Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Beavers Bounce Back Big In Boulder

A new installment here at Building The Dam, “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” will be our version of a “What We Learned” type of segment that will further dive into men’s basketball games, hopefully after all the victories they have waiting for us this season.

Thumbs Up: The 1-3-1 Zone

Wayne Tinkle made the switch to the 1-3-1 zone to try and find something to throw Colorado off it’s rhythm and it worked. We’ve seen the 1-3-1 zone used often in the past. It’s definitely had it’s fair share of mixed results. It may not be great all the time, but against Colorado it got the job done and you can’t blame him for that. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein loved it too.

Thumbs Up: Zach Reichle

Usually considered “the other starter”, Reichle is essentially a floor-spacing piece that keeps opponents attached at the defensive end and through the season, he hasn’t shown too many signs of being a prolific scorer. However, a burst of confidence hit the sharpshooter, as he poured in 19 points on only 4-6 shooting from the field and a perfect 9-9 night at the charity stripe.

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Thumbs Down: Bench Scoring

There’s no doubt it’s been an issue for the Beavers all season and even in a victory, it reared it’s ugly head again. I think for this team to honestly be successful long term, this young and excitable bench grouping of Gianni Hunt, Jarod Lucas, Antoine Vernon, Sean Miller-Moore, Roman Silva and Payton Dastrup need to be able to combine for more than 9 points.

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Thumbs Down: Alfred Hollins

11 minutes. One missed three-point field goal. 1 rebound. No points scored. Somewhere deep in the mind of Wayne Tinkle you have to imagine that if any of the aforementioned bench players could grind out some consistency, Hollins may drift out of the starting line-up down the road. Inconsistent production from key players is hard to work around in the long-term.

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