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Woelk: Patton not doing Roby any favors
Time for a confession:
It seems I've been underestimating Colorado basketball coach Ricardo Patton.
Indeed, Patton's coaching skills are now coming to the forefront. CU's lame-duck leader is doing something no other coach in the Big 12 has managed to do: turn Richard Roby into a non-factor.
Actually, Patton has gone a step farther. He's taken a player who one year ago was being touted as a possible NBA first-rounder and virtually ruined him.
Did you see Roby's latest game? One point against Nebraska.
This is not an easy task.
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After all, this is the same Roby who was a first-team All-Big 12 selection a year ago. The same Roby who was a preseason first team all-conference player this season. The same Roby who finished in the top 10 in the league in four major offensive categories a year ago.
And this season?
Evidently not the same Roby. This year, Roby is tentative in CU's offensive scheme (granted, that's a loose definition). He is playing with little or no confidence. Simply, he is a mere shadow of the slashing, self-assured player he was just a year ago.
How has this happened?
With a team full of freshmen and only a handful of clear offensive options, Patton has taken his best player out of the game.
If only he could defend the other team as well.
Of course, Roby's woes are not the fault of this coach. None of CU's problems are ever the fault of this coach. His players are either too young, too old, or they simply refuse to pay close heed to his coaching wisdom.
For instance: Early last week, Patton sternly noted that Roby must learn to work harder. Duly noted.
Then, after the Nebraska game, Patton faulted his one-time star player for not allowing his teammates to help him more. In effect, he was working too hard.
Which is it?
The answer is neither.
The answer is that the head coach and his stable of unable assistants have been incapable, or unwilling, to devise a scheme, a system, a plan — anything — to take advantage of one of the league's best players.
Instead, they have sent a dizzying array of freshmen-laden combinations onto the floor whose only apparent orders are to shoot first and assist later — if at all.
But this should be nothing new to folks who follow CU basketball.
Instead, we should be familiar with the pattern. Patton has a long history of being unable to take full advantage of potentially great players.
Remember David Harrison? He was only one of the nation's most highly recruited prep players. Everybody wanted the big man. He had NCAA Sweet 16 written all over him.
Patton, to his credit, convinced Harrison to attend CU. Then, he squeezed exactly one NCAA Tournament game out of Harrison in three years before the big fella finally bolted for the NBA.
Fact is, Patton's one consistent characteristic has been an inability to significantly improve players once they land on campus. Those that have improved have done so more because they physically matured, not because their basketball prowess became sharply honed under the CU staff's tutelage.
Of course, Patton cannot accept complete responsibility for this particular peculiarity. Full credit must also go to some of his assistants, whose No. 1 job often appears to be to denigrate and ridicule players whenever possible.
And teaching? Not in the syllabus.
The result is that a good player and a good kid has been ruined — and that might be the saddest part of what is already a sorrowful CU basketball season.
When a team isn't winning, it can still be worth watching if the best player on the floor is having his skills utilized to their fullest extent. There can still be a level of excitement.
But that is not the case with the Buffaloes.
Rather, it is the opposite.
Today, you'll hear the few Patton supporters that still exist stack the blame on Roby. They'll tell you that when he attended NBA camps last summer, he had his confidence crushed. They'll tell you he's been unable to recover from the shattering blow.
Baloney.
Roby could still be the player who put 27 on the board in an overtime win at Oklahoma State, the same player who put 30 on Nebraska, 22 on Texas A&M and 28 on Oklahoma. He could still be the player who was The Sporting News national player of the week.
But he's not.
Now, one can only hope that the next CU coach will have the opportunity to utilize Roby in the correct manner.
Meanwhile the current countdown is now 47 days.
That's when this era will mercifully come to a close.
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Posted by barney56 on January 23, 2007 at 6:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Roby's body language during the Nebraska game spoke volumes. He looks like he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and I am serious about that! Folks who follow college hoops closely know that Paul Graham has a history of abusing and denigrating players that goes back to his time at Washington State, when he had numerous players transfer out due to his abrasive style of coaching. Ricardo Patton is also quick with the verbal whip, and together he and Graham have virtually broken Richard Roby. The Ricardo Patton Era cannot end soon enough! Goodbye and good riddance, Patton! You are a disgrace to the coaching profession!
Posted by NJBuff on January 23, 2007 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Every time I read an article about our new "Slic Ric" I get more and more upset about our hoops team.
I truly used to be a fan of the General. As usual though Neill you hit the nail on the head. The list goes on and on of players that haven't improved under Patton' reign. Jamal Mosely...Chris Copeland....David Harrison...I'm tired of his excuses. I'm tired of seeing any school from the Missouri Valley Conference play with more heart and desire than our team. Air Force and CSU are better than us! This is a joke!!!!
Does he really think he'll be coaching a D1 team next year? The only way he's at a D1 program is as an Assistant Coach - period. Otherwise, look for him to be introduced as the new head coach of Middle Tennessee State - or Niwot High School.
Don't feel bad for him for one second. He banked over $7 million in during his time here - enough to live very, very comfortable for the rest of his life.
Posted by clesquibel on January 23, 2007 at 9:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you, Neill.
Patton is a bum, an utterly worthless bum who has never been able to do a lot of things. Everyone knows he can't diagram sets, out of bounds plays, possessions to get a bucket, but this year Patton has availed a talent for not being able to even get his kids to run any sort of offense.
Honestly I know a bunch of high school coaches (girls and boys) who could run Patton under the table in diagramming an offense with movement, cuts, backscreens, set plays, etc.
He can't even recognize his team's own talent. He's been trying to play Coleman at 2-guard for two years when everyone knows Coleman is best at the 1 even though he's more of a lead guard/scorer than a pure point guard. Who cares, Ricardo? He's jet quick and can break defenses down.
Patton is the King of underdeveloping and undercoaching talent -- or never getting the max out of marginal athletes. Look at Marcus King-Stockton, for example, he doesn't do one thing now that he didn't do as a freshman.
At this point I don't even care who Bohn brings in next year just so I don't have to see Patton's pathetic coaching anymore. My high school coach could teach a clinic to Ricardo on how to coach basketball, a sport where spacing and movement is supposed to happen because of the coach.
Just get out of town, Ricardo. BTW, do you need a real estate agent cuz I know a few.
Posted by trubuff on January 23, 2007 at 9:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Great article. Patton is basically the country's highest paid athletic trainer because that's all he does. He's great at running the players to death and making them sleep on cots in the gym (I'm sure that really helps their academics, too) but he doesn't even need a dry-erase board on the sidelines because he can't run an offense. I've been seeing the same thing since Patton came here.. five players who look like they just met eachother on a pickup b-ball court. Actually the players at a pickup game might throw more picks than the Buffs do. He did nothing to help Harrison. The big guy got more points off offensive rebounds than actual plays run to get him the ball. How can that be?! Harrison was a man among boys in most games and Patton still didn't run plays to get him the ball. And now we have Roby who is tired of running around the court trying to get open with no help from an actual play. How 'bout some pick and rolls, give and goes, I'd even settle for the picket fence. I hope Roby snaps out of this funk but at least maybe he'll stick around next year now since Patton has ruined his chances of being drafted.
Posted by NCBUFF on January 23, 2007 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
47 MORE DAYS OF PATTON!!! That's hardly fair....
I mean jeez the Earth only got 40 DAYS OF RAIN when they screwed up.........
Posted by NCBUFF on January 23, 2007 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
P.S. to NJ Buff
What did Niwot H.S. ever do to you?!?! It had to be pretty bad for you to wish Patton on them!!!
Posted by rswright on January 28, 2007 at 10:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
75% of the votes are that the coaches failed Roby. What a joke! We all feel sorry for Roby, but the real cause of the team falling apart lies with the ineptitude of the AD for allowing this to happen in the first place. It is his job to anticipate how Patton's actions would affect the players. He didn't and has to assume the responsibility for what has happened to Roby and the rest of the team. This year has to be a bitter experience for them.Sorry Mike, you knew the facts, and you should have done something but you didn't. As AD you had the responsibility and you blew it!