Ten games into a season in which it had beaten two ranked teams, Colorado had yet to do one of the simpler tasks for a Power Five team in non-conference play – win multiple games in a row.
On Thursday, that finally changed.
What has been a consistently inconsistent Buffs team had little trouble handling business Thursday night against a North Alabama team it was favored to beat by 21.5 points, ultimately notching an 84-60 victory at the CU Events Center.
With the win, Colorado climbs back over .500, to 6-5 on the season. After beating rival Colorado State by 28 points last week, it has won its past two games by a combined 52 points.
“I feel like our preparation has always been the same,” guard KJ Simpson said. “It was just going out there and actually doing it. Instead of talking about it all the time, just going out there actually doing it. I feel like one of the distinctions within the games has been us coming out in the second half and getting key stops and dictating a lot of things. I feel like our mindset and our intensity has always been there. It was just a matter of going out there and showing it and proving it.”
Offensively, the Buffs largely had their way against a North Alabama squad that entered the game ranked 325th among 363 Division I teams in defensive efficiency and was allowing opponents to shoot 41.7% from 3-point range. Colorado had 84 points on 71 possessions and shot 31 of 61 from the field (50.8%), including a 26-of-42 mark (61.9%) from inside the 3-point arc.
While preparing for the matchup, forward Tristan da Silva said the team believed it could exploit North Alabama’s struggles with switching on defense, something the Buffs did frequently Thursday.
“We were really focusing on not settling for jump shots, even if you get wide-open looks in the beginning of the possession,” da Silva said. “You can keep playing and keep attacking them, create more mismatches and then eventually get an even better shot later in the offense.”
Defensively, the Lions scored 60 points on 72 possessions and shot just 38.9% overall. Daniel Ortiz, North Alabama’s leading scorer at 13.7 points per game, was held to seven points on 10 shots and made only one of his five 3s. He entered the night shooting 46.8% from beyond the arc.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle, however, saw his team struggle beyond what might be indicated in a box score.
“I felt like we could have held them to 50,” he said. “Our double-teams in the post were atrocious. That kid Forrest split us like nothing. We came to double from the high side one time and we gave up a wide-open 3 to a shooter in the corner. We got let off the hook for fouling because they didn’t make foul shots. Yeah, we held them to 39%. That's good. But we made a lot of breakdowns that we can't have when we play in the Pac-12. Players need to understand that.”
Game ball
da Silva was a force Thursday night for the Buffs. The junior had 25 points, nine rebounds, three steals and 11 made field goals, all of which were career highs. In putting up those big numbers, he was efficient, making 11 of his 18 shots and two of his four 3s.
The 6-foot-9 forward entered the night averaging just four rebounds per contest. It’s an area of his game Boyle and the Colorado coaching staff have been working with him intently on improving
“The longer I coach, it's really difficult to coach rebounding in terms of technique,” Boyle said. “It's a nose for the ball and then just a habit of every time the shot goes up on offense, Tristan, go assume it's missed and develop your habits of going to the glass. He got his hands on a lot of balls tonight. …Defensively, he should be a great rebounder because he's really smart, he's usually between his man and the basket. It's a mentality. It's not teaching him rebounding technique as much as it is rebounding mentality. Some kids can figure that out and some kids can't.”
Turning point
Holding on to an 18-16 lead midway through the first half in a back-and-forth game, the Buffs rattled off 12 unanswered points over a stretch of 3:45 to push their lead to 14. Four different players scored for Colorado during that spurt.
North Alabama wouldn’t get within 10 for the remainder of the night.
Box score highlights
48.1%: North Alabama’s free throw percentage, as it missed 14 of its 27 attempts, one reason among others it was held to 60 points
11: Points for J’Vonne Hadley in 21 minutes. Boyle said the junior guard “wasn’t feeling the best today” and was “a little under the weather” at shootaround, but gutted through it Thursday.
10: Turnovers for Colorado, its third-fewest in a game this season. Over their past two wins, the Buffs have just 18 combined turnovers
5: Offensive rebounds for Luke O’Brien, who finished with 11 points and six rebounds in 17 minutes
27:52: Amount of time Colorado led by at least 10 points
Quotes of note
“Just building off that Colorado State game, we realized that the reason why we were able to win is because of our defense. We kind of prioritize a lot of defensive things in practice. They’ve got some good scorers out there, some good playmakers, so it was just important for us to lock in on defense, be in the gap, help and things like that. That was pretty much it.” - Simpson
“We needed that. We’ve been really inconsistent the 10 games prior to that. It was good to get back-to-back wins where we kind of dictated with our defense. Coach talks a lot about that. Making teams uncomfortable with our defenses is definitely a strength of ours.” - da Silva
“It was a workman-like effort. Coming out of finals, you never know what you're gonna get from your team emotionally and how sharp they're going to be. It’s not often you win by 24 and statistically, I think there's some really good things tonight, but you feel like your team could have played better. That's how I feel about tonight's game.” - Boyle
“North Alabama, they were trying to speed us up, but they weren’t really pressuring the ball or jumping at us. The next time we get pressured, we'll find out if we can handle pressure. UMass pressured us, Boise pressured us. We'll find out if we've turned that corner or not. But I hope it's a step in the right direction. There's no doubt about that.” - Boyle
What’s next
Following Thursday’s win, Colorado will face off Sunday at home against Northern Colorado, where Boyle coached for three seasons before coming to Boulder. The Bears are 5-5 this season, but have won four of their past five games, including a five-point win at Colorado State last Saturday. In that win, Colorado transfer Daylen Kountz had 27 points for Northern Colorado. This season, he’s averaging a team-high 17.4 points per game.
“I think the world of Daylen,” Boyle said. “Just because he left here doesn't mean that don't follow him and cheer for him. He's a great kid, a young man now. He's talented. We knew that when we recruited him. He found a place where he can kind of be ‘the man’, so to speak. I'm happy for him. I know he's gonna come in here and he's gonna try to roast us and give us the business, man. He's gonna try to come in and get 40. He had 27 against Colorado State, so I know how talented Daylen is. We're gonna have to have a game plan for him and the rest of that team. They've got some talented kids. UNC means a lot to me because they gave me my first start as a head coach, when nobody else did. I grew up there, two blocks from campus. My dad was an English professor. So Greeley means a lot to me and UNC means a lot to me. I'm always cheering for them.”
The Buffs won last Thursday. They won this Thursday, making it two in a row. And if they win again Sunday, it’s called “a winning streak.” It has happened before!
