Rush The Court

Here’s another installment of the weekly Pac-12 honors, as handed out by the Pac-12 microsite.

Team of the Week – Colorado

All season long, the Buffaloes have had problems closing. Dating back to the Charleston Classic when they did their best to give away their semifinal game to  Baylor, continuing most famously through the Arizona game and on several other occasions, end-game scenarios have been downright scary for Tad Boyle’s club. Coupled with the truth that the Buffs have struggled in their two Pac-12 seasons on the road (a record of 4-10 coming into this weekend), the fact that this team went on the road to the Oregon schools and came away with two hard-fought wins in which they performed admirably down the stretch shows that the Buffaloes are indeed making progress — a hallmark of Boyle-coached teams. Against Oregon on Thursday night, a game-winning bucket by Andre Roberson was a good metaphor for this squad’s whole week. After getting his layup attempt swatted from behind by Arsalan Kazemi, Roberson persevered by grabbing the ball and putting it back in for the go-ahead win. On Sunday night, Spencer Dinwiddie was the CU hero, making all of his shots on the night (6-of-6 from the field with four threes, and 8-of-8 from the line) and providing a calming presence down the stretch. With their chance at revenge against Arizona coming up this week in Boulder, the Buffs have a chance to put themselves squarely in the middle of the Pac-12 race.

Player of the Week – Allen Crabbe, California

When Crabbe’s got it going, he’s one of the nation’s elite scorers. And Crabbe definitely had it going on Sunday night. He and his Golden Bears had a decent first half against Arizona; he scored 12 and Cal was within five of the nation’s #7 team at the break. But the Cal wing earned this honor as a result of what happened after halftime. Crabbe scored 11 points before the first media timeout in the second half as the Bears put together a 17-2 run from which they would never look back. As the half progressed, every time the Wildcats got back within striking distance, Crabbe would hit another big shot, twice drilling threes after Arizona pulled within four then hitting a big jumper late after the ‘Cats had pulled within two. All told, Crabbe wound up with 31 points on the night, missing just three three-pointers out of his 15 attempts from the field. For the week, Crabbe averaged 23.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and a block per game, all while shooting a 63.6% effective field goal rate.

Newcomer of the Week – J.T. Terrell, USC

Early in his first season with the Trojans, Terrell struggled to connect from the field and struggled to connect with his coach. It wasn’t until Terrell made a pair of field goals in just one minute of action in a blowout win over UC Riverside on December 15 that the junior college transfer made at least half of his field goal attempts in a game. Meanwhile, he was regularly butting heads with Kevin O’Neill. In a home loss to Minnesota, Terrell was pulled from the game for failing to hustle back on defense in the middle of the first half and never returned to the game (leading to that one-minute cameo in the next game). And Terrell’s effort (or lack thereof) was a constant theme with O’Neill, prompting one of the great backhanded compliments ever from the former head man: “He’s finally starting to play hard. He knows the game, and he’s very intelligent — more intelligent than I thought he was.” But all of that is just prelude to the current Terrell. He’s bounced back from those early struggles and has shown a much better attitude on the court of late. He has scored in double figures in six of seven games since O’Neill was fired and has averaged 13.7 points per game over that stretch. This week he contributed 15 points per night against the Washington schools, and he got it done in a highly efficient manner, posting a 64.3% eFG and turning the ball over just twice all week.