Friday, February 17
Boulder, Colo.
8:00 PM
Colorado
vs
Oregon State
Buffs junior Zoe Correal (right) whips a pass in a recent Pac-12 game against Arizona.
Photo by: Pro-Motion Photography
Brooks: Correal Responded To Payne’s Challenge – And Then Some
February 16, 2017 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
High school coach, others watch Buffs center enjoy career day at Cal
BOULDER – Finer hours, or basketball games, might be on the horizon for Zoe Correal. But the 2-plus hours spent last Sunday at California's Haas Pavilion amounted to a career afternoon, an almost unimaginable collection of shining moments, for the Colorado junior.
Others in the crowd savored the moments with her. Correal, a 6-4 post player, is from San Francisco and attended high school (Salesian College Prep) in the Bay Area suburb of Richmond.
When the Buffaloes visit Berkeley, Correal has an entourage, and it was no surprise that Steve Pezzola was in it. He has a solid Cal tie, having graduated from the school as a business major and attending law school there.
But since 2009 he has coached women's basketball at Salesian, giving him ample reason to attend most Bears home games to watch some of his former players at the college level.
What Pezzola saw Sunday was a 64-59 CU win, a Pac-12 road rarity for the Buffs, who snapped a 16-game conference road losing streak and defeated a ranked league team (Cal was No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches poll) for the first time since joining the Pac-12 for the 2011-12 season.
Pezzola also saw Correal score 16 points, haul in 15 rebounds – her first double-double in Pac-12 competition – and help limit Kristine Anigwe, the league's No. 3 rebounder, to five total boards. Anigwe entered the game averaging just under 10 (9.6) rebounds and also was the conference's No. 2 scorer (21.8).
The Buffs knew first-hand was Anigwe was capable of; in the Bears' 65-53 win in Boulder last month she scored 29 points – 25 in the second half – and grabbed 11 rebounds. Her 15-point, 5-rebound performance in the rematch fell well below both averages, with Correal's defense and keeping her off the boards chief among the reasons for Anigwe's subpar afternoon.
Pezzola left Haas Pavilion aboard a cloud that he won't leave any time soon.
"It is now late Tuesday night and I am still smiling about her effort on Sunday . . . it was brilliant," he responded in an email from CUBuffs.com that answered a handful of questions about his former player. "It was a huge thrill to be there to see it in person. I am a life-long Cal fan . . .
"Yet, I found myself cheering for Zoe and her teammates. I saw how much she wanted to win that it 'won' me over, for that game. I am still excited and smiling. Zoe is such a nice young woman that all who really know her must be so happy for her to shine after all the hard work and dedication she shows to her team."
Pezzola's presence, along with that of family and friends from the Bay Area, touched Correal: "It meant a lot . . . it reminded me of the good old days. I had other people I really cared about there too, but it just made me think, 'Wow, everybody came to this game, everyone is here to support me, there's so many people who want me to do well. All that stuff.' It really did inspire me because everybody made time out of their Sundays to come and see me play this game – so I'm going to play hard."
SHE DID, AND THERE'S A BACKSTORY to be told about Correal's inspired performance. As much as she was an all-around presence at Cal, she was a nonentity two nights earlier at Stanford. In the Buffs' 64-51 loss to the No. 8 Cardinal, Correal contributed no points, no rebounds.
CU coach JR Payne and her staff undoubtedly saw early on that Correal was an ill fit against Erica McCall and Stanford's big frontline. Correal played only 6 minutes and later conceded, "In the Stanford game I just didn't rebound. (Payne) said to me, 'We need you to rebound – this is what we need from you.'
"And so it was a challenge in that sense, because we knew that Anigwe is a really good rebounder. I knew I had to put a body on her and get on the boards as much as I possibly can. I just took that head on."
In her first season as CU's coach, Payne's mid-winter crusade has been reemphasizing fundamentals and attending to details – one of which is boxing out on rebounds. It's been a team-wide mandate, but it was, ah, requested that Correal step it up against Anigwe.
"We challenged her," Payne said, "told her we needed her to do a job rebounding . . . from a box out standpoint at Stanford she didn't and we told her, 'You've got to do better, you're capable of doing better, we need you to box Anigwe out. If you don't do anything but box her out that's your job.'
"She had a single focus, and I think she went into the game with that mindset of, 'I'm going to keep that kid off the glass.' And she was able to do that."
Doing it against upcoming post players in CU's four remaining regular-season games and the Pac-12 Tournament now becomes the goal – and Correal believes she's capable: "I just have to have that same mindset that I went into the game with (at Cal)."
The Buffs (14-11, 4-10) play host to No. 11 Oregon State (23-3, 12-2) on Friday at the Coors Events Center and Oregon (17-9, 7-7) on Sunday at noon. Both games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast on KVCU radio 1190 am.
Correal averages 4.7 points a game and the same number of rebounds, placing her second to Haley Smith (6-3) on the team in rebounding. In 14 Pac-12 games Correal has averaged 3.5 points and 3.9 rebounds. One of her career highs last weekend – rebounds – can be attributed to more focus and hard work; the other – points – is partly attributable to CU's starting backcourt of Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson.
That sophomore guard duo combined for 13 of the Buffs' 18 assists, with Correal being on the scoring end of many of them. Payne points to Leonard's passing skills, noting, "If you have a point guard like Kennedy and can catch (the ball) and make layups you can score maybe not 16 every night but you can get 10 a night."
It became up to Correal to finish. She went 8-of-14 from the field against the Bears, a commendable percentage, but she admits that finishing hasn't been a strong suit: "I do work on finishing; it's not one of my strengths so I have to work on it."
IS SHE BETTER AT IT NOW? "Yes and no," Correal answered. "There have been some games where I haven't been able to put them in. But this was one of the games where I was able; I was very focused on it."
Payne added that she see's improvement in Correal's game in the catch-and-lay-it-in area because "it's something she wants to do well. She wants to finish. And with a point guard that can get you the basketball in areas real close to the basket we have to be able to finish those . . . she did a great job of catching the ball in the paint (at Cal) and we clearly needed that."
If Correal wants to be a better finisher and works at it, Pezzola has no doubt that it will happen. He recalls Correal as being "a dream to coach," a young player committed to yearly improvement.
"She wanted to get better and worked diligently on whatever we asked her to do," he said. "She needed a lot of work as a freshman and just kept improving each year. Zoe is one of our coaching staff's favorite stories. Her improvement from her freshman year at high school until her senior year was staggering. She developed her footwork, her post moves and a 15-foot shot. It has been fun to see her improve on those even more while at Colorado."
That overall improvement registered with Payne when she got her first look at Correal, but Payne eventually honed in on Correal's rebounding capabilities as an assigned role.
"She's not necessarily someone who's going to rebound outside her area but she's big enough to keep an Anigwe off the boards, which that in and of itself in this conference is such a huge factor," Payne said.
Correal and the Buffs have won two of their past four games and at 4-10 have doubled their Pac-12 win total from last season (2-16). Oregon State's visit on Friday night presents a major challenge but Payne notes that her team at least has given itself a confidence boost with its win at Cal.
"Yeah, it gives us confidence, but I mean you run into a little bit of a buzz saw when your next opponent is the No. 11 team in the country and went to the Final Four last year," she said. "So I think we're realistic in knowing that oh, we're not going to win every game now. But I do think (the Cal win) was a huge weight off our shoulders. We knew we could win these games, we knew it. We were in all of them, but to be able to do it was a real reward."
Added Correal: "We've been in a lot of close games but haven't been able to pull them out, so I think that (win) gives us confidence that we can do it."
An extraordinary Sunday afternoon before close friends and family also showed Correal what she can accomplish when she's locked into a task. The Buffs are hoping that her trip home will be a launch point for the rest of this season and next.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Others in the crowd savored the moments with her. Correal, a 6-4 post player, is from San Francisco and attended high school (Salesian College Prep) in the Bay Area suburb of Richmond.
When the Buffaloes visit Berkeley, Correal has an entourage, and it was no surprise that Steve Pezzola was in it. He has a solid Cal tie, having graduated from the school as a business major and attending law school there.
But since 2009 he has coached women's basketball at Salesian, giving him ample reason to attend most Bears home games to watch some of his former players at the college level.
What Pezzola saw Sunday was a 64-59 CU win, a Pac-12 road rarity for the Buffs, who snapped a 16-game conference road losing streak and defeated a ranked league team (Cal was No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches poll) for the first time since joining the Pac-12 for the 2011-12 season.
Pezzola also saw Correal score 16 points, haul in 15 rebounds – her first double-double in Pac-12 competition – and help limit Kristine Anigwe, the league's No. 3 rebounder, to five total boards. Anigwe entered the game averaging just under 10 (9.6) rebounds and also was the conference's No. 2 scorer (21.8).
The Buffs knew first-hand was Anigwe was capable of; in the Bears' 65-53 win in Boulder last month she scored 29 points – 25 in the second half – and grabbed 11 rebounds. Her 15-point, 5-rebound performance in the rematch fell well below both averages, with Correal's defense and keeping her off the boards chief among the reasons for Anigwe's subpar afternoon.
Pezzola left Haas Pavilion aboard a cloud that he won't leave any time soon.
"It is now late Tuesday night and I am still smiling about her effort on Sunday . . . it was brilliant," he responded in an email from CUBuffs.com that answered a handful of questions about his former player. "It was a huge thrill to be there to see it in person. I am a life-long Cal fan . . .
"Yet, I found myself cheering for Zoe and her teammates. I saw how much she wanted to win that it 'won' me over, for that game. I am still excited and smiling. Zoe is such a nice young woman that all who really know her must be so happy for her to shine after all the hard work and dedication she shows to her team."
Pezzola's presence, along with that of family and friends from the Bay Area, touched Correal: "It meant a lot . . . it reminded me of the good old days. I had other people I really cared about there too, but it just made me think, 'Wow, everybody came to this game, everyone is here to support me, there's so many people who want me to do well. All that stuff.' It really did inspire me because everybody made time out of their Sundays to come and see me play this game – so I'm going to play hard."
SHE DID, AND THERE'S A BACKSTORY to be told about Correal's inspired performance. As much as she was an all-around presence at Cal, she was a nonentity two nights earlier at Stanford. In the Buffs' 64-51 loss to the No. 8 Cardinal, Correal contributed no points, no rebounds.
CU coach JR Payne and her staff undoubtedly saw early on that Correal was an ill fit against Erica McCall and Stanford's big frontline. Correal played only 6 minutes and later conceded, "In the Stanford game I just didn't rebound. (Payne) said to me, 'We need you to rebound – this is what we need from you.'
"And so it was a challenge in that sense, because we knew that Anigwe is a really good rebounder. I knew I had to put a body on her and get on the boards as much as I possibly can. I just took that head on."
In her first season as CU's coach, Payne's mid-winter crusade has been reemphasizing fundamentals and attending to details – one of which is boxing out on rebounds. It's been a team-wide mandate, but it was, ah, requested that Correal step it up against Anigwe.
"We challenged her," Payne said, "told her we needed her to do a job rebounding . . . from a box out standpoint at Stanford she didn't and we told her, 'You've got to do better, you're capable of doing better, we need you to box Anigwe out. If you don't do anything but box her out that's your job.'
"She had a single focus, and I think she went into the game with that mindset of, 'I'm going to keep that kid off the glass.' And she was able to do that."
Doing it against upcoming post players in CU's four remaining regular-season games and the Pac-12 Tournament now becomes the goal – and Correal believes she's capable: "I just have to have that same mindset that I went into the game with (at Cal)."
The Buffs (14-11, 4-10) play host to No. 11 Oregon State (23-3, 12-2) on Friday at the Coors Events Center and Oregon (17-9, 7-7) on Sunday at noon. Both games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast on KVCU radio 1190 am.
Correal averages 4.7 points a game and the same number of rebounds, placing her second to Haley Smith (6-3) on the team in rebounding. In 14 Pac-12 games Correal has averaged 3.5 points and 3.9 rebounds. One of her career highs last weekend – rebounds – can be attributed to more focus and hard work; the other – points – is partly attributable to CU's starting backcourt of Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson.
That sophomore guard duo combined for 13 of the Buffs' 18 assists, with Correal being on the scoring end of many of them. Payne points to Leonard's passing skills, noting, "If you have a point guard like Kennedy and can catch (the ball) and make layups you can score maybe not 16 every night but you can get 10 a night."
It became up to Correal to finish. She went 8-of-14 from the field against the Bears, a commendable percentage, but she admits that finishing hasn't been a strong suit: "I do work on finishing; it's not one of my strengths so I have to work on it."
IS SHE BETTER AT IT NOW? "Yes and no," Correal answered. "There have been some games where I haven't been able to put them in. But this was one of the games where I was able; I was very focused on it."
Payne added that she see's improvement in Correal's game in the catch-and-lay-it-in area because "it's something she wants to do well. She wants to finish. And with a point guard that can get you the basketball in areas real close to the basket we have to be able to finish those . . . she did a great job of catching the ball in the paint (at Cal) and we clearly needed that."
If Correal wants to be a better finisher and works at it, Pezzola has no doubt that it will happen. He recalls Correal as being "a dream to coach," a young player committed to yearly improvement.
"She wanted to get better and worked diligently on whatever we asked her to do," he said. "She needed a lot of work as a freshman and just kept improving each year. Zoe is one of our coaching staff's favorite stories. Her improvement from her freshman year at high school until her senior year was staggering. She developed her footwork, her post moves and a 15-foot shot. It has been fun to see her improve on those even more while at Colorado."
That overall improvement registered with Payne when she got her first look at Correal, but Payne eventually honed in on Correal's rebounding capabilities as an assigned role.
"She's not necessarily someone who's going to rebound outside her area but she's big enough to keep an Anigwe off the boards, which that in and of itself in this conference is such a huge factor," Payne said.
Correal and the Buffs have won two of their past four games and at 4-10 have doubled their Pac-12 win total from last season (2-16). Oregon State's visit on Friday night presents a major challenge but Payne notes that her team at least has given itself a confidence boost with its win at Cal.
"Yeah, it gives us confidence, but I mean you run into a little bit of a buzz saw when your next opponent is the No. 11 team in the country and went to the Final Four last year," she said. "So I think we're realistic in knowing that oh, we're not going to win every game now. But I do think (the Cal win) was a huge weight off our shoulders. We knew we could win these games, we knew it. We were in all of them, but to be able to do it was a real reward."
Added Correal: "We've been in a lot of close games but haven't been able to pull them out, so I think that (win) gives us confidence that we can do it."
An extraordinary Sunday afternoon before close friends and family also showed Correal what she can accomplish when she's locked into a task. The Buffs are hoping that her trip home will be a launch point for the rest of this season and next.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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