Fast break
Why the Buffs won: CU shot .600 from the floor and 17-for-18 at the free throw line after halftime.
Three stars
1. CU’s Alon Michaeli. In just his second game, the freshman forward came off the bnech to record 20 points and six rebounds.
2. CU’s Barrington Hargress. The transfer from UC Riverside recorded his sceond career double-double, finishing with 15 points and 11 assists with only one turnover.
3. Providence’s Jason Edwards. Went 8-for-8 at the free throw line and posted a game-high 24 points along with six assists and no turnovers.
Up next: CU faces a somewhat quick turnaround when it hosts Alabama State on Monday night (7 p.m., ESPN+).
Kim English couldn’t take the floor without being stopped by familiar faces in the crowd. Nate Tomlinson was living and dying with every play and every call on the Colorado bench.
Emotions ran high as two coaching staffs with deep familiarity locked horns at the CU Events Center. But college basketball is about players making plays. And the Buffaloes enjoyed much more of that than Providence.
Powered by strong games from point guard Barrington Hargress and freshman forward Alon Michaeli, the CU men’s basketball team defeated Providence 97-88 to pick up a key nonconference victory on Friday night.
The result ruined the Colorado return of English, Providence’s head coach who spent two years as an assistant in the CU program, while giving friendly bragging rights to Tomlinson, a CU assistant and former Buffs guard who worked as an assistant for English the past four years.
“It meant a lot to Nate,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “He and Kim English are good friends. Obviously he left Colorado four years ago to go with Kim to his first head coaching job at George Mason. Yeah, it meant a lot to him.”
The Buffaloes spent the week addressing a generous defense that allowed each of the first two opponents to shoot over 51%.
The defensive effort probably still wasn’t as sharp as Boyle would prefer. Yet despite the final point total, the Buffs indeed made strides defensively, holding the Friars to a .446 mark overall with a 6-for-25 showing from 3-point range. CU held high-scoring Providence to nearly 12 points under its scoring average through its first three games.
By no means was it a perfect defensive effort, as the Buffs committed 26 fouls and sent Providence to the free throw line 31 times. Still, for a team that plans to improve incrementally through March, it was a step in the right direction.
“We did do better defensively,” Hargress said. “We definitely tried to limit transition buckets. But also, just knowing that defense comes with offense. We also put ourselves in some tough positions, which is why they were able to get up to 87 with blocked shots and a little bit of turnovers. We understood that that kind of affected their percentage and affected the amount they scored. But we were very, very pleased with how we got back in transition and tried to stay locked-in on the scouting report.”
The Buffs jumped to a quick 9-2 lead out of the gate and never trailed in the first half, but Providence ended the first half on a 10-2 run, cutting CU’s lead to 39-38 at the break. The Friars added the first basket of the second half to take their first lead, but it proved to be Providence’s only lead of the night.
CU answered with a 6-0 burst and managed to keep the Friars at arms-length the rest of the way. Colorado went 17-for-18 at the free throw line in the second half.
In just his second game with the Buffs, Michaeli turned in a huge effort off the bench, going 7-for-15 from the field and 5-for-5 at the free throw line before finishing with 20 points and six rebounds. Elijah Malone went 7-for-10 with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Hargress finished with 15 points and a career-high 11 assists.
It was the first time a CU player reached double-digit assists since McKinley Wright IV recorded 13 against Georgetown in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
CU shot at least 50% for the third time in as many games, finishing at .515 with a .600 mark in the second half.
“Great team victory. I’m really proud of our guys,” Boyle said. “The one thing I knew about our team, we learned it in Australia this summer, is how tough they are and how much they like to compete. It doesn’t matter who they’re playing, where they’re playing, or when they’re playing. I challenged them with that tonight and they responded. We beat a good Providence team. Kim English is a hell of a coach, they have a hell of a program.”
Colorado 97, Providence 88
PROVIDENCE (2-2)
Erhunmwunse 3-3 0-0 6, Edwards 7-16 8-8 24, Floyd 4-10 5-6 13, Mela 5-10 0-2 10, Sellers 2-8 10-11 15, Vaaks 4-8 1-4 11, Jones 2-5 0-0 5, Hargrove 1-2 0-0 2, Powell 0-1 0-0 0, Davis 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 29-65 24-31 88.
COLORADO (3-0)
Dak 2-5 2-3 6, Rancik 3-8 0-0 8, Malone 7-10 2-2 17, Hargress 6-12 2-2 15, Kossaras 3-4 0-0 6, Michaeli 7-15 5-5 20, Johnson 3-6 8-9 15, Sanders 1-3 2-4 4, Holland 2-2 2-2 6, Inman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 34-66 23-27 97.
Halftime: Colorado 39-38; 3-point field goals: Providence 6-25 (Vaaks 2-5, Edwards 2-6, Jones 1-2, Sellers 1-2, Davis 0-1, Powell 0-1, Mela 0-3, Floyd 0-5); Colorado 6-17 (Rancik 2-4, Malone 1-2, Hargress 1-3, Johnson 1-3, Michaeli 1-3, Inman 0-1, Kossaras 0-1). Fouled out: Hargrove, Kossaras. Rebounds: Providence 32 (Sellers 7); Colorado 43 (Malone 7). Assists: Providence 13 (Edwards 6); Colorado 18 (Hargress 11). Turnovers: Providence 10 (Erhunmwunse 3); Colorado 11 (Holland 3). Total fouls: Providence 25, Colorado 26. A: 6,596.