The Denver Pioneers came up empty on their trip to Oregon for the BTI Invitational, falling to 0-3 on the season as they blew a 26-16 first-half lead and lost 65-54 to North Dakota State.
The Bison, 2 1/2-point underdogs to DU, went from 10 points behind to 6 points ahead on the strength of a 20-4 run at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half, and Denver failed to get closer than 4 points the rest of the way. Once again, missed open shots and squandered scoring opportunities were the story of the day, especially in the second half. DU’s defense kept North Dakota State from running away with the game, but the offense simply could not capitalize.
After the game, Coach Joe Scott said, “We are disappointed in the results this weekend, but we’re not going to panic. We need to get back to Denver and refocus to get back to where we need to be.”
“It’s a 33-game season. It didn’t start the way we sort of expected,” Scott added. “[W]e learned this weekend, boy oh boy, we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ve got to get better. But I feel good, I’m confident we’ve got the right pieces in the locker room, we’ve just got to mold them together.”
Scott and his staff will have three days of “molding” before the next big test. Denver hosts Colorado State at Magness Arena on Thursday, putting its 15-game home winning streak, tied for sixth-best in the nation, to the test against a team that’s expected to finish fifth in the MWC.
Commenting in real-time on DU’s early second-half collapse Sunday, Pioneers radio broadcaster Mitch Hyder delivered a searing indictment of the team’s play as they gave up eight unanswered points and committed five fouls in the opening minutes of the second half:
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Denver is not ready to play to start the second half. … This has happened all three games. It’s getting really old, really quick. And I know we’re in the first weekend of the season. Shouldn’t happen to an experienced team. … It is Groundhog Day at the moment. … This is the third straight game we’ve seen a similar type of start [to the second half] for the Pionners. And you don’t want to start those kind of habits this early in the season.
Again, you’ve heard Joe Scott say it numerous times now in the preseason. The program has the foundation. It’s been built. It’s time to start winning games and competing for championships. And the Pioneers are showing similar characteristics that they’ve shown the last three years, namely, stretches where they’re just not ready to go.
Scott said all three losses in Eugene over the weekend — to UC-Santa Barbara, Oregon, and North Dakota State — followed a “similar script,” with the defense playing well, and the Pioneers playing close or leading early, but the offense failing to hit open shots and capitalize on opportunities, which he blamed in part on the failure to establish an inside game to take pressure off the shooters. He also noted that all three opponents had a defensive strategy that effectively bottled up DU’s offensive scheme and left them taking a lot three-pointers — which they generally shot poorly, especially in the second half of each game.
Scott singled out redshirt sophomore Trevor Noonan, whose inside presence was expected to be one of the team’s key “new pieces” this season. “That’s the way we practiced for a month,” he said. “It didn’t show up here. It’s got to start to show up. … Trevor Noonan’s not, right now, doing what we thought he could do for us.”
More generally, Scott said, “We’ve got to get back to the basics. We’ve got to work on building our identity.” Here’s the full video clip from DU’s site: