Nebraska at Colorado: If 62-36 Wasn't Bad Enough....

[ChipperF1]

There are plenty of thing I enjoy in the state of Colorado.

I like driving up Pikes Peak. I even enjoyed hiking up Pikes Peak.
I like skiing on fresh powder at 6,000 feet up. Slooshing down a perfect mountain, enjoying God's country.
I like that little penny arcade/mall type place in Manitou Springs where the games are fun, and my cousin introduced me to that cute, dorky friend of hers who looked really good in a sundress.
I like being in the seats at Coors Field, watching 10 home runs and then hitting one of the brewpubs after the game.
I like getting on a good roller coaster at Elitch's.
I enjoy walking down the main street of Golden in a nice CSM T-shirt (Go Orediggers!).
I like charging down a bike path in Boulder on a perfect spring day.
I like Richard Lamm.
In weird way, I even like Woody Paige. Okay, I don't http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

But if its in black and gold and screaming "GO BUFFS", that is where the enjoyment ends.

Wednesday night is the annual womens basketball trip to Boulder. The last time my Husker lasses won in Boulder, leg warmers were in style (That's 1985 if you are scoring at home).

There's not much reason to think that the losing streak will end in 2002. Hush, Hush. Colorado, This team's SCARY!

Nebraska (12-10, 2-7) vs. #13 Colorado (17-6, 7-3)
Wednesday, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Coors Events Center (11,064), Boulder, Colo.
Nebraska Radio - Pinnacle Sports Network http://www.huskers.com
Colorado Radio - Colorado Sports Network http://www.cubuffs.com

COLORADO: Back To The Future

A good Colorado Buffalo womens basketball team always has the following components.

1. Ceal Barry
2. A guard who can take over a game and scrap for 40 minutes
3. Post players who can dominate
4. Somebody on the team from France.

This 2002 edition of the CU Buffs has these things. After a few years in the wilderness of injury and inconsistency, Ceal Barry has a team that seriously contend for the conference championship again. The head coach has repeatly lit the fire under her teams for the last few seasons, but this year's squad hasn't melted. They've picked up the flame and made their own in response to an 0-3 start where the Buffs played unagressive ball against Oklahoma. They followed that up by coughing up a 6 point lead in the final 5 minutes to Texas, followed by a close loss to Kansas State.
Since losing the first three games of the Big 12 slate, the Buffaloes haven't lost. Seven straight wins and counting. Texas Tech and Iowa State are big-name victims.

Ceal Barry is the brain, but senior guard Mandy Nightingale has been the heart and the hustle of CU throughout the conference season. She's averaging 14.9 points per games this season. She's averaged 16 points per game in this recent 7-game surge. She also averging that many floor burns, bruises, fist pumps and screams of joy per game in that stretch, too.
The knock on Nightingale was that she was a solid player but unfocused. If she's unfocused she hasn't let us see it. Her scoring is up after an early shooting slump. And check this out.
98 assists vs. 33 turnovers

Uh, isn't that an 3 to 1 ratio? Woof!
Mandy, you're a fine girl. Need more proof? Check her out vs. Texas Tech. 15 points, 7 assists, 5 steals...and she all over the court all day long.

Nightingale's bulldog play is rubbing off on her fellow guards. Senior Jenny Roulier's been up and down for part of the season. Against Missouri she pulled off a 10-for-19, 23 point night. In the win over TTU, she had 16 on 7-for-16.
Oh by the way, late in the game you don't want to foul them. Nightingale is 86% from the free throw line. Roulier hits 83% of the free shots.
Just behind those two, a group of backups are getting pretty good. Sophomore Kate Fagan came off the bench and pitched a perfect game. 5-for-5 for 13 points against Iowa State. Junior Linda Lappe, long stymied by injury, is also getting back on the beam in backup role. Redshirt Freshman Syreeta Stafford and true freshman Veronica Johns-Richardson are also working into the rotation.

If you are a post in Boulder, and you play really well, people tend to address you by first name.

Erin. Reagan. Isabelle. Tera? Britt?

The tall twosome that share the paint are getting to that point. 6-4 senior Britt Hartshorn and 6-5 sophomore Tera Bjorklund have taken turns being Godzilla to many Big 12 Tokyos. Hartshorn's always had to tools, still can play on focus, but get her head screwed on right, she's the big mama. Notice that 22 point effort against Iowa State.
Hartshorn's been picking up more minutes as Bjorklund has struggled at points of the season. Even with a 12 point per game average, Ceal Barry's been on the soph's case for her 5 rebound per game average. Respectable, but Barry wants more scrap and more fire out of Bjorklund. Noting certain games such as the Texas and Kansas State losses where Bjorklund was offensively solid, but defensively unaggressive.
If both bring their best games at the same time, its a tough deal to overcome, and would be nearly impossible for quite a few opponents.
Among the most unsung Buffs is the answer to this question.

Name the only Colorado Buffalo to start every game this season?

Eisha Bohman is the answer, and among forwards this 5-10 seniors has to be answer as injury has plagued this part of the team. She averages 7 points and 4 rebounds per game. She also has 40 assists and 16 blocks. In many way she's been to the forward spot what Mandy Nightingale is to the guard. Blue collar, tough and efficient. She's averged a little bit better than 9 points and 5 board during the win streak.
What strikes me about Bohman is how good she is at being the "help" when Colorado goes zone. In the Texas Tech games, there were numerous instances, when she covered the backdoor or blocked off a penetration lane. Things, to borrow the cliche, that don't show up on the stat sheet.
At the other forward spot is 6-2 junior Sabrina Scott. She another of the hard luck kids. She's been battling injuries ever since she walked on the Boulder campus. Like a trooper, she's always comeback to play.
Her numbers are respectable with 6 points, and 5 rebounds coming off the bench, and she's shown flashes of the All-Conference caliber play that many expected in her career. When healthy, she can be an added bonus. The Iowa State game showed how good she can be when the parts are working. She had 12 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assist and a block.
On the bench at forward are journeymen. Sophomore Randie Wirt, junior Diana Spencer, and freshman Sarah Lini.

Oh the player from France? Seldom used senior post Virginie Delepine.

HOW NEBRASKA COUNTERATTACKS.
If I knew a way the Huskers could win, then I could probably figure out problems like finding Osama bin Laden, the Middle East Peace Process, global warming and the meaning of life.
It the same problem. Colorado has too many weapons, Nebraska has too few ways to cover them all. and it doesn't help when your head coach puts out a starting lineup that will get beat.

According to Husker.com the prospective starters are
NEBRASKA COLORADO
G-K.C. Cowgill G-Jenny Roulier
G-Shannon Howell G-Mandy Nightingale
G-Keasha Cannon C-Britt Hartshorn
C-Katie Morse F-Sabrina Scott
F-Katie Robinette F-Eisha Bohman

Now we will look into why Paul Sanderfraud needs a drug test.

1. Apparently, we are going zone against Nightingale and Roulier who are hitting shots right and left right now. Welcome to this week's "pick your poison" scnario. We're hoping that Colorado goes cold and try to pack inside defensively.

2. Katie Morse vs. Britt Hartshorn??? If Hartshorn comes into the game breathing fire, she'll have a career night. Morse is the biggest body Nebraska has, but this is not a good matchup. Morse is slow, lazy, plays poor defense and is unaggressive. She all the bad qualities of Casey Leonhardt multiplied by 10.
I would be more inclined to get Stephanie Jones out there. At least she would give it a go. Morse can't and won't

3. Katie Robinette staying inside? It's a waste. We need her more on the perimeter using those long arms. Katie has to play a very controlled, focused game defensively. Offensively, we need her to turn in lose. Free lance a little.

4. K.C. Cowgill? Starting. Cowgill hasn't hit a big shot since Enron was still solvent. Defensively, a chair would be more valuble out there than her.

Overall Outlook: It isn't a question of if Nebraska will lose. My lasses will lose. You can take that to the bank.

The question is, how much will we lose by.
Part of me wants this team to come out, fight hard and maybe, just maybe win or at least keep it respectable.
It all depends on the Nebraska head coach and the girls.

Keasha Cannon's going to charge the hill and dodge the machine guns while most of her team, and her head coach, stand at the bottom waving the white flag.

Colorado 85, Nebraska 55

--ChipperF1




[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 02-05-2002).]

[Bevo]

Chipper, I'm so disappointed! Not one use of your favorite term for the Buffs..."Vichy Colorado". What is the history/reasoning behind that phrase? For some unknown quirky reason, I crack up every time I read it.

[ChipperF1]

Vichy Colorado...Well, there are two explanations for this term.

The first refers to the number of players from France who end up donning black and gold in Boulder. It seems every year, Colorado would get a player from there.

The second reason goes back to the earliest days of the Big 12. In the initial formation of the conference Nebraska and Colorado higher ups seemed to fight like cats and dogs on a number of issues regarding eligibility, championships, etc. It seemed if Nebraska supported something, Colorado opposed it and vice versa. The biggest sticking points were the matter of junior college eligibility and partial qualifiers.
Without going into a lot of detail. Nebraska supported partial qualifiers, Colorado opposed. Some Nebraska partisans felt that opposition (and some pointed remarks by certain official of the University of Colorado) and the support of the new Texas faction in the conference was an attack against Nebraska.
I remember talking to a husker alum who said, "It's bad enough the Texans seems to be getting their way, but Colorado's collaborating right with them. Those conniving Buffaloes are worst than the Vichy French."
From there the name kind of stuck. But I will say this. This is a tame moniker compared to some of the names a certain Denver-based sportswriter has given Nebraska over the years.

[kate dawg]

Chipper. I have so much love for you right now. I really enjoyed your breakdown of the Buffs, particularly how you recognized Mandy's assist to turnover ratio. Name a starting point guard for any top 25 team that has a better assist to turnover ratio than her. Oh, that's right...YOU CAN'T.

Chipper makes hoopscoop all that it is.

[YCN]

We should all devote a prayer to Chipper, because his Nebraska team just hasn't been able to get it done.

Chipper, BTW - the Colorado team stunk about 3 years ago. I respect your thoughts about your coaching, and have no particular reason to disagree.

I really hope that you guys are the bomb within the next 4 years, but it IS a 12 team conference - and everybody wants to win.

Good luck, my man!

[dem]

Chipper, I have a question that I know has been brought up before but I'm still unclear about your analysis. Paul Sanderford, in the past, was a certified, proven good coach. Bad coaches just do not make it to the Final Four three times, and once to the Championship game. (Or to the Sweet 16 SIX times.) Even if you give a bad coach the UConn team, they will not make it to the Final Four. But Sanderford did, repeatedly. So, there must have been a time when he had it what it took.

So . . . what happened?

[ChipperF1]

Bad coaches just do not make it to the Final Four three times, and once to the Championship game.

Then how do you account for Andy Landers, who is so dumb he's practically encephalic? Give me enough firepower, even I can't screw it up. But Andy finds a way to do it. He's a marquee example that just because you can recruit, it doesn't mean you can coach.

As for Paul Sanderford? Yes, he's gone to the Final Four, but his last trip there was 10 seasons ago. Yes, he's made 16 NCAA tournament trips, but he's last NCAA tournament game victory was in 1998. That four years ago.
In his four completed season at Nebraska his win total each year has dropped. 23 in the first year, to 22, to 18, to last year's embarassing 12-18 season.
Pardon the Janet Jackson paraphrase but, What has Paul Sanderford done lately?
The answer? Lose, a lot.

Paul's been a bad coach for the last three seasons at Nebraska. Is it entirely his fault? No.

WHAT ISN'T PAUL'S FAULT.
1. Lack of leadership within the team.
Coaches get too much of the blame when kids don't live up to their responsibility. And Nebraska over the last three years has a number of kid who haven't been living up to the responsibility of being ready to play, staying eligible or both.
Is it Paul's fault Candace Blackbird flunked out of the school? Is it Paul's fault that Paige Sutton just doesn't care? Is it Paul's fault that Casey Leonhardt spent 2 years not caring? Is he to blame for the failure of Margaret Richards? or Stephanie "Charo" Jones spending the last two years in a funk?

No, It's not his fault. Sanderford hasn't motivated this team. That I blame him for. But at the same time, the kids haven't shown the fire either. If you really want to be the best, you have to really WANT it! And these kids strike me has not wanting it. If they don't feel the urgency, no one can feel it for them.
Nebraska is a mix of kids. You have kids like Keasha Cannon and Steph Jones who want to play. There are kids like Katie Robinette, Jina Johansen and K.C. Cowgill who eat and sleep basketball. And you have kids like Griechaly Cepero and Shannon Howell, who like to compete but lack focus. And you have kids like Paige Sutton and Margaret Richards, for whom basketball is a diversion. The NCAA tournament or a Big 12 championship is more of a "whatever" deal.
A coach can stoke the fire, but he or she can't light the fire in most cases. My football coach in high school always said, "If they don't bite when they are puppies, chances are good that they are not going to bite at all."

2. JUST BAD LUCK
Injuries have hurt over the last three seasons. Stephanie Jones lost an entire year where she could have been a difference maker and hasn't been the same player since. K.C. Cowgill was gone for most of last year. Shah Roberts this season was turning the corner and then got hurt.
Also, we've had some important pieces to the puzzle struggle. Nicole Kubik couldn't by a bucket for the first half of the season in her senior year. Stephanie Jones went two games last year were she didn't score. Shannon Howell had a rough freshman year. Katie Robinette's having a rough freshman year.
These are college kids. They are going to run hot and cold. It seems we've gotten more cold than hot.

WHAT IS PAUL'S FAULT.
1. Recruiting.
Paul Sanderford has rolled the dice in recruiting, and he's come up snake eyes. I'm not talking about a Katie Robinette or a Shannon Howell.
I'm talking about gaffes like Casey Leonhardt, Melody Peterson, Paige Sutton, Isha Kelley, and now you can add Katie Morse to that list. I'm talking about players who are basically selfish, lazy, and unmotivated. These kids embarass themselves and just don't care.
I'm also talking about the failure to get Rometra Craig (who's dad is an alum, and was interested in the school). The failure to get Kendra Wecker (who admitted she grew up more of a Nebraska fan than Kansas State fan). Passing on talents like Carla Bennett (whom he said "Wasn't good enough to play in the Big 12), Janae Mosley and Christy Neneman. Those last three were all in-state products who have all beaten a Paul Sanderford coached team in their college careers.
I'm talking about making Amanda Bucholtz walk-on while giving a player with half her skills and court sense a scholarship. (Bucholtz is doing quite nicely in softball, thank you. Isha Kelley? Who knows.)
Sanderford said throughout his first two seasons, "wait until I get my players here, then Nebraska will really compete."
Well Paul, your players are here. Most of them are crap.

When is the last time Paul Sanderford had an All-Conference player? When is the last time Paul Sanderford coached a kid that led the conference in a positive statistical category? (Katie Robinette will probably lead the league in disqualifications this year. I'm sure Keasha Cannon will be turnover champion)

2. Paul's Game Plan, or lack there of.
Paul Sanderford's been putting a round peg in a square hole for the last three seasons.
He's trying to run an up-tempo game, with slow kids.
He's trying to run an Iowa State-style perimeter game, with kids who can't shoot from outside.
He's trying to run a triangle three-guard offense, when he only has 1 guard who brings it every game.
Also, his kids look like the worst conditioned athletes I've ever seen at Nebraska. There isn't a single player on this team that you could keep on the court for 40 minutes.

3. Paul's subtitution pattern.
I've never understood how Paul rewards players on a hot streak. Look back at games over the last two seasons. Whenever a Nebraska player is getting into the groove, Paul pulls them out.
It's happened a great deal this year. Why pull Shannon Howell when she's doing well and put in Margaret Richards who never does well, for example.
Paul plays 11 or 12 players a game. The team gets no syncromesh going.
The best teams in the league look like organized outfits. Each player complement another. Nebraska looks and plays like a cobble together gestalt of confusion.

4. Paul's emphasis and his spirit.
Paul Sanderford's always been a self-promoter. If you will, he's a ham. That in itself isn't bad. To his credit, the man has done a great deal to raise the profile of womens basketball in Nebraska.
He's worked with the high school and AAU coaches in the state. He's gotten people interested. But at times he spends more energy whining about what he doesn't have than focusing on what he has.
Paul continues to ***** and moan about "we don't get enough fan support," "we don't get enough media coverage" "we don't have a big enough home field advantage"
CRY ME A RIVER! Do you really expect 12,000 fans to show up to see Iowa State raise up and Dresden this team to death?
Paul demoralized. I honestly believe in the last two seasons, Paul has quit. He doesn't believe in his kids. He's clueless as how to turn this team around. He spends more time looking ahead to next year than fighting this year's battle.

The sad this is, this wasn't Paul I knew when he got here.

His first season at Nebraska. His put his first emphasis on the team. And that team lost 9 of its final 11 and missed the NCAA the year before. There wasn't a lot of talent. There were some suspect players. Only one real ballplayer on the team.
In short, another Angela Beck special. Undertalented and uncompetitive against better teams.
Paul gets in there and does the exact opposite of everything he does now. Paul wanted to install an up-tempo game. In some ways, he did. But the biggest Paul did was ratchet up this team as a defensive team. Nebraska wasn't the flashiest team, but they played hard, and defensively, the team didn't want to give up points.
He put people in the position to do well. Anna De Forge was switched around all over the place the year before. Paul comes in and say, "you are my scorer, we'll find another quarterback."
Paul then found a quarterback, he found Nicole Kubik. When Kubik was recruited many of us shook our heads. She was a solid Division II player. Paul bought into her skills and Kubik prove a lot of us wrong.
Paul's attitude was "this is who I got, lets do what we can and win games."
Sanderford got some people who rarely played well to play. Jami Kubik. Nice kid, similar to Amanda Went, she became a defensive bulldog that season (Ask Nykesha Sales about how #24 stayed in her shirt for 40 minutes). Emily Thompson and Cori McDill were soft. That season, they were born-again hard and Nebraska had an inside game. Even bench players were coming in and chipping in.
This team was in the preseason WNIT that year. They beat two teams that were superior to them, and played a strong Connecticut team tough for 40 minutes. They lost that championship game on the road by 10, but I was proud of that group. They had no business getting that far.
This team had no business winning 23 games. This team had no business winning the first round of the NCAA tournament. This team had no business scaring the hell out of Old Dominion on ODU's home floor in the second round.
That group of kids did all those things. That group of kids won every home game. They had a game where 12,000 red-clad Husker fan showed up to see them perform (that never happened before).
From an athletic standpoint, that team player-for-player was less capable than this years team, yet they did more. I truly believe Paul set a tone of achievement and the kids bought in.
Today Paul sets a tone of failure, and the kids buy in.
I think the Paul Sanderford who first came to Nebraska could still make it happen with this current bunch. That if we could only find that guy and get rid of this Paul Sanderfraud coaching the team right now.

--ChipperF1



[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 02-06-2002).]