LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to watch and understand post play, with all the pushing and positioning, shoving and shot blocking. But perimeter defense, while often underappreciated, can have an equally important impact on a basketball game.
Consider the performance of Colorado senior point guard Nate Tomlinson in Thursday night’s 63-62 victory over Oregon at the Pac-12 Tournament.
Tomlinson scored just three points and shot 1-for-5 from the field. But if the Buffaloes had taken a vote for the game’s MVP, the Aussie likely would have won by a landslide.
Tomlinson kept a hand in the face of Oregon scoring threat Devoe Joseph all night. A senior, Joseph had torched the Buffs for 24 points in a Ducks victory a week earlier. But with Tomlinson matching his every move, Joseph went 6-for-19 from the floor this time and scored just 12 points. He was 0-for-7 from 3-point range.
Still, Joseph had an opportunity to win the game with a last-second shot. Tomlinson would have none of it. Moving his feet from side to side, the Buffs guard made sure to obscure the line of sight between Joseph and the basket. Tomlinson forced Joseph to take a desperation, 3-point shot of NBA distance just before the buzzer. It didn’t come close.
“Nate was right in his face,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “He was terrific on Joseph.”
Tomlinson apparently had it all planned out. Earlier in the day, he went to assistant coach Mike Rohn and asked to be assigned Joseph in Colorado’s man-to-man. Rohn relayed the request to Boyle, who told Rohn to go with his instincts.
Rohn nodded to Tomlinson. Call it coaches’ intuition. Against Oregon in two regular-season meetings, different CU guards took turns on Joseph. This time it was to be a one-man job.
“I was expecting them to go to Joseph (for the last shot); he’s been their best player pretty much the whole year,” CU senior guard Austin Dufault said. “That last possession, Nate was in his grill.”
Perimeter defense. Watch for it at a game near you.
Seattle’s best? Word is circulating that the Pac-12 will split up its two conference basketball tournaments and move the women’s side to Seattle, beginning next year. By all indications, the Pac-12 men’s tournament is headed to Las Vegas in 2013.
For night owls only. I’ve heard or read several complaints from Colorado basketball fans about the 9:40 p.m. (MST) start for Buffs’ tournament games the past three nights. The problem is not the Pac-12 but the difference in time zones. For example, the fourth game of the day at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City was scheduled to begin Thursday at 8:30 — about the same local time as in the Pac-12 event. But 8:30 p.m. Central becomes 7:30 to those living in Denver. We were spoiled. An 8:30 p.m. start on the West Coast, however, translates to 9:30 p.m. for Front Range viewers.
As a colleague told me, the Pac-12 has wonderful trips and terrible deadlines.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or kensler@
