The women’s basketball team is 12-6 on the season and 3-4 in the Big 12, and is apparently, somehow, improbably, on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. Joe Lunardi has the Buffs as one of the last 8 teams out of the field, which is remarkable and speaks to the weakness of the bubble in this year’s field. When people talk about the need to expand the tournament field, they should ignore this year’s bubble — this year it would not be a good idea from a competitive standpoint to expand the field.
The Buffs have a NET ranking of #72 nationally, and a T-Rank of #54 nationally. For the NCAA tournament to become a realistic option, they’ll need to reel off 8 or 9 wins out of their last 10.
That doesn’t look very likely, particularly as the Buffs are coming off back-to-back losses in games that would have boosted their resume. This is a team without a lot of star power — there are just 3 players with a points over replacement player score of greater than 2.5 points (Frida Formann, Jade Masagoyo and Lior Garzon). Last year’s team, by comparison, had 6 players with such a score. Instead, this is a team that relies on its depth to wear opponents down. The team receives meaningful contributions from 11 or 12 players every night, which is remarkable from a depth standpoint. It also probably speaks to the fact that there is no player on the roster that needs to play 25+ minutes per game.
Surprisingly, the team ranks only #192 nationally in pace. Given the depth on the team, it’s reasonable to ask — why isn’t the team playing faster? JR Payne is a disciple of the slow-it-down Princeton offense, but more 5-out offense and full court defense would take advantage of the depth on the team this year and the inherent altitude advantage.
But….turnovers. The team turns the ball over way too much, and is currently ranked 285th nationally in turnover percentage. Kindyl Wetta, Kennedy Sanders and Joanna Teder are all turning the ball over at a high rate, and there’s no other options on the team from a ball-handling perspective. Jaylyn Sherrod, where have you gone?
Up next for the Buffs is a home game against 11th ranked Kansas State at the CU Events Center on Saturday. A win here would be huge for this team, and position the team for the “SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE!” run at the NCAA tournament. Get out to the CU Events Center to support the team this Saturday!
JoJo and BD
Last week I wrote about how, on any given night, you never know whether Bangot Dak will look more like Kevin Garnett or Ben Mills. Read the full story over at:
The women’s team has their own version of BD — a player that sometimes shows the ability that makes you jump out of your chair. For the women’s team, that player is JoJo Nworie, the Texas Tech transfer (who didn’t play a game at Texas Tech due to her second major knee injury) and is just now rounding into health. Nworie has the highest offensive ranking on the team in limited minutes but also leads the team in shot block percentages. If she can keep up this level of productivity in more minutes per game down the stretch, then this is a great indication that the Buffs may have found an Aronette Vonleh-level replacement player for next year’s squad. When paired with leading scorer Jade Masagoyo, the front line next year could be salty.
Marshall Faulk to Coaching Staff?
According to sources, Marshall Faulk is the likely addition to the CU football coaching staff as the new running back coach.
This would give the Buffs 3 (YES, 3!!!!!!!!) Hall of Fame coaches on the staff (assuming Warren Sapp returns as a Defensive Analyst for the defensive line). This would be Faulk’s first coaching job, but a lot of the concerns over a first year coach are mitigated by the fact that long-time running back coach Tommie Robinson, who has coached RBs at USC and LSU, is the assistant runnings back coach. For more on Robinson, check out https://buffsblog.com/buffblog-bites/.
Regardless, this is the kind of hire that will continue to turn heads on the recruiting front. The running game has been abysmal over the last 2 years — adding Faulk could attract the kind of players that finally turn this around. For more on this story, stay tuned to BuffsBlog.com as a new feature on Faulk will be uploaded later this week.
Interesting articles. When will you tackle men’s bball?
https://buffsblog.com/buff-basket-bullets/
Hoping that the men’s bb team can win.another game or 2. Next year should produce a more competitive season!