The Colorado women’s basketball team (14-4, 3-4 Pac-12) is at the pinnacle of its 2011-2012 campaign as it hosts two of California’s best programs this weekend: University of Southern California on Thursday and University of California, Los Angeles on Sunday.
This year has been quite successful for coach Linda Lappe and the entire program, starting off the season 12-0, tying the program’s best start and going undefeated through all of non-conference play.
But since the beginning of the Pac-12 games, the Buffs have looked a bit different, dropping games to the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and Arizona State University. Though the women haven’t been getting the results they’ve expected of late, they have been rather successful on the road in the Pac-12, winning at the University of Utah, Washington State University, and most recently, the University of Arizona.
“Did we have the toughest non-conference schedule in America? No, we definitely didn’t and no one is going to say that we did,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “But at the same time, I think we’re ready for what we’re getting ready to see and it [non-conference play] has been able to really help us.”
In the inaugural Pac-12 season, there have been a lot of differences in the style of play that both coach Lappe and the team have had to adjust to coming from the Big 12. Most of this change has come in the style of defense and transition play that defines Pac-12 basketball.
“There have been differences in coaching styles in terms of running man-to-man defenses, which is primarily what most of the Big 12 schools ran, versus the Pac-12 where it seems as though coaches like to switch it up more,” said Lappe. “They’ll run some zone, some three quarter court presses, and from what I’ve seen the defensive pressure is a little bit harder from top to bottom.”
Junior guard Chucky Jeffery, 23, shoots for the basket during the Dec. 8 game against the University of Denver in the Coors Events Center. The Buffs beat the Pioneers 71-36. (CU Independent/Lee Pruitt)
Junior Chucky Jeffery also noted the differences between the two conferences.
“Definitely they [Pac-12 teams] are way more huge in transition,” Jeffery said. “There were a lot of good transition teams in the Big 12 like Texas Tech and Baylor who like to run, but every team likes to run in the Pac-12. This conference has a lot of explosive guards that like to pass and push the ball up the court a lot. It’s more of an up and down game.”
Seven games into the Pac-12 season, the Buffs are finally starting to figure out a winning style of play, but it wasn’t about adjusting to any kind of style that the other teams were throwing at them. It was about adjusting themselves.
At halftime against Arizona State on Jan. 19, the Buffs had only nine points on the board and were down 33 points. It was a place that this year’s team had never been in, and coming into the match losing two straight games to the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, it was obvious that change was needed.
“We really just took a minute and just thought about what we had to do to get back to what we were doing earlier on in the year,” Jeffery said. “We were just doing too much, we knew we had to go back to our philosophy that was going to make us successful. We started focusing on us more than the other teams.”
Freshman Jen Reese was embarrassed by the team’s performance in the first half of the game against ASU, and said something had to change.
“We knew we needed to come out and play our Colorado defense, and we came out with such an intense feeling and we came back,” Reese said. “I think we need to come out in every game just like that.”
The Buffs fought back in the second half, outscoring ASU 34-22. Unfortunately, this was not enough to bring the Buffs a victory, but the team scored a huge road win in the following matchup against the University of Arizona. This weekend now stands as a crucial moment for the team.
The last time the Buffs played USC was when they got knocked out by the Trojans in last year’s Women’s National Invitational Tournament in a 70-87 loss. But the Buffs feel much better about this year’s game.
“We’re excited to play USC because we know them better than anyone else in the conference,” Lappe said. “We feel like we know their style and some of their players so it helps our players out a little bit. It makes us familiar with some of the things we’re going to see.”
When it comes to USC and scouting specific players, it’s all about senior Ashley Corral, who scored 32 points in the WNIT meeting and is leading the Trojans in scoring this year.
“She’s a dynamite shooter,” Jeffery said. “It will be a great matchup.”
The Buffs are ready, but they know it’s not going to be easy.
“It gets a little hard chasing them around the floor and tagging screens the whole game,” Jeffery said. “But just getting my hands high in her [Corral’s] face and making her think twice about taking that shot can be the difference.”
This weekend’s game could make or break the Colorado women’s basketball team’s entire season. The team is aware of this fact, and the players are ready to prove themselves to the CU community, USC, UCLA, the entire Pac-12 conference and each other.
“It’s going to be a challenging weekend,” Lappe said. “I think our team is confident and we want to keep that momentum going. We’re excited to be at home in the Coors Events Center and it should be a good weekend of basketball.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Joseph Wirth at Joseph.wirth@colorado.edu.
