorado has six of its final 10 at home, hopefully providing the momentum for another postseason run.
ABOUT THE THUNDERWOLVES: Colorado State-Pueblo, formerly known as Southern Colorado, is an NCAA Division II school located in Pueblo, Colo., and competes in the prestigious Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, a league Colorado was once part of during the first half of the 20th century.
The Thunderwolves are coming off a 22-9 season in 2013-14, placing second in the RMAC at 18-4; advancing to the semifinals of the RMAC Shootout. CSU-Pueblo advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the fifth time in the last seven years, losing in a South Region quarterfinal game to St. Mary’s (Texas).
Senior center Katie Nehf, a native of Broomfield, Colo., is CSU-Pueblo’s lone returning starter. She averaged 105 points, 6.8 rebounds and a league-best 2.1 blocks per game, earning second team All-RMAC honors.
The Thunderwolves have been picked to finish fourth in the 2014-15 RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll. CSU-Pueblo opened its exhibition season by falling at Northern Colorado, 70-44, on Nov. 1. Nehf scored a team-high 23 points while grabbing six rebounds. Junior guard Ashley Piper had 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds. CSU-Pueblo shot just 27 percent from the field (13-of-49), and hit just one of 15 3-point attempts.
BUFFS IN EXHIBITION: Colorado is a perfect 24-0 in exhibition games, outscoring its opponents by 32 points per game (86.2 to 54.2). The Buffaloes have played at least one exhibition game in all but one year (2009) since 1997. CU’s exhibition games have featured a mix of NCAA II schools, foreign teams and traveling all-star teams. CU’s closest exhibition contest came in 1997, a 77-72 win over Athletes in Action. Colorado’s last exhibition was a 91-42 decision over the Colorado School of Mines prior to the start of the 2013-14 season.
This will be the first time Colorado and CSU-Pueblo have hooked up in an exhibition game.
PRESEASON WNIT: Colorado will officially open the 2014-15 season by hosting North Dakota in the first round of the Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. MT at the Coors Events Center.
North Dakota was 22-10 in 2013-14, sharing the Big Sky Conference regular season title and winning the conference tournament to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Colorado and North Dakota have met on one other occasion, a 67-56 Buffaloes win in Boulder on Jan. 4, 2011.
The Buffaloes, led by fifth-year head coach Linda Lappe, will be guaranteed three games in the event which opens with first round games Nov. 14-15. Round two will be played Nov. 16-17; semifinals will be Nov. 20; and the championship, televised live on the CBS Sports Network, is set for Sunday, Nov. 23, at 1 p.m. MT.
If Colorado wins its first round game it would play the winner of Western Kentucky and Central Arkansas in the second round Monday, Nov. 17. Teams that lose in the first two rounds will play consolation games, in a redrawn bracket, on Nov. 21-22. All games are hosted by participating schools.
BUFFS ON TV: Colorado women’s basketball will be televised to a regional or national audience at least 13 times during the regular season, including 12 games on the Pac-12 Networks during league play. This marks the third consecutive year the Buffaloes will have double-digit regional or national television appearances.
Colorado’s first scheduled appearance will be at Denver on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m., on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain. A possible 14th televised contest could also come during the nonconference schedule. If the Buffaloes should reach the Preseason WNIT championship game, that contest on Sunday, Nov. 23, would be televised nationally at 1 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network.
Colorado’s first eight Pac-12 games will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as will five of the Buffaloes’ nine home conference games. All remaining home games, and conference road games, that aren’t televised will be scheduled to be streamed live through Colorado’s Pac-12.com video portal. In addition, CU’s game at Missouri on Friday, Dec. 12, will air on SEC Network +, the SEC’s online video streaming option.
Entering this season, Colorado has tipped off on 127 national or regional telecasts since the fall of 2001, and 28 since the advent of the Pac-12 Networks in 2012.
BUFFS PICKED 10TH: In what is expected to be one of the most competitive league races in recent memory, Colorado was tabbed to finish 10th in the 2014-15 Pac-12 Conference standings according to the annual coaches preseason poll, announced at Pac-12 Media Day on Oct. 21.
Stanford was voted the preseason favorite for the 15th straight season, claiming 116 points and seven first place votes. California was second with 111 overall and three first place votes. The other two first place nods went to Oregon State, selected to finish third overall with 105.
UCLA was fourth with 84 points followed by Washington (72), USC (65), Arizona State (64), Washington State (56), Oregon (48), Colorado (31), Utah (28) and Arizona (12).
In the media’s preseason poll, Colorado was picked 11th, swapping positions in that poll with Utah.