Winning on the road is hard. It is especially hard when you don’t play well. It is doubly hard when your two best players, Touko Tainamo and Tommy Bruner, have off nights. This edition of DU men’s basketball (5-3) is now good enough to play poorly on the road and win, 67-65, after trailing for large portions of the game against Idaho Wednesday night.
DU jumped out to a 17-4 lead on Idaho in the first five minutes – all without points from the nation’s leading scorer, Tommy Bruner. An 11-2 run by Idaho closed the gap, 26-20. The Vandals used a pair of three’s to pull within two points, 31-29 as Denver’s offense went cold. A layup by Trevon Blassingame tied the game 31-31 with three minutes left in the half. A Blassingame follow-up three gave Idaho a 34-32 lead at the break. Denver only shot 34% from the field and Idaho nailed 6 of 12 from downtown to carve out the narrow lead. Bruner was held to two points while Tainamo led DU with 9 points on poor shooting.
Denver’s cold shooting carried over to the second half as Idaho hit from both inside and distance to build a twelve-point lead with 15:30 remaining. Consecutive three-point makes by Isaiah Addo-Ankrah and DeAndre Craig cut the deficit in half. A Jaxson Brenchley three kept the game at 7 points with eight minutes remaining, 58-51. At 4:30, DU cut the lead to four with a Tainamo layin. An Isiah Carr stop and a Tommy Bruner three made it a one-point game with 3:38 remaining. A minute later, a Bruner layup gave DU the lead but Idaho regained the lead by a point. Denver began to space the floor and found Ankrah who nailed a three-point shot to give Denver a 2-point lead 64-62 with 52 seconds remaining. Idaho countered with a three of their own from Quinn Denker with 39 seconds remaining, 65-64. The Pioneers intentionally fouled DeAngelo Minnis, the Vandals best player on the night, with 18 seconds remaining and he missed the front end of a one-on-one – but Idaho still led 65-64. Denver rebounded the miss and went downcourt with time running down and found red-hot Ankrah open as he buried a three, his sixth of the game, for the win, 67-65.
Isaiah Addo-Ankrah's game-winner with Tyler Maun's call on @DenverSportsCom 104.3 The Fan HD3#SCTop10 | #GoPios | @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/tRckWPDXWV
— Denver Men's Basketball (@DU_MensHoops) November 30, 2023
Head Coach Jeff Wulbrun said postgame, “We played well down the stretch. Things did not go the way we wanted them to go. I am proud of my guys. That’s what you need to do on the road.”
Way to go Pios. Exciting finish!
I admire the way that Coach has been able to stabilize a program that was at rock bottom a few years ago. With NIL and the transfer portal it appears so difficult for a mid major program to achieve consistency. Kudos to the Pios who appear to be on the rise. Looks like this years team has the ability to take a punch and get back off the canvas. Excited to see how they fare in the Summit this year. Hopefully, in the near future we can actually see the Pios make it to the big dance!
Great win! Coach Wulbrun has probably the toughest coaching job in the athletic dept. He must play home games in a bleacher seat gym, play in a lesser conference and deal with constant player movement. Why does DU hockey draw so many fans? Sure, DU is a top caliber hockey school but Magness Arena is very comfortable with great concessions and constant video entertainment. When they show recruits Hamilton Gymnasium, it must be a downer!
Wulbrun is doing EVERYTHING he can to bring positive change to the DU program, despite facing a number of external and internal obstacles/headwinds that other DU sports programs don’t really face.
Some of these difficulties, such as NIL, relaxed transfer rules, a poor recruiting area, a difficult geographic reality and the larger, better funded D-I universe of 340+ other hoops teams are not within Wulbrun’s power to change. Those are table stakes for any coach in his position and he must deal with those fearsome realities.
That said, the best way I know for DU hoops to thrive in this environment is more access to capital. There is far more DU can (and should) be doing institutionally in terms of supporting men’s basketball. Facilities, scheduling, and even conference affiliation are all fixable things, but only if the school spends the money to fix them.
I would like DU, at an enterprise level, to think bigger. Being good in hoops need not come at the expense of DU’s other sports — grow the entire pie, not just the slices.