Buffs remain at No. 21 in AP Top 25
CU hosts Stanford on Thursday
A loss in the desert didn’t hurt the Colorado women’s basketball team in the national rankings.
Despite a 61-42 loss to Arizona on Sunday, the Buffaloes remained at No. 21 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings that were released on Monday.
CU (21-6, 12-4 Pac-12) had a fivegame winning streak snapped in Tucson, Ariz., but this is the first time the Buffs have been ranked in three consecutive weeks since a five-week run in November and December of 2016.
The Buffs will look to rebound on Thursday against third-ranked Stanford (25-3, 13-2) at the CU Events Center (3 p.m., Pac-12 Network).
“We’ve got to brush it off right now,” CU guard Tameiya Sadler said after Sunday’s loss. “We can’t really be sad about it. You just have to go in tomorrow and really lock in on Stanford and the next couple of scouts that we have because that’s the next biggest game that we have.”
CU defeated last-place Arizona State, 70-62, on Friday before falling to Arizona on Sunday. The Buffs sputtered a bit throughout both games. After not having 20 turnovers in a game since November, the Buffs had 20 in each of the games this past weekend.
Still, the split in Arizona has CU in a good spot going into the final week of the regular season.
The Buffs are in third place, one game behind Utah and a game ahead of Arizona. The top four teams will get a first-round bye for next week’s Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” head coach JR Payne said of the Buffs being in a good position. “I mean, you have to have a pretty short memory either way. When you play great or you don’t play great, the next game is going to come very quickly. It’s important that we learn from it and move on.”
Following Thursday’s game against Stanford, the Buffs will host 10th-place California on Saturday at noon (Pac-12 Network).
Aside from CU and Stanford, three other Pac12 teams are ranked this week.
Utah slipped four spots to No. 8 after losing at Arizona and edging ASU. Arizona vaulted four spots
to No. 14 after sweeping CU and Utah. And, UCLA dropped one spot to No. 17 after defeating Cal. The Bruins and Stanford play Monday night.
USC, which was at No. 25 last week, dropped out of the rankings after being swept in the Bay Area.
South Carolina remains at No. 1 in this week’s poll, with Indiana still at No. 2 and Stanford at No. 3. Connecticut moved up to No. 4 and LSU remained at No. 5.