December 18, 2012

Buffs bench needing a turnaround

BOULDER, Colo.- Follow his team's Nov. 27 double-overtime win against Texas Southern, Tad Boyle said that his team could be 6-4 afte a four game stretch against Wyoming, Colorado State, Kansas and Fresno State. It took until their trip to Fresno to notch a road win, and come out the other side 8-2 on the season.

The reward? A finals-week break and nine days between games.

Boyle values the extra practice time that his team will have and sees an opportunity to fine-tune things before the final two non-conference games.

"A lot of offensive stuff," he said of their focus. "Assist to turnover ratio…we're going to have to be able to score more effectively than we've been scoring."

The Buffs average just 9.1 assists to per game to 14.6 turnovers, topping 17 turnovers in five of their ten games.

Another concerning statistic could be the lack of scoring from reserves. Of the 69.9 points per game that Colorado scores, 56.6 of it comes from the starting five and 52.6 from four players. Xavier Johnson leads all non-starters with 5.5 points per game.

"I don't concern myself with that," Boyle said. "We've got guys that can score coming off of the bench it is just a matter of feeling more comfortable and playing more confidently, taking shots when they're open."

The bench struggled mightily in the past five games, averaging just 10.2 points per game and no one over playing more than nine minutes a game. Johnson again leads that group with 8.7 minutes per game over that span.

Boyle has said all year that he would like to cut down his starters minutes with Spencer Dinwiddie, Andre Roberson and Askia Booker all playing more than 32 minutes per game while Josh Scott sits at 29.2 minutes per game.

"I'm going to play our bench earlier in these next two games," said Tad Boyle. "The time is now to do that. I've got to do it."

Someone that he would like to count on is Jeremy Adams. Unfortunately, Adams' health issues (diabetes and chronic knee problems) have yet to allow the type of consistency Boyle is looking for.

"You never know with Jeremy how his knee is going to be, how his energy is going to be," Boyle said. "He's a guy that can bring something to this team, no question."

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