Boulder – Successful basketball players, the really good ones, see the game a different way. Peripheral vision is one thing. Basketball vision, assimilating constant motion over a wider panorama, is something else.
Colorado sophomore Richard Roby has basketball vision. He sees the game, the entire game.
Like a chess master, he thinks two steps ahead. That’s because he understands what happened three steps back. Fans, and most players, cheer the result – a dunk or 3-pointer, perhaps. Roby appreciates the moves or passes that led to the shot.
That vision sets the smooth, 6-foot-6 guard apart from most underclassmen. By averaging 16 points per game last season, Roby became the first freshman since Chauncey Billups nine years earlier to lead the Buffaloes in scoring. Hopes for CU improving upon a 14-16 record last season and challenging in the Big 12 reside with Roby.
CU opens its season at home tonight against North Carolina-Wilmington. Roby envisions dramatic improvement.
Buffs coaches must wonder if he can peek into a crystal ball. After all, he sees just about everything else.
“Rich is just different in the way he watches the game, the way he understands the game,” CU assistant coach Paul Graham said. “He’ll come into my office and he’ll ask me to rerun the tape so he can see how a player read his defender or knew where to be.
“Most guys coming in to watch tape want to see themselves and how good they look. Not Roby. He looks for other stuff. He sees things others don’t.”
Perhaps it’s genetics. Roby’s father played Division I college basketball, and his half-brother is Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin. Perhaps it’s the fact Roby grew up playing mostly point guard on the playgrounds of San Bernardino, Calif., because everybody else was older and wanted the ball.
Perhaps he’s just a hungry basketball player who considers a day wasted if he doesn’t learn.
His eyes glisten with desire.
“The game has always been easy because I seem to see certain things,” Roby said. “I try to look at everybody else’s man, in addition to mine. I always have in my mind what the next person is going to do. Not the first thing he’s going to do, but the second thing.”
CU senior forward Andy Osborn realized Roby viewed the game differently when several teammates were watching an NBA game together.
“He looks at games not from a fan’s perspective but from a coach’s perspective,” Osborn said. “When we’re all watching games on TV, you can see Rich is critiquing what’s going on. He’s not enjoying the game like a fan would. He’s not looking at it for the excitement. He wants to know what’s going on.
“That’s probably why he came in and right away looked so polished.”
Roby learns by studying the moves of college and pro players, something he has done for as long as he can remember.
“You can never become a complete player because there’s always something you can get better at,” he said. “That’s the great thing about basketball. You can always learn, especially from watching good players.”
Asked for examples, Roby said he had been paying close attention to Kobe Bryant’s explosive first step, Richard Hamilton’s movement off screens, Dwyane Wade’s ability to break down defenders and Martin’s footwork on defense. The trick, obviously, is to adapt those skills to his own game. CU players say they have never seen anybody do that more effectively than Roby, who keeps adding to his arsenal.
“From the day he got here, what really impressed me was his ability to take in everything he sees and carry that over to games,” Osborn said. “He acts like something he just learned isn’t anything different.”
Roby is the first to admit that his defense needs work. And he’s still learning where and when to move without the ball. But already, Big 12 coaches and players rank Roby among the league’s top talents.
“Richard Roby can play for anybody in America; I really like him,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.
“He’s an NBA player,” Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie added. “He’s a shooter that can score. Sometimes those aren’t one and the same.”
Roby’s effort and enthusiasm caught the eye of Oklahoma State guard JamesOn Curry, a fellow sophomore. Roby averaged 17.5 points in two games against the highly ranked Cowboys.
“He was relentless, did everything for his team and showed a whole lot of heart,” Curry recalled. “One thing you can say about Kenyon Martin and Richard Roby is that they both play hard. Maybe it’s hereditary, I don’t know. But it’s there.”
Roby understands a coach’s role. Graham said he can take “a chewing out” and not crawl into a shell. That’s because he’s looking far down the line at making himself the best possible player.
“Richard never brags, never talks about what he did in high school or in the last game,” Graham said.
For Richard Roby, it’s all about looking two steps ahead.
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
