Pre-game from the Coors Event Center
COUGARS
FROM BOULDER, Colo. – We’ve arrived at the Coors Event Center. If you want a better look at it, there’s a video posted above that gives a 360-degree look inside the arena from press row. Warning: my hands weren’t steady enough to keep the camera from shaking. Watch at your own risk. We also have some thoughts on the game below.
…
I’m curious to see how many people show up for this one. The building seats 11,064, though Colorado drew just 7,110 for its big win over Washington on Thursday. Not a terrible crowd, their second-highest of the season. And maybe interest is picking up now that the Buffs are 2-0 and leading the Pac-12. Still, students haven’t returned to school yet for Winter semester, and that was obvious walking around downtown Boulder last night. The town feels a little dead, so I wouldn’t expect to see many more fans than what Colorado had for Thursday’s game. I’d guess fewer. I’m not sure how that affects the Cougars. As the visiting team, you typically don’t want the arena packed to the rafters and rocking. But after WSU’s sluggish, uninspired performance at Utah on Thursday, I wonder if playing in front of a big crowd on the road might help bring out some of that fire Ken Bone wants to see. The Utah crowd was small, and that contributed to the entire building just feeling flat. Maybe that rubbed off on the Cougars. You know, Stanford Stadium has the weakest football crowd in the conference. But there’s a reason opposing teams don’t like playing there, and it’s not just because of Andrew Luck. It’s not always easy to get up for a game with not many watching. It will be obvious early if the Cougars achieve that. … Colorado starts three guards and a 6-foot-7 forward, Andre Roberson, who can also put the ball on the floor and shoot from outside. He’s also fourth in the nation with 12 rebounds per game. Colorado shoots 39.6 percent on their 3-point attempts – 21st in the country – so I’d be a little surprised to see the Cougars play much zone today, since that could also make it tougher to keep Roberson off the offensive glass. … Colorado’s tallest starter is 6-foot-9 forward Austin Dufault, though the Buffs do bring 6-11 Shane Harris-Tunks off the bench. He played nine minutes against Washington on Thursday. Foul trouble to either one of those guys will make it much easier for Brock Motum to operate.
…
All for now. We’ll be back after the game, and you can follow on Twitter: @ChristianCaple.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com.