Colorado, Drake bring focus and confidence
MANHATTAN, KAN. >> It could be easy to look at the past eight games played by the Colorado women’s basketball team and view it as stumbling into the NCAA Tournament.
There’s also the realization that one more loss will mean the end of the college basketball careers for several Buffs.
Yet, as fifth-seeded CU prepared to face 12th-seeded Drake in the opening round the tournament on Friday, it did what it usually does by staying in the moment.
“Being where our feet are is a big focal point of ours; not just us as seniors, but what we’re about as a program,” senior forward Quay Miller said. “Anything else we’re worried about is outside of our control, so just focusing on Drake and being able to beat a team like that is where my head has been.”
Everything CU has done to this point — the big wins, the disappointing losses and everything in between — doesn’t matter as much as simply getting the job done against a team that has the same goal as the Buffs.
“Teams are in the tournament for a reason, so you respect everybody that you go up against,” senior Jaylyn Sherrod said. “Drake is a really good school and a really good team.”
So are the Buffs, even if they are just 2-6 in their last eight games. Five of those losses came against top-25 opponents, though, and the Buffs played good basketball during the Pac-12 tournament two weeks ago.
“I don’t really think it was ever a doubt about what was going on or how we felt as a ball club,” Sherrod said. “I think every game we kind of went out there and got better and started playing better basketball around the end of the season. So I think we’re in a good place.”
Drake is in a good place, too. The Bulldogs have won 14 consecutive games, including two dramatic wins in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. They knocked off Northern Iowa in overtime during the semifinals and then got a buzzer-beater from forward Anna Miller to beat Missouri State 76-75 in Sunday’s championship game.
“I think we have tons of momentum coming in,” Drake junior guard Katie Dinnebier said. “We are playing really confidently. We are playing really good team basketball right now. So we are having a lot of fun. We’re peaking at the right time. They always say you want to peak in March, and I think that’s exactly what our team is doing. Just looking forward to continuing this run in the tournament.”
Drake echoed the “in the moment” sentiment of the Buffs. Yes, the Bulldogs have been hot, going
23-1 since mid-december, but the focus is squarely on CU.
“It’s really just trying to stay one second, one minute at a time,” Drake coach Allison Pohlman said. “We are just focused on trying to get better every single day
and enhance our culture and our chemistry on the floor.”
CU is doing the same, and Friday will come down to which team is best at handling the moment.
“Every year it’s so unpredictable,”
CU’S Frida Formann said. “You have one game guaranteed and I really love playing that way. Just super excited to be back.”
If the Buffs needed any extra motivation, they got it from watching the CU
men’s team battle past Boise State in a “First Four” matchup on Wednesday night.
“I think everyone is excited to be in March Madness,” Buffs head coach JR Payne said. “So happy that our men won (Wednesday)
night. That was awesome. We got to watch that, celebrate that. We kind of feel like it’s our turn now to be able to put on a uniform and play.
“It’s March Madness. To most of us, it’s the best time of the year.”