Boyle’s Bubble Buffs “need to win them all”

Who needs The Sphere in Vegas when you’ve got The Bubble in Boulder? Every basketball game for Tad Boyle’s Buffs feels as massive as a U2 concert now, at a fraction of the cost.

As KJ Simpson, CU’S point guard and stealth All-american candidate got busy hammering overdue nails into Cal’s golden coffin early Wednesday night, I reached out to my old pal Jerry Palm. You probably know him best as the venerated, longtime Bracketologist at CBS Sports, the Carnac of college hoops.

Did you see what the Buffs just did without Cody Williams? Did you catch The Tristan da Silva Show? How much have they gotta do to get that Bracketville ticket punched now?

“They need to win them all in the regular season,” the Palmster wrote back. “And see what happens in the conference tournament.”

Buffs 88, Bears 78.

One down.

“Our margin for error is behind us,” Boyle said when I asked about CU (19-9, 10-7 Pac12) becoming the center of the Bubble Watch universe. “Our margin for error was in Berkeley. And we tricked it off. Our margin for error was in Tempe. We tricked it off. Our margin for error was at a Utah. We tricked it off. Our margin for error was Florida State in November.

“If we don’t trick those games off, now we’re a team that has a margin for error (as) we head down the stretch. But we’re not in that position.”

Boyle and Palm aren’t just singing from one hymnal here. They’re onto the second verse, same as the first.

Tad’s seen this movie before. CU doesn’t stink. But the Pac-12 does, and everybody knows it.

The Buffs have three regularseason games left in the league that Leisure Larry Scott destroyed, and only one of those — Stanford on Sunday — is at the Events Center. They’re on their own, walking the March Madness fence without a safety net. And possibly without Williams, the top-5 NBA Draft prospect whose 13.7 points and 3.3 boards per game were missing against Cal because of the freshman’s bum ankle.

“Now that thing’s wrapped, it’s braced,” Boyle said of the kid all the scouts come to see. “It’s not 100% … but it’s getting closer. And he had the same ankle injury last spring when he was preparing for the NBA workout, so it’s not something

new.”

Nor was seeing the Buffs, short-handed again, asking other guys to pull more of the rope. Minus Williams and guard Julian Hammond III (knee), CU opened the tilt on a 10-6 run that started and ended with center Eddie Lampkin Jr. taking care of business under the basket.

Luke O’brien’s trey from the far right corner extended a surge — CU outscored Cal 15-3 — that pushed the hosts’ cushion to 33-19 with 6:09 until halftime.

“Obviously, a couple guys down, we knew, as leaders, we wanted to pick it up,” said Simpson, the quiet assassin who dropped 27 points, 18 in the second half, to keep the Bears at bay. “(And) exemplify out there on the court.”

A 14-point Buffs lead at the break got whittled to six early in the second half as Cal made 10 of its first 13 from the floor. But a Simpson steal that led to a Javon Ruffin trey, his first since Jan. 20, gave the Buffs a 70-59 cushion with nine minutes left on the evening, yanking momentum more or less for good.

“We knew they were going to make a run,” Simpson said. “We just wanted to keep playing, keep our composure … and we (were) able to do that.”

Good thing, too. Because, Cal, like the Cardinal on Sunday, can only hurt the Buffs with the computers — not help them. Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen’s Bears turned up at the CEC ranked No. 115 in the NCAA’S NET ranking, the tourney selection committee’s semi-official metric of choice.

Wins and losses are assigned to “quads” — Quad 1 moments are against likely tourney teams; Quad 4 are cupcakes, etc. Cal’s a “Quad 3” game in Boulder, win or lose — a shrug as a win, but a prototype “bad” defeat if you happen to slip up.

The Buffs have only played six Quad 1 games. They’ve lost five of them. Among Power 5 schools in the NET top 40, only Wake Forest (2-4) went into the midweek with as few Quad 1 games on their resume as CU’S.

Every other Power 5 program within the NET top 40 had more than two Quad 1 wins in their respective back pockets. Beating Richmond (NET: 72) helped; beating Miami (NET: 89) hasn’t.

Throw in down years for UCLA and USC, and no wonder Boyle’s margin at the end of February feels thinner than the air on Mount Quandary.

Unlike their slumping baby bros up in Foco, the Buffs can’t fold their arms, close their eyes, lean back, and rely on their zombie conference to catch them on a “trust” fall. Even assuming the Fighting Tads somehow win out, nothing’s promised come Selection Sunday.

Although if the committee truly cares about TV intrigue, they’ll stick the Buffs against Nebraska at Dayton in one of those First Four games, light the fuse and laugh all the way to the bank.

CU entered the night ranked No. 32 in the NET and No. 31 in the Kenpom.com computer ranking.

The latter comes with a precedent as pretty as a sunset at Chautauqua Park: Since 2014, only one eligible Power 5 team in a non-pandemic season — Oklahoma in ’21-22 — finished the season among the KP top 32 and didn’t reach the Big Dance.

Even my man Jerry had the Buffs crashing the party as of Wednesday morning — barely. The Palmster in his latest projection mocked the Buffs as one of his “Last 4 In,” an 11 seed in Dayton against Ole Miss, with the winner drawing sixthseeded BYU in the East.

“We all talk about it as a team,” Simpson said of the NCAA conjecture. “We’re not oblivious to it. We see it. It’s everywhere. Social media is everywhere. We’re bound to see it. But I think our main focus is understanding that we have to focus on the next opponent — that’s our main priority. And as long as we take care of it … things will take care of itself down the road.”

One down.

Three to go.