Kansas wrap

Last night the 3rd largest crowd in CEC history saw a desperate Buffs comeback fall short.  Even with the level of effort that CU had shown all night, I didn't feel that CU should've been in the game, yet there they were within reach in the games final moments.  I say that because of how hot and how lucky CU needed to be in the second half to stay close.  With Kansas maintaining a +14 rebounding edge, and a 21 to 2 second-chance points edge, the Buffs had to shoot a blazingly hot 9-13 from 3 even to keep pace.  Throw in Josh Selby's late first half injury (which kept him off the court and off the board in the 2nd half), and Levi's lucky charge call in the waning seconds, and it was just enough to keep CU within reach.  When you're playing catchup all night, it's always going to be difficult to win.

CU fought hard, but just couldn't complete the comeback against the Jayhawks.  From: the BDC\

There are still a lot of positives to take from the game.  I never want to talk about moral victories, but every game, win or lose, provides potential growth for the entire team.  It was good to see Tomlinson get back to scoring a bit; when he is more assertive offensively, and scoring points, he keeps the defenders honest, opening up more scoring lanes for his teammates.  It thought overall the tandem of Relphorde, Dufault, and Roberson did a good job with the Morris twins;  they were held under their scoring average and around their rebounding average.  Turnovers got back to the low levels that I expect them to be; If CU could've just grabbed a few of those loose balls that slipped through their fingers, the game probably would've been different.

I'd love to be able to say that I thought CU would be able to bring this level of effort with them on the road this weekend in Waco, but I fear they're in for an emotional letdown after playing that hard and still falling short.  CU will just have to remain focused and not let the lesser atmosphere in Texas on Saturday keep them from playing the way they did last night.

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A quick shout out to the students.  When I arrived at the CEC an hour before tipoff, I was shocked, SHOCKED I say, to see an already full student section.  The kids showed up early, and were ready to go well before tip off.  They even successfully kicked out the KU kids who tried to invade (something they hadn't done in previous years).  All we have to do now is teach them how to cheer at a basketball game; I kept thinking that they were waiting for 3rd down to bring out the keys and turn up the volume.

Real good to see the energy from the students there early last night.  From: the BDC