The annual Buffalo hunt: Utah vs. Colorado 2014

[LA Ute]

Phil Cullen's latest e-mail to boosters:

The Pac-12 has a total of 44 wins in conference play and only 10 of them have come by hand of the visiting team. The road is tough and we are looking to break the trend across the conference.

Last week our guys played extremely hard. A possession or two in each one of those games could have changed the outcome. Our guys were able to battle the #1 team in the country, Arizona, to the finish. Today we are taking a look at a few of those possessions that we can improve upon in film and will start our game prep for Colorado in practice.
Colorado is our travel partner and also played the Arizona schools this past week. They lost to Arizona State by a score of 72-51 and Arizona 69-57. Our game will be in Boulder this Saturday. The Buffaloes have only lost three games at home in the last two years so we have our work cut out for us. Please click here to see Colorado's stats.

The Buffs are led by 6-10 center Josh Scott, 15.9 ppg and 6-2 Askia Booker, 14.1 ppg. They have been without their starting point guard Spencer Dinwiddie who suffered a season ending knee injury just four games ago. With Dinwiddie out, they have continued to push the ball in transition and have been out-rebounding their opponents in conference. Xavier Johnson is their starting 4 man who has the ability to play inside and out with great athleticism and length. Matchups will be key for us to keep them off of the glass, an area we struggled in against Arizona.
They will play mostly man to man and will try pressuring on ball screens. There size and length is tough to pass around and they have been forcing teams to turn over the ball on 19% of their defensive possessions. We will need to play solid on offense and make them guard our personnel and our actions.

Catch our game this Saturday at noon on the Pac-12 Network!

The Men's Basketball Staff

buffalohunt.jpg

[Scratch]

Phil Cullen's latest e-mail to boosters:



buffalohunt.jpg

I'm wildly confused by that picture. Was the idea to sneak up on your prey by dressing up as your prey's primary natural predator? Seems like a bad plan to me.

[LA Ute]

I'm wildly confused by that picture. Was the idea to sneak up on your prey by dressing up as your prey's primary natural predator? Seems like a bad plan to me.

What kind of a Ute fan questions the tribe's hunting savvy?

[Scratch]

What kind of a Ute fan questions the tribe's hunting savvy?

Based on their apparent hunting acumen, I'm going to go ahead and assume that those two are the Ray Giacoletti and Jim Boylen of the tribe.

[LA Ute]

Based on their apparent hunting acumen, I'm going to go ahead and assume that those two are the Ray Giacoletti and Jim Boylen of the tribe.

O thou of little faith.

In this scene, two hunters disguised as wolves and on their hands and knees carefully approach the edge of a herd of buffalo. Catlin wrote:

While the herd of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf, and allow them to come in close company with them. The Indian then has taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin of this animal, and crawls for half a mile or more on his hands and knees, until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group, and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng.

There were several varieties of western wolf species during Catlin’s era of observation. The artist noted, “. . . the most formidable and most numerous of which were white, often sneaking about in gangs or families of fifty of sixty in numbers. . . many of these animals grew to a very great size. . . .” Although these white wolves would rarely attack buffalo in a protective herd, they would attack a straggling weak or aged animal.

Like their namesake tribe, the Utes will outsmart the Buffaloes this Saturday.

[SoCalPat]

Like their namesake tribe, the Utes will outsmart the Buffaloes this Saturday.

We have to get a road win or two this season. That graphic they showed early in our game vs. Arizona was embarrassing -- I knew our road woes were pretty entrenched, but I had no idea we rated that horribly nationally. This is a significant break in my philosophy, which says optimism and support builds quickest by getting wins against highly rated teams, but if you told me today I could get wins against Colorado and USC in exchange for a 25-point loss at home to Arizona, I'd probably take it. In this regard, the program is no different than it was in Larry's first year. That has to change.

[sancho]

O thou of little faith.

I saw on PBS a pack of wolves, desperate from hunger, attack a moose. Many wolves lost their lives to bring that thing down. I assume buffalo are pretty tough to kill as well.

I will be there on Sat. Shall I wear my wolfskin? Maybe it's lucky. You never know about animal skins.

[San Diego Ute Fan]

Any true fan knows the proper way to hunt buffalo...

[FountainOfUte]

Actually, the wolf skins are about lulling the Buffs into complacency. We want them to think they're playing Nevada instead of Utah.

[U-Ute]

Actually, the wolf skins are about lulling the Buffs into complacency. We want them to think they're playing Nevada instead of Utah.

Given our record the last few years, showing up as Utes should make them complacent enough.

[sancho]

Out the door to boulder! GoUtes!

[roseparkutes]

let go utes!!! love me some buffalo burgers!

[DrumNFeather]

Scott making our bigs look silly early. Also, someone should take the lid off of the basket.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

I don't understand why other teams find it so easy to get to the hoop against us.

[LA Ute]

I love watching Delon.

[DrumNFeather]

I love watching Delon.

Not much hustle outside of what he's doing. CU is doing a lot of little things well right now and our guys are a bit ho hum.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

Wish we had a big like Scott.

[DrumNFeather]

What a weird game.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

Hoping we can have the mo going into halftime and make some adjustments.

[LA Ute]

Nice to see Fields contributing. Weird shot motion, though.

[DrumNFeather]

Hoping we can have the mo going into halftime and make some adjustments.

It's ours for the taking. We really need to keep this up.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[DrumNFeather]

Fields looks good.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[Applejack]

Nice to see Fields contributing. Weird shot motion, though.

MyBoyAhmad has a hitch in his shot. I don't know if the coaches are going to try to work it out, but it will keep him from ever being a shooter. His calling card is going to be defense.

[DrumNFeather]

Based on other flagrant fouls we've seen called, that elbow was awfully close.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

Now the Utes have shown they can close out a first half. Time to show they can keep an opponent down and not let them back in the game.

BTW, our bigs have GOT to make layups.

[DrumNFeather]

What in the world happens to this team that they just look so bad for stretches.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

Our failure to box out has probably cost us 8-10 points.

[DrumNFeather]

Johnson plays out of control. I'm not a huge fan of that style. It is a benefit with these officials today, but he's gonna hurt someone. He has already hit fields with an elbow and smacked Bach in the face.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[LA Ute]

Once again we are in the driver's seat. Can we close this one out?

NO! Illegal screen. We hand the wheel back to CU. All we needed on that possession was a bucket.

[DrumNFeather]

Totally sold that screen call.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2