Contact CU Independent Men’s Basketball Writer Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu and follow her on Twitter @crazysportgirl1.
The Buffaloes are riding high after their big win at home against Gary Payton II and the Oregon State Beavers on Wednesday night, but they’ll need to come back to Earth if they want to match up with Oregon on Sunday.
As it stands, the Ducks sit second in the Pac-12 conference with a 14-3 overall record and 3-1 in conference play. They’ve recorded some impressive wins, including one over No. 20 Baylor, California and Utah, but they’ve also dropped a few games to UNLV, Boise State and Oregon State.
To put that into perspective, the Buffs are currently fifth in the Pac-12 with records of 13-4 and 2-2, with three of their losses occurring in the past five games. They dropped similar contests against California and Utah, who the Ducks beat by three and 18 points earlier this week, respectively.
During that game against the Utes, the Ducks put on a clinic as they got up big early and never allowed Utah to get close to taking the lead. Forward Dillon Brooks scored a stifling 21 points, followed by guard Casey Benson who added 15. One of the main keys to the game will be to contain these two.
After the way he absolutely manhandled Jakob Poeltl of Utah last week, I expect Josh Scott to take on the burden of guarding Dillon Brooks, with perhaps a little help of Wes Gordon, who recorded six blocks and seven defensive rebounds against Oregon State on Wednesday.
Freshman guard Tyler Dorsey, who the Buffs recruited last year but lost to Oregon, is averaging 13.9 points a game ahead of Elgin Cook and Chris Boucher, who are scoring 12.5 and 11.7 respectively.
As for Benson or Dorsey, I’ll look for head coach Tad Boyle to put Dom Collier on one of the two. But let’s face it: Thomas Akyazili is by far the best defensive player in the back court. He’ll certainly play a role there too.
Oregon holds a lot of offensive firepower in their roster, and the Buffaloes’ main key to the game will be to contain their scoring and keep Dorsey, Benson and Dwayne Benjamin—or as Bill Walton like to refer to him, Snoop Dogg—inside the arc.
Oregon is currently scoring roughly 76 points a game, but they’ve faltered a bit in conference play as they’re only scoring 68. By comparison, the Buffs are averaging 78 points per game but only 61.5 points during conference play.
But the Buffs have the ability to turn on their offensive firepower too, if they so choose. Right now, senior forward Josh Scott is averaging 17.9 points, followed by sophomore guard George King (13.8) and junior guard Josh Fortune (10.8). Don’t count out Tre’Shaun Fletcher, Tory Miller or Wes Gordon just yet. They’re capable of having big games too.
All season long, Colorado’s biggest kryptonite has been its ball-handling as the team is committing about 13.8 turnovers each contest. It should be to their relief, however, that the Ducks are nearly just as bad with 13 turnovers per game. If the Buffs can eliminate the silly out of bounds passes and unnecessary ball drops, it’ll only make winning the game easier.
The Ducks aren’t great post defenders, but boy are they good at scoring in transition. If the Buffs can get a few shots off in transition and hustle to the other end of the floor before their opponents can get a shot off, they should be able to keep the game close.
A key factor will be seeing if the team can get hot from the three point range, namely Fortune and King, great. But if they can’t, they need to know what’s not working for them and feed the ball to Scott and Gordon in the paint. That strategy seems to be working pretty well for them this year.
The Buffs will no doubt face a daunting challenge in Oregon, but if they play their cards right as they did against Oregon State—with tight defense and an explosive offense—they should be able to walk away with another victory, no problem. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. in the Coors Events Center on Sunday.
