CU in “must-win” mode vs. Huskies

SEATT L E » The Colorado men’s basketball team already lost one opportunity on this week’s road trip. The Buffaloes are determined to not lose another.

After losing 73-69 to Washington State in Pullman on Thursday night, the Buffaloes are taking a “must-win” approach to Saturday’s duel with the Washington Huskies.

“We have to split on the road,” forward Dallas Walton said. “It puts more pressure on us this Saturday.”

At 15-11 overall and 7-7 in the Pac-12 Conference, the Buffs are a longshot to play in the NCAA Tournament, but they’re in danger of playing their way out of NIT consideration too.

The Buffs took a threegame winning streak into Pullman, but they coughed up a late lead over the Cougars and lost.

“This game is a bad look on our résumé, losing to the worst team in our conference,” said CU guard McKinley Wright.

It was one of CU’s worst performances of the Pac-12 season, and now the Buffs have to figure out a way to bounce back against the more talented Huskies (17-9, 7-6).

“We have to get ready,” Walton said. “We have to have a good practice (Friday) and get after it on Saturday.”

Namon Wright called the Washington game a “win or go home type of deal.”

McKinley Wright said: “It’s a must-win game.”

CU coach Tad Boyle wouldn’t go that far, but knows that if the Pullman version of the Buffs shows up in Seattle, it will be another disappointing result.

“We have to get better,” Boyle said. “If we don’t play better than we played (against Washington State), we won’t win another game all year.”

CU knows all too well how good Washington can be. The Huskies came into Boulder on Jan. 20 and handed the Buffs a 72-62 loss.

In that game, Washington dominated the boards 5034, converting 16 offensive rebounds into 20 secondchance points.

The Buffs struggled with Washington’s zone defense, hitting just 35.4 percent of their shots.

The key to getting around the zone, Boyle said, is for the Buffs to play good defense — something they didn’t do against Washington State.