Buffs’ big chance arrives
Well, well, well. Maybe CU coach Tad Boyle can finally tell all those snarkmeisters who chuckle about how the Pac-12 Conference cannot throw a basketball in the ocean to stuff it.
When senior guard McKinley Wright is on point and freshman Jabari Walker is rolling from 3-point range, these Buffaloes are a whole different animal, capable of stampeding deep in the NCAA Tournament bracket.
“There’s a feeling among our league coaches, and maybe some of the players, that our league is a little underrated … I shouldn’t say a little, but a lot underrated and disrespected,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said Sunday, on the eve of a showdown against Florida State.
It’s not a stretch to say this is the Buffs’ most important basketball game of the 21st century, with a rare opportunity to
reach the Sweet 16, where even CU great Chauncey Billups couldn’t take the program.
“You don’t get this opportunity very often … you’ve got to take advantage of it,” said Boyle, who believes this veteran team is built for tourney success. “Hopefully, we can knock the door down.”
The long disrespected and disregarded basketball teams of the Pac-12 have made joyous noise at the Big Dance. Five league representatives, none of them regarded more favorably than the No. 5 seed granted Colorado, began the tourney a totally unexpected 5-0 on strong showings by UCLA, Southern Cal, Oregon State and the Buffs. Oregon also advanced when COVID-19 issues prevented Virginia Commonwealth from taking the court.
For far too long, whenever former UCLA great Bill Walton has gushed on TV broadcasts of league games that the Pac-12 is “the Conference of Champions,” it was extremely difficult to take him seriously. OK, I know. It’s hard to take anything Deadhead Bill says seriously. But that’s another issue for another day. (And by the way: I genuinely enjoy listening to Walton, even when he turns sports analysis into a steam-of-unconsciousness jam session that emanates from the private psychedelic shack between his ears.)
While I’m far too generous to blame all the Pac-12 woes on the arrogant and misguided leadership of commissioner Larry Scott, the league’s hoops reputation has fallen in the Pacific Ocean. It’s more than the fact that no team in the conference has the brand recognition of Kansas, North Carolina or even Gonzaga, for crying out loud.
While the power base of the sport has put down deep roots in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Big 12, coach Tad Boyle readily admits he encounters almost prohibitively tough resistance when trying to sell the Buffaloes program to a highly touted prep recruit who has his heart set on playing for a true basketball blueblood.
What in the name of the late, great Lute Olson is going on here? The legendary Arizona coach passed away in August at age 85. And Pac-12 basketball hasn’t been doing too well itself.
The conference has advanced a representative to the Final Four only once in the past 13 years, when Oregon made a deep run in 2017. Even more depressing, the league where a wizard named John Wooden once performed hoops magic has failed to win a national championship since a talented Arizona backcourt of Mike Bibby and Miles Simon led the Wildcats to victory over Kentucky in 1997 — more than a year before current CU point guard McKinley Wright IV was born.
The Pac-12 has become the goofy uncle of March Madness. Best ignored and easy to dismiss. But could it be the goofy uncle has gotten his act together?
After the NBA selected six players from the league in the first round of the 2020 draft, freshman center Evan Mobley of Southern California appears to be a lock as a top-three pick when he turns pro after the Trojans’ run in this year’s tournament is done.
But whatever shine the league is given for advancing to the round of 32 undefeated could quickly fade. Only UCLA next encounters a foe (upstart Abilene Christian) that wasn’t ranked among the top 15 teams in the most recent Associate Press poll.
Florida State is led by Scottie Barnes, a 6-foot-9 freshman whose ball skills and potential will soon make him a multimillionaire in the NBA draft lottery, while the Buffs are old-school cool, built on the savvy of Wright, a senior who will make money as a pro, but isn’t a lock to stick in the NBA. As 1.5-point underdogs against the Seminoles, CU can again play the we-get-no-respect card.
“There are two kind of teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Those that are just happy to be here, feel like they have climbed the mountaintop and have arrived,” Boyle said. “There’s the other kind of team that is hungry to advance, is not satisfied with just being here and really makes the most of the time and advances. That’s what we have to do.”
While blowing out coach Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas was a beautiful thing, it’s going to take more than a victory against Georgetown for Boyle to capture the attention of five-star recruits capable of elevating his program to the next level and transforming Boulder into a desired destination for players who can do more than dream of the Final Four.
No matter what happens against Florida State, these Buffs have written a feel-good story.
But if Wright and his teammates aspire to the crazy notion the Buffs should be a program that regards a deep tourney run as an annual expectation, losing against the Seminoles is not an option.
These Buffs can fire the first big shot in a CU basketball revolution.