Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Sam Routhier at samuel.routhier@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @samrouthier.
University of Colorado women’s basketball Head Coach Linda Lappe may operate in the world of the NCAA, but that doesn’t mean she can’t keep an eye on pro sports too.
At Wednesday’s Colorado basketball media day at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Lappe cited her team’s need to get back to its defense-oriented roots by referencing another local squad that prides itself on defense.
“The Denver Broncos have shown that defense can do some amazing things,” Lappe said, adding that in Colorado’s last NCAA appearance in 2013 the Buffaloes “were holding teams to fewer than 50 [points] consistently every night. We want to get back to having that presence on the defensive side of things.”
If the Buffaloes really do get back to the nitty gritty defense they employed with success a few years ago, they’ll have to reverse a trend that has seen their opponent’s average points per game increase from 54.5 in 2012-13, to 63.5 in 2013-14, to 68.3 last season, when Colorado only outscored opponents by an average of less than one point.
But more than long-term statistical trends, Colorado will need consistent excellence from experienced veterans, of which it has few, and quality minutes from players with little or no experience at the NCAA level, of which it has many.
At the top of that list will be senior forward Jamee Swan. Last year’s leader in points and rebounds for Colorado, Swan will be asked to put this team on her shoulders in a manner not unlike that of LeBron James.
“She’s one player who’s going to have to take a big step so she can be a consistent force on the floor every single game, it doesn’t matter what the level of competition is — we need her to be at her best,” Lappe said. “We feel like she can be steady enough to do that.”
Only weeks into practice, few coaches are willing to commit to a starting five for the regular season. The early situation for Colorado will be especially fluid in the wake of the graduations of three starters from last season, Jen Reese, Jasmine Sborov and Lexy Kresl, who played heavy minutes. For Swan, it’s more a matter of having the entire team on the same page at this point in the season.
“Right now, we’re just trying to get team chemistry down before we get the ‘starting five’ chemistry down,” Swan said.
One player who will certainly be slotted alongside Swan in the starting lineup is junior guard/forward Haley Smith. Smith, the only other returning starter for Colorado, will look to further improve her play after a sophomore season in which she started all 32 games and was one of only four players to average more than nine points per game (9.4).
“Freshman year into sophomore year I worked a lot on my shot, and extending my range, and I’ve continued doing that back to the three,” Smith said Wednesday. “But now I’m working toward being able to get to the rim, being explosive, and being more of a threat that way.”
Another junior likely to play a prominent role this year is guard Lauren Huggins. Huggins has developed a reputation as a three-point threat over the past two seasons. Last year she only attempted seven field goals (out of a total 119) that were not three-pointers over the course of the entire season. Wednesday she alluded to expanding her offensive capacity this season while not straying too far from her strengths.
“I’m trying to expand [offensively], you never want to be one-dimensional,” Huggins said. “Being a three-point threat is still my main component, and being able to step out a few feet outside the arc. I’ve also been incorporating a pull-up jumper game as well as coming off of some different options in our offense for layups.”
While Swan, Smith and Huggins have been rotation players on this team for the better part of two seasons now (and three seasons for Swan), Colorado is also going to lean heavily on young players, namely the sophomore and freshman classes. In regards to the process of acclimating the new class of freshmen to college basketball, Lappe has made it clear that she isn’t using the kid gloves on the class of 2019.
“We want them to be on the fast track,” Lappe said. “We will have at least one, but sometimes up to three freshmen on the floor at any one time [this season].”
Lappe and the players present at media day were all confident in the underclassman-heavy roster they’ll be a part of this season. While this team may not find itself undefeated after a third of their season like the Broncos, it sounds like there is a lot of confidence on this team that it can make a move back to the top track of the ever-competitive Pac-12 conference this year.
Colorado begins its season at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at home against Loyola Marymount.
