Monday Grab Bag: Butthurt Monday

And a happy Butthurt Monday to you all!  Today I'll be talking a truly awful performance by the CU basketball team, My Bears trying desperately to lose (and succeeding!), and the goings on the the rest of the college basketball world.

Click below for the bag...




The faults in the foundation -   Coach Tad Boyle looked lost throughout the second half of the Buffs 65-54 loss to the Wyoming Cowboys Friday night.  Line-up combination after combination streamed off the CU bench, only to be turned away by ineffectiveness and frustration as the minutes ticked by.

The home non-conference streak is over, and CU has no one to blame but themselves.  Wyoming played a good game, but no team should walk into the CEC, score 65 points, and expect to win against the Buffs.  The Cowboy defense was rock-solid to be sure, but the Buffs seemed unwilling to even challenge it, let alone break it down.  Coaching, player execution, whatever; the Buffs offensive performance Friday night was a disaster.  

After a mostly acceptable first half, the team came out of the locker room and hit an execution brick wall.  A 17-2 run by the Cowboys in the second frame all but sealed the contest as CU's defense imploded, and the offense came up lame and indigent.  For nearly 10 minutes CU couldn't make a field goal, and the Cowboys essentially ended the game by going on a quick 13-0 sprint to the eight minute mark.  All told, CU lost the second half 35-24, with that 17-2 stretch being the difference.

Possible quote from Coach Boyle: "The basket is over there!"  From: the BDC

Coach Boyle would love to peg the thing on the defense, saying that CU should be able to find a way to win 54-53, but I can't look at the offensive performance and find anything acceptable to it over the past weeks of play.  With the 15 turnovers committed by the Buffs Friday night, that makes 48 in three games played against Mountain West competition.  Add to it the 41% shooting from the field and 53% shooting from the free throw line, and CU is lucky to have won a game during that three game series against the MWC.  No amount of defense can make up for offensive production that pathetic. 

It often looks like CU doesn't know what its supposed to be doing on offense.  From: the BDC

They have a week and a half to fix the offense, and then 3-straight games against sub-par opponents to test it before Pac-12 play starts.  If they can't figure out how to play against a zone by December 31st, then we might as well cancel the season now and start prepping for the full youth movement to arrive next fall.

The search for answers continues; the resulting silence is, so far, deafening.


Notes from around basketball nation - 

College Basketball - 

Ohio St at Kansas - With Jared Sullinger missing the game due to back spasms, absolutely no one should be surprised that the Buckeyes couldn't muddle through the Phog to victory.  I'll wait for the rematch in March when tOSU is back to full strength.

Kentucky at Indiana - An absolutely incredible finish saw the rotting corpse of Indiana basketball spring back to life.  The red and white clad zombies took down the #1 team in the nation, who refused to foul with one to give.  Could Indiana finally be back to being Indiana?

Cincinnati at Xavier - Cincy is back to being Cincy.  The Huggy Bear would be proud as punches were thrown over the weekend.  The pampered basketball players pranced around screaming "thug life" afterwards, bringing shame to real thugs everywhere. 


Way to blow the season, Marion - With My Bears having the season put on life support by injuries to Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, I trekked up to the Highlands to take in my first ever Bears game.  For 56 minutes the team executed perfectly on defense, while the offense had stumbled its way into 10 pts (via Devin Hester being Devin Hester).  Then, the Bears decided it was time to end the season a few weeks early.

First, the Bears dropped into a prevent defense with 4 minutes to go.  Unless you're up 30 points, that's usually not a good idea; the Broncos, of course, score easily after taking only 2 minutes off the clock.  A special teams breakdown on the ensuing onside kick is bypassed by a lucky bounce.  Apparently concluding there hasn't been enough fail yet, Marion Barber (a known idiot) decides its a good moment to RUN OUT OF BOUNDS.  Wait, what?  WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT?  Barber going full retard gives the Bronco offense 30 extra seconds of life, which allows them to get Prater and his massive leg into field goal range to tie.

Season's over, *clap* *clap* *clap,clap,clap*  From: SBNation

Getting the ball first in overtime was no help, as Marion proceeded to fumble (of course) as the Bears were entering field goal range.  Boom, season's over.  Thanks, Marion.  That's some fine suck-cess right there; I hope the team enjoys its middle-round draft pick.


Happy Butthurt Monday!