BOULDER — It’s an experiment that will continue to be tinkered with, probably for at least another few weeks.
Yet the early reviews are in for Colorado’s system of rotating starters at the shooting guard and small forward spots. And so far, the trio of Josh Fortune, George King and Tre’Shaun Fletcher has turned an unorthodox approach into a bona fide strength for the Buffs heading into Sunday’s rivalry showdown at Colorado State.
Coach Tad Boyle has stated repeatedly he believes he has three capable starters for two positions. The results through seven games haven’t shown otherwise.
“The guys know what’s coming. They all know they’re going to play,” Boyle said. “I like it. I think it’s the fairest way to go about it. Again, I’m not married to it the rest of the year. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably revisit it after game nine, after we’ve had three turns through it and I talk to the guys. I want to get their input — what they think and what they want.
“One thing I know is that they’re all going to play. Colorado State likes to play small. We could play all three of those guys together a fair amount of time against teams that play four-guard lineups.”
Rare is the player who will admit to preferring a reserve role to starting, yet both King and Fortune mentioned that the nights they don’t start allow them a courtside perspective to how the game is unfolding and, specifically, what the Buffs might be lacking on the floor.
The situation also has pushed all three players to make certain they stay on top of their games. King, for example, started last week against Air Force, but Boyle didn’t hesitate to yank him in less than a minute when he allowed a 3-pointer on the defensive end and followed that by forcing an errant shot on the Buffs’ first possession.
“I think it’s been doing good, actually,” Fortune said. “Obviously it’s something new I haven’t done before. Other teams don’t know really how to prepare for us when we switch it up all the time. When you’re not starting, you get to see what’s going on in the game.”
