In the third of a three-part series on Colorado basketball, the Black and Gold Truth and columnist Neill Woelk of the Daily Camera discuss Buffs' coach Ricardo Patton -- his legacy and future.
BGT: Neill, Patton's days are winding down. There are no timeouts left, the clock continues to tick. When the final gun sounds, what is Patton's legacy going to be?
Woelk: Ricardo Patton took this program up to the next level, where it became a mid-level Big-12 team year-in-and-year-out, from the basement to the middle of the pack.
BGT: Do you see him as getting respect for that accomplishment?
Woelk: I think he has from his peers. I think he has from people who have followed the program closely. I give him credit for doing a lot.
My biggest complaint with Ricardo was this program hit a plateau and it was never going to get above that point.
BGT: Why do you believe CU basketball quit growing, stalled out so to speak, as a segment of the fans believe?
Woelk: Ricardo Patton is not a good game-day coach.
Ricardo Patton is a good disciplinarian. Ricard Patton prepares well. Ricardo Patton has a good work ethic but Ricardo Patton is not a good game-day coach and he's predictable.
It's like last year -- they go to Texas A & M and lose by one point in a game they probably should have won. A month later they play that same Texas A & M team in the Big 12 Tournament and lose to them by 33. What's different?
Ricardo also always felt threatened by assistants. He never wanted to go out and hire great assistants.
BGT: Do you feel he didn't do that possibly because that's how he got his job, graduating from an assistant to head coach when he took over for Joe Harrington?
Woelk: Colorado had a chance -- Tom Davis was inquiring about coming here as an assistant after he left Iowa and Ricardo blocked it right away. Ricardo was afraid this guy was going to come in and try to take his job.
Name a great coach and I'll name great assistants.
Ricardo has always been too insecure to go get great assistant coaches.
BGT: What sort of place do you think he might end up resurfacing at upon leaving Boulder?
Woelk: One of two things -- Ricardo, next year, will be an assistant at a top-level program or he'll resurface as a head coach at a mid-major program.
BGT: How attractive a candidate will he be on the open market after his run here at CU?
Woelk: At a mid-major -- automatic. Very attractive.
At a BCS school, I could see an Oregon State, a team that has been down for a long time where you say 'hey, let's take a chance on this guy and see what happens.'
Cyclones take blame
Iowa State looked in the mirror more than gave the Buffs credit after losing in Boulder Wednesday night.
"We deserve what we got tonight," said ISU guard Mike Taylor, one of the principal offenders. "The practices that led up to tonight were half-ass on our part," he told Eric Petersen of the Ames Tribune.
Even more surprising and honest to the BGT was this quote, which is reflective on how the Colorado program is viewed these days.
"We thought we could just come to the game and play like we did against Kansas. That didn't happen," forward Rahshon Clark said.
What Clark meant to say was he thought his team could come to town, stick it on cruise control and bust out a big win. After all, it was the Buffs, not the Jayhawks. Everyone beats the Buffs, right?
However, to ISU's credit, notice, no comments about youth or 'we're better than our record' or blah, blah, blah.
Accountability 101, Iowa State. Still room in the class for the spring semester.
Husker Style
Nebraska got embarrassed in Norman on Wednesday, falling to Oklahoma, 70-53, which was more than enough to get the blood boiling for coach Doc Sadler, who spoke of a 5:30 practice the following morning
“The only thing I know is, to put it bluntly, make it as miserable on them,” Sadler said, “as it was on people that watched it,” Sadler said in a Brian Rosenthal story from HuskerExtra.com.
Who knows if Sadler is going to be the cure to what ails Nebraska basketball but the man gets serious points from BGT from not going Bob Knight on the media for his team's flaws.
“It’s inexcusable,” Sadler said. “It’s a direct reflection on their coach to let it happen. I take it personal. It’s my responsibility.”
Gotta Say It
Woelk is someone who's viewpoint's I always find honest and pointed and personally, that's why I read his work with anticipation, whether the CU program is flying or diving.
Now for my penny's worth on Patton. There are a lot of, figuratively speaking, bullet holes in the CU coach when it comes to his faults but what he has done, as Woelk says and has written, is elevate this program from the dark depths. But the areas that still most stand out to these eyes are: x's and o's, the inability to make quality adjustments and recruiting.
The x's and o's is just not a strength of Patton's. The offense, even on his better teams, doesn't look like that of other successful school's. At times, it looks like a bad playground game. The defense has never been what it needs to be to hide a lack of size or talent and be an equalizer with the better teams in the conference.
Adjustments -- the Buffs can be reeling in a game and seem incapable of stopping the type of runs that quickly decide the outcome.
Recruiting -- yes, recruiting. While Patton has some resume-impressing names like Chauncey Billups, Martice Moore (transfer), Stephane Pelle, Michel Morandais, David Harrison, Richard Roby and his current freshman class, the point is Patton has usually only recruited one star every three or four years. Those players are all quality but if the coach could have put two or three talents like that in one class or subsequent seasons, we might not be talking about a new coach right now, regardless of Patton's perceived coaching question marks.
In the end, Patton deserves kind congratulations on his way to new opportunities and to be welcomed back to vist and CU deserves a man who will create a positive, high-standard enviornment with improvement in former areas of weakness.
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