Big 12 Championship opener a must-win for CU
The Colorado Buffaloes will set up camp at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday to compete in the 2008 Philips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship.
The No. 12 seed Colorado will play their first game against the No. 5 seed Baylor, and they will be looking to create a place for themselves in the record books as the first No. 12 team to beat a No. 5 team in Big 12 tournament history.
Colorado’s first-year head coach Jeff Bzdelik said he is excited for his first Big 12 tournament, but more than anything he is just happy for his team to be playing in it. He added it doesn’t matter who the Buffs play – every time they step on the court they want to win.
The Bears, who enter the tournament with the second-highest scoring average in Big 12 regular season play, defeated the Buffs 68-57 in Boulder earlier this season.
Though the game went in the record books as a loss, Bzdelik said he was impressed with the way his team played defensively. The Buffs held the Bears 13 points under their current scoring average.
Bzdelik said despite the Buffs’ exemplary effort on defense, they lost more than just the Baylor game because they were unable to produce offensively.
“What has been our problem all year long is we are not a good scoring team,” Bzdelik said. “No matter what offense we run, we don’t shoot the ball real well, and we can’t make enough shots.”
Against the Bears, Bzdelik said in order to make it out of the first round of the tournament, his team will need to make sure they set a tempo that favors themselves, limits the Bears scoring the way they did earlier in the season and makes the open shots they missed in the previous match-up.
Senior guard Marcus Hall was all smiles boarding the bus that would take him to his fourth and final Big 12 conference tournament.
Hall said he is happy the Buffs drew the Bears in the first round, and he believes he and his teammates will be able to make those shots against their opponent this time around.
“We match up well with Baylor,” Hall said. “We felt we had them at our place we just didn’t hit some easy shots. We’ll be able to execute well enough to score more points this time.”
Hall said he is not looking at the upcoming playoff as the last of his career but rather as the beginning of a new season. Hall added that he is sure that once everything is said and done it will be more emotional than he expects, but at the moment he is focused on trying to win four in a row.
“I’m going to give it all I got until the last moment,” Hall said.
Senior guard Richard Roby, who finished the regular season fourth in the Big 12 in scoring and was named to the All-Big 12 third team, is also confident the Buffs can make some noise in the tournament.
“We have a great match-up against Baylor,” Roby said. “It’s on a neutral court; we just have to bring it.”
In his fourth Big 12 Conference tournament, Roby said this one is special for him because for him and the other seniors the stakes truly are “win or go home.” Roby said he is approaching the Buffs’ first game with that in mind.
“I don’t want it to be my last game,” Roby said. “I just have to continue to play hard and do whatever I can to help my team win.”
Roby is not only concerned with how Thursday’s game may affect him. He said playing well against the Bears and moving on is just as important for the younger guys on the team, who could benefit from having some momentum going into next season.
The Buffs left Boulder Tuesday afternoon and will practice one more time before their first game at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Minutes before getting on the bus to Kansas City, the gritty senior Hall seemed almost giddy about the prospect of one more chance to surprise everyone, silence the doubters and maybe even make history.
“This is my fourth Big 12 tournament, and all three years I’ve been to the second round,” Hall said. “Even when we came in 11th place we beat the 6th seed, Texas. We were the first team to do that, we’re going to pull this off too and be the first No. 12 to beat a No. 5.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Brad Cochi at Bradley.Cochi@thecampuspress.com.
