Buffs embrace underdog role in tournament
Asked to provide her initial thoughts about Colorado women’s basketball snagging a No. 5 seed for the NCAA Tournament, point guard Jaylyn Sherrod laughed.
“Ask me when it’s all over what my initial reaction is,” the senior said, hinting that she believed the Buffaloes should have been a No. 4 seed, which would have given them the opportunity to play first and second-round games in Boulder.
Projected for much of the year to be a host on opening weekend, the 17th-ranked Buffs (22-9) will instead pack their bags and head to Manhattan, Kan. The fifthseeded Buffs will face 12th-seeded Drake on Friday (5 p.m. MT, ESPNEWS).
Expect the Buffs to also bring a chip on their shoulder to Manhattan.
“I think at the end of the day, leaving a bad taste in our mouth is probably the worst thing you could do,” Sherrod said. “But it is what it is and we’ve just got to be ready for it.”
Don’t expect the Buffs to overlook Drake, the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champions. The Bulldogs were a No. 12 seed last year and nearly upset fifth-seeded Louisville before falling 83-81.
“They’re a great team,” Sherrod said. “They won their conference. We cannot underestimate a team like Drake.”
The Buffs, however, are likely to cling to their underdog role. It’s a role in which they’ve thrived in recent years.
Just a year ago, a popular firstround upset pick by pundits was 11th-seeded Middle Tennessee over the sixth-seeded Buffs. CU routed the Blue Raiders 82-60 and then upset Duke two days later.
“Oh, absolutely,” CU head coach JR Payne said of embracing the underdog role. “I think every player on this team and every coach on the staff has kind of cut their teeth on that role.”
Underdog or not, what made the Buffs successful in last year’s NCAA Tournament was their focus. CU didn’t play well down the stretch, but came into March Madness rested and focused and played exceptional basketball.
Senior guard Frida Formann said she feels the same vibe out of the Buffs this year after going through practice this past week.
“When we know we’re good and when we have that core of our identity, we’re really hard to beat,” Formann said. “So it was good find that again.
“I think we all just feel like we have so much more to prove and so much more to give because our (Pac-12) tournament run did
get cut short and the way it did (in double overtime). …We’ve just got to be ourselves and we know we can make a run.”
Senior Quay Miller said the Buffs had great, competitive practices last week.
“I truly think that we got better,” she said. “You can tell that we’re ready to just play again.”
CU’S seed was based on what it has done to this point. Some might have a hard time overlooking the Buffs’ 2-6 record in its last eight games. But the Buffs are done dwelling on the 31 games they’ve played.
“We don’t have time to worry about anything that’s in the rearview mirror,” Payne said. “Everything we need to focus on is in front of us.
“We don’t really care what’s happened in the past. I think everyone recognized that it was a new season in front of us and postseason, March Madness in particular, is such an exciting, fun time. So, I think we just are trying to prepare for that.”
Notable
CU moved up one spot to No. 17 in the final Associated Press Top 25 on Monday. Dating back to last season, the Buffs have been among the top 25 for 26 consecutive weeks, matching the second-longest streak in program history. This is also the first time since 2004 that the Buffs were ranked in every poll throughout a season. … South Carolina was again the unanimous No. 1, with Iowa, USC, Texas and Stanford rounding out the top five. Also from the Pac12, UCLA is at No. 6, Oregon State No. 12 and Utah No. 21. … The six ranked teams, as well as Arizona, all made the NCAA Tournament field from the Pac-12. The conference also landed three teams (Washington State, Washington and California) in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament, which has replaced the Women’s NIT as the secondary postseason event.