Boyle pleased with resiliency from injury-marred CU
The journey perhaps has not unfolded the way the Colorado men’s basketball team expected.
Still, the goal always is to play meaningful games in March. And that’s exactly what the Buffaloes will do this week.
Despite a run of injuries that has kept the Buffs shorthanded for more than half their games this season, they nonetheless will have an opportunity to clinch third-place in the Pac-12 Conference when they visit Oregon on Thursday night (7 p.m. MT, ESPN2).
Just one win during the final weekend of the regular season — CU also plays at Oregon State in the finale on Saturday — will give the Buffs a top-four finish and a first-round bye at the Pac12 tournament next week.
The Buffs (20-9, 11-7 Pac12) played without guard Julian Hammond III for all three games of a 3-0 homestand that gave them a four-game winning streak. They played the final two of those games without Cody Williams, who has missed 11 games in what had been one of the more eagerly anticipated freshman seasons in program history.
It has been a recurring theme for three months, since Williams first suffered a left wrist injury in early December that sidelined him for seven games. The manpower issues contributed to a few bad losses that have the Buffs fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives, but going into the final weekend as one of just four Pac-12 teams that are at least four games over .500 in league play has left head coach Tad Boyle pleased with his club’s resiliency.
“Our guys believe in each other,” Boyle said. “They’ve overcome the injuries. It’s next-man up. The other night Ruff (Javon Ruffin) comes in and hits a couple threes. Assane Diop has
seven rebounds in 13 minutes. (Against Stanford) Bangot Dak, his number is called, he responds unbelievably well.
“To me, that’s what makes me most proud of this team, is all of the injuries we have overcome, it hasn’t gotten us down. We haven’t made excuses. We just keep chugging along. And we’ve won 20 games. That says a lot for all the adversity we had to fight as a group, players and coaches, with the injuries.”
Down to the wire
While the Buffs have an inside track at a top-four
spot and a first-round bye in the conference tournament, the battle for the top seed remains undecided going into the final weekend of the regular season.
Arizona and Washington State are locked into the top two spots, but the final order is yet to be determined. The Wildcats (14-4 Pac-12) are one game ahead of Washington State (14-5) in the loss column, but the pressure will be on Arizona to secure a road sweep this week in Los Angeles, beginning Thursday at UCLA. Washington State finishes with a favorable matchup at home on Thursday against Washington. Thanks to WSU’S two-game sweep of Arizona, a tie would favor
the Cougars and drop the Wildcats into the No. 2 seed at the Pac-12 tournament.
Arizona, which moved up one spot to No. 5 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25, also is in the mix for one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. WSU moved up one spot to No. 18 in this week’s top 25.
Weekly honors
After becoming the first Pac-12 player in 20 years to record three triple-doubles in a season, Utah guard Deivon Smith on Monday was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. It is Smith’s second player of the week honor this season.
Like CU,
the Utes
recorded
a home sweep against the Bay Area teams, with Smith posting 13 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in a Thursday win against Stanford. Smith added 18 points with 10 assists in a win against Cal. Smith is the first Pac12 player with three tripledoubles in a season since Arizona’s Andre Iguodala in 2003-04. Smith is the first Pac-12 player with three triple-doubles against league foes since former Cal star Jason Kidd did it in 1993-94.
USC’S Isaiah Collier won the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award for the fourth time this season after averaging 27.5 points in two games, including a career-high 31-point outing at Washington State.