Buffs remain at No. 20 despite Pac-12 defeat
A loss in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals didn’t hurt the Colorado women’s basketball team in the national rankings.
CU remained at No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 that was released on Monday. The Buffs (23-8) went 1-1 at last week’s Pac-12 tournament, falling to eventual champion Washington State in the semifinals.
Sitting at No. 20 likely means the Buffs will finish the season in the Top 25 for the first time since 2012-13. Seven of the nine teams ranked 17-25 — including CU — don’t play again before the final rankings are released next week.
Next up for the Buffs is Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show.
By the time the Buffs play again, they will have had two weeks between games. Rather than worry about national rankings, the Buffs are looking to regroup from their 61- 49 loss to Washington State in Friday’s semifinals and take some time to rest.
“I think it’s gonna be good to have some time off, just being able to slowly progress with things we need to work on,” junior guard Frida Formann said. “There’s no rush right now. We have two weeks.”
While CU missed an opportunity to play for and potentially win a Pac-12 title, it knows there’s a bigger stage ahead.
“It’s important that we rally the troops and we make sure that we stay connected,” Formann said. “Because after a game like this, it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, you should have done that and you should have done this.’ And we all know that’s not beneficial, but sometimes when you’re so frustrated, that’s what you go to. So, (it’s important) just making sure we have good leadership right now.”
CU was one of six Pac-12 teams in Monday’s AP Top 25, including Washington State.
Unranked and seeded seventh going into last week, WSU made an improbable run to the conference title, upsetting UCLA on Sunday. The Cougars (23-10), who were the lowest seed to ever win the Pac12 tournament, vaulted into the rankings on Monday at No. 22. It’s just the second time in program history that WSU is ranked. In January of 2021, the Cougars made a brief, one week appearance in the AP Top 25, at No. 25.
En route to the Pac-12 title, Washington State beat three consecutive top 20 teams in Utah (No. 3 at the time), Colorado (No. 20) and UCLA (No. 19).
Also from the Pac-12, Stanford moved up one spot to No. 5 despite a semifinal loss to UCLA; Utah fell five spots to No. 8 after its quarterfinal loss to WSU; UCLA moved up two spots to No. 17 after going 2-1 and knocking off Arizona and Stanford; and Arizona fell three spots to No. 24 after losing to UCLA — its third consecutive loss.
South Carolina remained at No. 1, but there was a shakeup behind the Gamecocks. Iowa vaulted five spots to No. 2 after winning the Big Ten title, while Indiana fell to No. 3. Virginia Tech jumped four spots to No. 4 after winning the ACC title. Stanford rounded out the top five.