UNC eliminated; DU plays for #3 seed Sunday

After Northern Colorado lost to Weber State on Thursday — here’s my full 800GP recap of that game — the Bears were left hanging by a thread in the battle for the Big Sky’s sixth and final postseason spot. Well, on Saturday night, the thread snapped. Portland State beat Eastern Washington, 69-64, clinching third place and thus eliminating UNC from postseason contention (because PSU finishing ahead of EWU in the standings means Montana State would beat Northern Colorado in any potential tiebreaker for sixth place at 6-10).

So, for Northern Colorado, it ended in a loss. By Eastern Washington.

Meanwhile, in the Sun Belt, Denver will host North Texas on Sunday afternoon, Senior Day, in a battle for for seeding position — and we now know exactly what that means, with the rest of the league having completed its regular season. Here’s my unofficial mockup of the bracket, with only the #3, 4 and 5 spots to be decided, all based on tomorrow’s game:

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Return on Investment

My 800 Games Project writeup of Denver’s win over Middle Tennessee State is now online at the Mid-Majority. Unfortunately, in my rush to submit it last night, I failed to catch some errors, and more generally failed to give it a much-needed final edit that would have tightened up the piece and made it better. So I’m going to republish it here, in full, with the edits I wish I could make on the TMM version. Enjoy.

(Reminder for the uninitiated: @800GP writeups are supposed to be written from the writer’s individual perspective; hence all the first-person language and self-referential stuff. And the stuffed basketballs(z).)

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A lot of investments paid off Saturday at Denver’s Magness Arena.

For me, it was the payoff of the Emotional Investment I made starting in 2010, when I was belatedly inspired by Kyle Whelliston’s Season 6 “investments” essay to adopt Denver as “my” mid-major team, start a blog about the Pioneers, and begin attending and covering their games. Through the roller coaster of the last two seasons, the one thing that was consistently missing was a true college basketball atmosphere: DU is a hockey school, and the students simply do not come out in force for hoops. So even when I’ve seen the Pioneers pull off big wins — over North Texas and Arkansas State last year, over Southern Miss and St. Mary’s this year — they’ve been devoid of that emotional oomph that makes Our Game so great. My investment in the Pioneers was still worthwhile, but it had never led to that singular moment where I thought to myself, “Wow, this is amazing.”

Until Saturday night.

With ESPN coming to Magness Arena for the first time ever, and student leaders staging an unprecedented coordinated push to make the game a can’t-miss event at the heart of a big weekend sports party on campus, the student body finally decided that DU basketball was worth supporting in a big way. As you can see in the video above, they came out in force to an extent previously unimaginable for a Denver basketball game.

For the coaches and players, meanwhile, Saturday was the payoff — or at least, *a* payoff, the latest and greatest payoff yet, hopefully foreshadowing more and even greater payoffs to come — of years of hard work, from the recruiting trail to the practice court to the far-flung arenas of the Sun Belt Conference. “That was unbelievable! The student section was unbelievable!” said co-captain Rob Lewis, barely able to contain himself. Lewis, a fifth-year senior who was Joe Scott’s very first recruit to Denver, said emphatically he’s never seen anything like it at DU.

Saturday was even a reward for ex-players whose investments of sweat and tears helped build Denver toward this crescendo. “This is something that we’ve worked hard for for years,” DU alum Kyle Lewis, last year’s point guard and senior captain, told me after the game as he waited near the locker room to congratulate his former coach and teammates. Lewis had watched the game from a few rows behind the Pioneer bench. “It’s just great to see that finally we get the national exposure that this school has deserved, and not only that, but a great win while we’re doing it.”

For administrators and alums, Saturday was the payoff of vision, hard work, and, well, literal investments, i.e., lots of money, that went into turning Denver into a Division I program, building this fantastic arena, and having faith that — like in Field of Dreams — if they built it, success would come. “People dreamed about this,” said a ebullient Peg Bradley-Doppes, DU’s Vice Chancellor for Athletics and Recreation. “You saw Dan Ritchie and Joy Burns come out on the court at the end — they built this facility 12 years ago, and we became Division I in all sports, and for them to see this type of crowd and this energy and the kids singing the fight song and rushing the floor — it was great.”

But now I’m getting ahead of myself, and I’ve spoiled the ending. Let’s take a step back: all the way back to January 11, in fact.

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The crowd last night for Denver’s win over Arkansas State was huge by DU basketball standards — officially listed at 7,075, in reality more like 6,000, but in any event the biggest and loudest crowd I’ve seen at Magness Arena for hoops. Above is a panorama I made with 360 Panorama, giving a sense of it. Full “800 Games Project” write-up to come. Stay tuned. UPDATE: Here’s the write-up.
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The crowd last night for Denver’s win over Arkansas State was huge by DU basketball standards — officially listed at 7,075, in reality more like 6,000, but in any event the biggest and loudest crowd I’ve seen at Magness Arena for hoops. Above is a panorama I made with 360 Panorama, giving a sense of it.

Full “800 Games Project” write-up to come. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here’s the write-up.

CSU edges DU for Colorado state championship

Here’s my 800 Games Project write-up of Wednesday’s contest at Moby Arena, which I made a last-minute decision to attend.

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As is typical and encouraged in 800GP write-ups, it’s a first-person account with a lot of experiential, non-basketball content. It’s also very long. :) But it does go through how Denver came out sluggish, fell behind badly in the first half, fought back to a 7-point deficit at halftime, pulled as close as 3 points early in the second half, fell back behind by 9 (actually 10 at one point), then furiously rallied late. Excerpt:

At the under-8 timeout, with Denver still down 9, I shuffled up to DU’s SID, Mike Kennedy, and reached over his shoulder to put Mile High Bally…on the scorer’s table. “For good luck,” I tweeted. …

There were several moments in the final 5 or 6 minutes of the game where it felt like CSU was about to put Denver away for good, only to have a missed shot, a controversial call, or a good play by the Pioneers keep DU in it. [This photo] is of one such moment: as I snapped it, CSU’s Dorian Green was attempting a three-pointer that would have put the game out of reach, giving the Rams a 77-67 lead with 1:14 left. But the shot rattled out, Denver got the rebound, and ten seconds later, DU freshman Royce O’Neale hit a #superhoop of his own to pull the Pios within 74-70 with 1:04 left. Joe Scott called a quick timeout. We had ourselves a ballgame, ladies and gentlemen. …

The final minute was frenetic… Denver’s full-court press hassled the Rams enough to almost allow for a successful Pioneer comeback. You got the feeling that if the game were 20 or 30 seconds longer, the Pios might have won. But of course, then they probably would have started desperately pressing 20 or 30 seconds later. Oh well. …

“Rams by 5 with 31.9 left,” I tweeted at 8:59 PM. “DU needs a turnover.” Well, they got it — amid the frenzy of CSU trying to beat the 10-second clock, somebody knocked the ball away, Brian Stafford grabbed the loose ball, and Wes Eikmeier was called for fouling Stafford with 26 seconds left (the crowd wanted a jump ball, which would have gone to CSU). Stafford hit two free throws and, voila, it was a 3-point game.

At that point, the dream scenario for a team attempting an improbable late comeback — getting the ball back in a one-possession game — almost happened. Denver hassled CSU’s Wes Eikmeier into monetarily losing control of the ball, and he very, VERY nearly lost it out of bounds. If he had, it would have been Denver’s ball under its own basket with 25 seconds left, down 3 points. But Eikmeier saved it just in time, keeping both his feet and the ball inbounds on the sideline by Denver’s bench, and the Pioneers were unable to successfully trap him. The ball ended up in the hands of Jesse Carr, and a foul was called on the Pioneers.

Joe Scott was unhappy with the call, which led to Mile High Bally’s (and Mike Kennedy’s) moment in the spotlight …

Anyway, Carr hit both free throws for a 78-73 lead with 22 seconds left. A relatively uncontested layup by Brett Olson with 13 seconds to go pulled the Pioneers within 3 again, but the Denver press was unable to force a turnover or near-turnover this time, and after 7 seconds losing a game of keepaway, DU sent Carr back to the line with 6 seconds left.

After Carr drained the first free throw for a 4-point lead, a pair of fans in my section headed for the exits. I overheard one saying to the other, “Unless Tim Tebow is playing out there, this game’s over.”

And indeed it was. Carr appeared to intentionally miss the second free throw, grabbed his own rebound, and held onto the ball to end the game. Colorado State 79, Denver 75, final.

I didn’t include this in the write-up (because I don’t know how to embed video on the Mid-Majority), but here’s a YouTube clip that I took of a portion of that final sequence:

Please, sir, may I have another Red Line Upset?

Denver pulled off its second Red Line Upset of the season Saturday, beating temporary Mountain West resident Boise State 79-62 at Magness Arena. The Pioneers are now 8-2 on the season, and ranked #79 in the nation by Ken Pomeroy’s tempo-free robots. The Broncos, who came in 8-2 and ranked #92 by Pomeroy (Denver was #93 coming in), dropped to 8-3 and #105 with the loss.

Here are articles on the Boise game from the Denver SID, the Boise SID, the Denver Post and the Idaho Statesman. I was at the game — with my whole family — and wrote up the experience for the 800 Games Project.

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I won’t be there tonight, alas, but Denver will be at Magness again, aiming for its third RLU of year — and its second in three days — when 11-1 Wyoming (ranked #96 by Pomeroy, the only other Front Range team in the top 100) comes to town. Here’s the official Denver SID liveblog. I hope to at least catch the second half on TV.

Denver 71, Northern Colorado 65

Denver overcame an awful first half to defeat Northern Colorado last night, 71-65, capturing the Colorado Mid-Major State Championship for the second straight season.

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The win for Denver at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion broke a 3-game streak of UNC wins over DU in Greeley, and improved the Pioneers’ road record to 3-1 on the season. Denver is 7-2 overall. The Bears fall to 3-6 on the season.

My 800 Games Project write-up is, in the spirit of the 800GP, a first-person account that deals mostly with non-basketball stuff — bedtime rituals, the Elf on the Shelf, speeding on the highway, cranky wire-service reporters, food spreads, Tom Petty, meteor showers — but here’s a hoops-focused excerpt:

The Pioneers were awful in the first half, and the diagnosis of Mitch Hyder on the radio broadcast was simple: Denver hadn’t “shown up” to play. … [They] seemed unfocused and lifeless. Whether because of the preceding off-week, or the road environment, or not taking their 3-5 opponent seriously — whatever it was, the Pioneers sleepwalked through the half, and were lucky to be down just five at the break. …

“I’d like to be a fly on the wall at halftime” when Joe Scott lays into his team, Hyder said late in the first half. “But if I was, I’d probably be dead.” Heh.

This game, though, was a Tale of Two Halves … Denver ended up going on an 11-0 run to start the second half…to take a 37-31 lead. UNC got within 39-38, then 44-42, before another 11-0 Denver run…stretched the lead to 55-42.

UNC tried to make it close at the end, but never got closer than 6 until there were mere seconds left.

Here’s an excerpt from Matt Schuman’s Greeley Tribune article:

The University of Northern Colorado men’s basketball team played University of Denver-style basketball for the first half.

Unfortunately, the Pioneers played it a little bit better the rest of the game. …

UNC (3-6 overall) played the kind of patient offense in the first half that the Pioneers (7-2) are known for with the Princeton offense that they run under head coach Joe Scott. The Bears defense also uncharacteristically forced DU into quick shots and took them out of their rhythm offensively. …

The Pioneers were also an uncharacteristic 4-of-17 from the field with leading scorer Brian Stafford being held to three points on 1-of-5 shooting. …

“We kind of knew that tonight would probably be a slower and more of a half-court game just because it is hard to speed them up,” [UNC guard Tate] Unruh said. “They are a veteran bunch and they are smart and they run their system, so it is hard to speed them up and get them to play out of their system. But we did a really good job of being patient and taking what they give us and it showed in the first half with the lead going into the locker room.”

Unfortunately, the Bears couldn’t carry that momentum into the first part of the second half as the Pioneers began to warm up offensively, especially from 3-point range behind the shooting of Stafford (team-high 16 points) and guard Brett Olson (11 points), who combined to finish with seven of DU’s 11 3-pointers for the game.

Up next for Denver: Boise State on Saturday, then Wyoming on Monday, in a sneaky-tough pair of home games (in three days) against two teams that are a combined 18-3 on the season.

Up next for Northern Colorado, an even more daunting task: a visit to #11-ranked Marquette on Saturday. The Bears then host Colorado State next Thursday. So both teams will be aiming for Red Line Upsets in each of their next two games.

Belated Iona wrap-up

Just realized I never linked to my 800 Games Project write-up of last week’s Iona game here. Well, here it is. Excerpt:

As Iona closed Denver’s 66-55 lead to 66-60, then 68-64, then 70-67, a feeling of mild, but building, concern became apparent in Denver’s normally disciplined, controlled play. The Pios were nervous. They really wanted this game, and they felt it slipping away — and you could tell. Iona’s full-court press, which the Pioneers had weathered all night, suddenly began to rattle them.

They composed themselves long enough to take a 74-67 lead with 3:51 left on yet another highlight-reel-worthy Chris Udofia #OMGDUNX…

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…but then things really began to unravel. Iona scored seven consecutive points to close out regulation, with Denver’s sense of desperation becoming more palpable on each possession, even as they maintained the lead until 1:12 left. A series of uncharacteristic mistakes — a player stepping on the baseline, two guards miscommunicating and throwing the ball away — started to feed on themselves, and it suddenly felt like the Pioneers couldn’t do anything right. Excitement had become #PANIC.

Even so, Denver had a chance to win the ballgame in the final seconds of regulation. After a #superhoop attempt by Iona’s Lamont Jones airballed out-of-bounds with 5.2 seconds left [and the score tied 74-74], Denver inbounded it to Brian Stafford, who looked ahead to see Udofia streaking down the court with an excellent chance to make a game-winning layup, or at least draw a foul. But Stafford, his veins clearly pumping with adrenaline, overthrew Udofia, who had to leap up and toward the baseline to try and get the ball, and wound up knocking it out of bounds.

That sent the game to overtime, where Iona jumped out to a 4-point lead, Denver battled back to tie it up, and then, as I note in the write-up, “the Pioneers watched helplessly as Iona’s Randy Dezouvre nailed the game-winner with 1.6 seconds to go.”

A heartbreaking loss for the Pioneers, who are now a still-impressive 6-2, and finally ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25. Tonight, they have a chance to get back in the win column, at Greeley against Northern Colorado in the Colorado Mid-Major State Championship. More on that a bit later.

Denver stuns St. Mary’s, 70-58

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Well… that was unexpected. From my 800 Games Project write-up:

The score is likely to surprise casual observers and St. Mary’s fans alike, but when I caught up with Gaels coach Randy Bennett after the game, said he was not shocked.

“Coming in, I knew this was going to be a tough game,” Bennett said. “I thought we’d have to play well [to win]. I thought we could get it done, but I thought it could go either way.”

When I suggested that fans would likely be surprised when they saw the final score scroll across their screens on ESPN, that seemed to strike a nerve with Bennett. “Yeah, for whatever reason, people are going to do exactly what you said. As a coach, you know it’s not going to be that easy. It’s going to be tough. [Denver is] a good team. … They were 11-4 at home last year, and this team is significantly better [than last year]. … They’ve got more depth. I think that [Denver] has a chance to be a good team.”

Joe Scott agreed. “The pot’s been brewin’, and somehow, some way, it’s been coming together for us,” he said. “And we showed today that we’re more than just better [than last year]. We showed today that we’re a good basketball team, because we just beat a really good basketball team.”

“I just thought we looked like a poised, veteran team that’s won a lot of basketball games,” Scott added. “Pulling away, never folding, never caving. We look like a team that’s been there, done that many times, and that’s a great sign.” …

[Rob] Lewis, the redshirt senior who came back for an extra year after an injury wiped out what would have been his final season in 2010-11, said the win over St. Mary’s “feels really good.”

“I don’t know that we’ve beaten a team that’s as good as them since I’ve been here,” he said. “I think we need to keep it in context, and keep going forward. We’ll enjoy this — because it is a big win, that’s a very good team that we beat — but we need to keep going uphill, you know. … I think we need to realize that we’re four games into the season, and not get too high on this win. But yeah, it feels good. It feels very, very good. Especially with what they did to us last year, out at their place.”

The Moraga Massacre has been avenged. And Denver, having knocked off the #9 team in the Mid-Major Top 25, should be ranked in that poll come next week.

Red Line Upset! Denver 59, Southern Miss 52

Denver knocked off Conference USA’s Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, 59-52, last night at Magness Arena. Here’s my full 800 Games Project write-up of the game.

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Excerpt:

Denver’s offense…showed flashes of brilliance that were rarities last season. … Rob Lewis was brilliant, reminding everyone why Denver missed him so much last year, as was sophomore Chris Udofia. Denver’s aggressiveness and ability to get points inside — against a bigger, more athletic team — was a welcome surprise, and one of the big stories of the game. The Pios were “only” 4-for-10 from #superhoop range, doing more of their scoring than usual from 2-point land and the free-throw line. …

Udofia and Lewis led the way with 23 and 15 points, respectively, including a number of beautiful layups resulting from excellent, well-executed offensive sets. … Udofia also produced the unquestioned play of the game, and probably of Denver’s young season, when he blocked a shot…then fielded a fast-break pass from Brett Olson (who had retrieved the ball after the block) and slammed it home for 2 points on the other end. As I tweeted immediately afterward: “OMG OMG OMG … CHRIS UDOFIA WITH THE #OMGSTUFFZ FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY BY THE #OMGDUNX that was awesome … Udofia block, fast break, gets ball back, dunks it. I present to the @ / @ community a new term… the #OMGSTUFFDUNX!” …

The victory was effectively sealed on a Pioneers offensive possession that started with 55 seconds to go, Denver up 5. Southern Miss chose not to foul, but tried instead to pressure the Pioneers into a turnover. Denver patiently played keep-away, but the signature moment came with 15 on the shot clock, when freshman O’Neale fielded a pass just outside the three-point line, and found himself staring at a completely empty path to the basket. It was an Ali Farokhmanesh moment, and you could tell he was sorely tempted to try for the “dagger” superhoop. (He was 2-for-4 from three-point land on the night.) But he literally shook his head no, as if settling the debate between the angel and devil on his shoulder, and instead passed the ball to Travis Hallam. Seconds later, Lewis got open under the basket, Hallam passed it to him for an easy layup with 5 on the shot clock, and it was a 57-50 game with 25 seconds left. Game, set, match, Red Line Upset.

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Read the whole thing.

See also write-ups by the AP, the Sports Network, the Clarion Ledger, and the Denver SID.

Denver is now 3-0. The Pioneers’ next game is at home Wednesday against mid-major powerhouse St. Mary’s. Then they hit the road to face Cal, ranked in the Top 25 nationally, and Utah State, another mid-major power. It’s very possible DU will be 3-3 after those games, but even if so, this has been a very successful start to the season.