CU Buffs hope home cooking remedies forgettable road trip
Tad Boyle says he warned his team adversity was bound to hit.
After it did so in dramatic fashion during a three-game road trip, exactly how the Colorado men’s basketball team responds might define the ultimate fate of the Buffaloes’ season.
As the Buffs limp home from an 0-3 road trip, it will be gut-check time as CU begins a run of three consecutive home games on Saturday against USC (8 p.m., ESPN2).
“I believe in this team,” Boyle said. “We talked before we came on this trip that it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when adversity is going to hit us. It hit us certainly at Arizona. It hit us again at Arizona State. It smacked us in the face again (Wednesday). How do we handle that? How do we handle that when we go back home? How do we handle that the next time we’re on the road? That’s going to answer a lot about this basketball team and the kind of season that our players want to have.
“I know they’re disappointed. I’m disappointed. We’re all disappointed. We’ve got to regroup and find a way to beat USC on Saturday.”
One of the most talented rotations Boyle has owned in 14 seasons at CU has struggled defensively. The Buffs did little, if anything, right in the 47-point thumping they endured at Arizona to start the trip, but CU’S offense was good enough to win at Arizona State and on Wednesday at California, where the Buffs blew a 20-point lead late in the first half.
A habit of enduring entire halves of defensive lapses, a trait on display even in some of the blowout victories at home early in the season, doomed the Buffs at ASU and Cal. The Sun Devils shot just .333 after halftime, but took control in the opening frame by shooting .533 with a 6-for-12 mark on 3-pointers. It was the reverse at Cal, which flailed to a .235 mark in the first half. Five of the Golden Bears’ eight first-half field goals, however, were from long range, and Cal shot a torrid .581 while going 9-for-15 from the arc during its second-half rally.
The road trip began with Tristan da Silva and Cody Williams still sidelined by injuries but ended with both standouts back in the starting lineup (although the Buffs lost guard Julian Hammond III along the way, as he missed the final two games with a back injury). CU also goes into Saturday’s game with a 9-0 mark at home.
All of the Buffs’ goals — from competing in the Pac-12 race to earning an NCAA Tournament berth — remain very much on the table. But they won’t be for much longer if CU doesn’t make drastic improvements defensively.
“I think it’s smart to move on, but also remember this feeling,” Williams said. “For myself, on the days I don’t want to work out, even with my wrist, if I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t feel like running today. I don’t feel like conditioning,’ I think about all the games we gave way. I think about Florida State that we gave away. And now, I think about the Arizonas and this game (Cal) that we gave away. I think we just have to use this as fuel. Obviously learn from it. Just move on from this, not hang our heads down, but use this as fuel and motivation to get better and take out this frustration on USC.”