Colorado's basketball teams hopeful the ride doesn't end prematurely
A long time ago when the Earth was green and there were more kinds of animals than you’ve ever seen your scribe worked at KCNC-TV in Denver, now known as CBS News Colorado. A nice gig covering sports and being known as the “Buff Guy," while hosting television shows documenting the good, bad and ugly of Colorado athletics.
Bill McCartney, Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett on the football side of things. Ceal Barry and women’s basketball. Tom Miller, Joe Harrington and Ricardo Patton for the men. The job included traveling on the football team plane. Your correspondent, along with other Denver-based travelers, would gather at the hotel near Denver’s old airport awaiting buses to take us on the tarmac, board the plane and await the Golden Buffaloes arrival from Boulder to zoom off into hostile territory in pursuit of victory against ferocious and not-so-ferocious foes.
A lot of time was spent in the lobby of the hotel. I’d passed the time and watch the glass elevators go up and down. It was a great people-watching experience. Elevator riders were exposed. For whatever reason, while writing this piece, I thought of those elevators moving up and down. Occupants inside had nowhere to hide. It makes me think of this season’s basketball campaigns for the Colorado women’s and men’s basketball teams.
Ladies first. Holy smokes, what a start. JR Payne’s team announced to the basketball world its unique talents with a season-opening win over defending national champion LSU. You can’t start any better. This veteran and well-balanced unit stormed through the initial bulk of the schedule, rose to #3 nationally and was in the nation’s top eight schools for 14 consecutive weeks before the bottom has dropped out. The Buffs have five of their last six games and were outscored on their home floor, on Senior Day to boot, 14-0 in the closing minutes in losing to unranked Washington State.
What’s going on? Payne’s team seems healthy considering the long season, although spark plug point guard Jalyn Sherrod has been playing with a broken nose. Exhausted? Mentally? Only the Buffs know for sure as Pac 12 post-season play begins in Las Vegas. This much is a fact, Colorado has lost its mojo in closing games. “I just think we have to be real intentional about playing to win games, not playing to lose as some people say,” Payne admits.
The elevator is descending at an alarming rate. The Buffs are a lock for the NCAA tournament but were at one time considered a possible #1 seed with first-round home games. Not anymore.
On the men’s side the elevator seemed stuck on the ground floor early in the season. Pundits thought this might be Tad Boyle’s best team in 12 seasons as Colorado’s head coach. The Buffs can be an opponent’s nightmare with the offensive firepower of potential Pac 12 Player of the Year KJ Simpson, forward Tristan da Silva and freshman phenom Cody Williams. However, the team seemed to muddle its way through most the season but appears to have found its mojo late despite Williams missing 11 games due to an assortment of injuries.
“Must win” games remain at Oregon and Oregon State before post-season conference play but the Buffs seem to be clicking at exactly the right time. Boyle’s hoopsters seem poised to make a strong run toward what was a foregone conclusion before the season: An NCAA tournament appearance and possible run toward the Sweet 16 or beyond. My mind wanders to former men’s coach Ricardo Patton. The horse-loving dude is now retired. I can remember when adversity struck his team? Patton would always calmly and assertively offer, “This too shall pass.”
Current women’s assistant coach and CU Hall of Fame basketball star Shelley Sheetz: “It’s tourney time. Everyone is 0-0. The teams that pour into each other one game at a time for 40 minutes and shut out the noise around them will be successful.” Amen sister.
These teams live in glass elevators. There is nowhere to hide. Ascending or descending? Time will tell.
