Seven takeaways from Colorado's 76-58 win over Kansas State

MANHATTAN, Kansas — 76-58 is the final score from the Bramlage Coliseum and boy did the Buffaloes rebound from an ultra ugly first 10 minutes of play. The Buffs are 2-0 with both wins coming on the road to start the season for the first time since 1960-1961.

Below are seven takeaways plus some additional thoughts from the Buffaloes' win.

We’ve seen this before. In fact, the way Colorado started this game — ice cold from the floor, leaving threes wide open, not doing much of anything right — eerily reminded me about the calamitous end to last season.In those five games, the aforementioned shortcomings at times lasted for much of a given game.

This time (thankfully) the Buffs plugged some holes and embarked on a solid rally, turning a 22-9 deficit with 9:37 before halftime into a 31-30 deficit heading into the locker rooms.

Getting back to that bad first 10 minutes, K-State having a red hot start to the game certainly amplified the woes.

The Wildcats were shooting above 60% from the floor and from long range for around half of the opening 20 minutes and their numbers at halftime (55% and 46%) were solid after the full period.

Overall, the Buffaloes were extremely flat to start this one. Lots of heads down, pouting and bad defense coupled with ineffective shot choices (looking at you, Maddox Daniels...in both respects) in the opening 10 minutes of play.

“Mental toughness”, a frequent Tad Boyle-ism, along with “quality depth” and “energy & effort” was on full display tonight.

After all, how does a team comeback from a near disastrous opening 10 minutes to put the hammer down on a Big 12 program in its own house?

The final 30 minutes Colorado played far outweighed the initial 10. Friday’s victory had “team win” written all over it with a multitude of players doing their bit offensively and defensively.

Both Boyle and players said they really wanted to play for D’Shawn Schwartz, Keeshawn Barthelemy and Tristan da Silva after the unfortunate pregame news that Schwartz is COVID-positive and the latter two have to enter quarantine, as well, due to contact tracing protocol.

Those three guys can take some pride knowing that their teammates fought like hell to win for them.

Aside from the stinker that was the first 10 minutes, Colorado wound up turning in a solid performance and commanding victory.

Back-to-back games with 20-plus points for Wright IV. With how he’s playing in his final year with the program, it’s honestly hard not to start thinking ahead to next year and the year after — this dude is going to largely be irreplaceable.

Wright IV stroked it from three, attacked the rim efficiently, kept turnovers down and continues to rebound extremely well for a 6-foot-0 point guard.Turnovers were the one area of his game that Wright IV vowed to work on. So far, so good.

As for everything else — vision, short game, mid-range game, the three-ball — at a minimum, looks to be right on par with what you’d want to see.At the maximum, Wright IV has refined all of those aforementioned aspects of his game.

He’s been absolutely terrific through two games.Wright UV finished the night with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting. He had five rebounds, five assists and a steal.

That's a hell of a dominating performance.

Walker largely sparked Colorado’s comeback in the first half.

His free throws with 8:40 to go before halftime were the Buffs’ first points in nearly six minutes and shortly thereafter, with Colorado working to claw itself back into things, Walker had a tremendous steal under the Wildcats’ rim, converting it into a quick layup to make the score 22-17, lowering CU's deficit further.

In the second half, Walker was all over the place — making layups, grabbing boards in the offensive zone, notching a steal that led to an Eli Parquet layup — through two games, he has the making of a really special asset for the Buffs.

Walker is producing out of the gate and his confidence grows with each game. He’s done nothing but assert himself as a player ready to go toe to toe with the Pac-12 big dogs.

Nine points, three boards, a pair of steals and a perfect 3-of-3 from the free throw line: Walker is energizing this team and gaining confidence every night.

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There had been much discussion heading into this season about the potential Parquet had to be more of an offensive weapon for Colorado and so far, he’s living up to those expectations.

His shot looks more technically sound and consistent. He’s chipping in on the glass and tonight, with the key absence of normal No. 2 point guard Barthelemy, Parquet handled himself nicely when tasked to bring the ball up the court.

Ultimately, Parquet this year finds himself in a position that maybe it’s fair to say Lucas Siewert or Shane Gatling fell into last year: him scoring on a nightly basis is not wholly conducive to Colorado winning, but when he does, the Buffs are inherently in better shape to do so.

Parquet so far has looked good.

His defense remains at a high level and finally, the offense is starting to match what he specializes in as a defender. A pair of long balls and nine total points on the night is a stat line you can be happy with.

So far, we have not seen the Evan Battey that was expected to be a regular board grabber and low post finisher for the 2020-2021 season. Battey has missed too many bunny shots and isn’t coming down with as many rebounds as I’m sure he and coaches would prefer.

Tonight, Battey had five points, with three coming from the charity stripe. He was 1-of-5 from the floor and grabbed four rebounds in 29 minutes. Those numbers were more underwhelming than the seven points and four boards he had Wednesday vs. South Dakota.

Boyle was unconcerned with the less-than-ideal stat lines, instead pointing to traffic down low and double teams as a big reason why Battey hasn’t been blowing anyone away with his numbers to date.

Two off games is not reason to start freaking out, but Battey is a guy that needs to produce regularly when it comes to scoring the ball and securing rebounds.

Daniels finished with 10 points against K-State but I have to say, I was less than impressed with his day at the office. 3-of-10 from the floor and four fouls isn’t much to write home to Boulder about.

I’m concerned with Daniels because his defense is routinely lacking and his decision-making on offense — mostly bad shots but to a lesser degree making bad passes — is not a good recipe for success.

Nothing gets under Boyle’s skin more than bad defense, and coupled with ineffective shooting and a few boneheaded passes per game, that’s quite the triple whammy that’ll do the opposite of convincing coaches to give you more minutes.

Daniels is likely going to have a longer leash due to the extended absences of Schwartz, Barthelemy and da Silva, but then again, there are other depth options at Boyle’s disposal that may look more appealing to insert into a game for 10-minutes plus if Daniels doesn’t up his own personal ante soon.

How about a turnaround in the offensive rebounds allowed department? Two days after allowing 14 to an undersized South Dakota squad, the Buffs toughed it up and let the Wildcats have only three.

In total, the Buffs won the rebounding battle, 29-23. That's not bad. Not bad at all.Colorado also was 18-of-21 from the charity stripe, after going 14-of-15 vs. the Coyotes. That's deserving of an A grade.

And finally, how about Jeriah Horne? He led the team with six boards and also contributed nine points. On Wednesday, we saw him stroke it from three. Tonight, his short and mid range game was more so on display.

Horne through two games has given a nice sample as to the versatile nature in which he can contribute offensively for the Buffaloes.