CU ready for kindred spirit in FSU
INDIANAPOLIS» Even after thrashing Georgetown on Saturday, the Colorado Buffaloes still are receiving scant attention outside their NCAA Tournament bubble in Indianapolis.
That, of course, is fine with the Buffs, who have embraced, and reveled in, their underdog status.
In Florida State, CU head coach Tad Boyle sees somewhat of a kindred spirit — a program that has sustained a competitive track record but nonetheless gets consistently overshadowed by its more glitzy conference rivals. Either the fifth-seeded Buffs or fourth-seeded Florida State will be impossible to ignore after Monday, when the teams collide in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a berth in the Sweet 16 on the line.
The Buffs, who could do no wrong in a 96-73 first-round win against Georgetown, are seeking the program’s first Sweet 16 berth.
“It’s hard to say an ACC team is under the radar,” Boyle said. “But to me Florida State is one of the better teams, year in and year out, that really nobody talks about at a national level unless they get to a Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Well-schooled, hard to score on. This year’s team, probably more than Florida State teams in the past can really shoot the ball and score the ball from the perimeter at a very good rate.
“Good offensively, good defensively, athletic. They pose a lot of challenges.”
Following Saturday’s win, CU Buffs McKinley Wright IV and Jabari Walker relayed to the media how the team used the pre-tournament praise being heaped upon Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas as motivation, as Georgetown was a popular pick to pull the classic No. 12 seed-versusfive seed upset after rolling through the Big East tournament.
The Buffs instead ran Georgetown out of the gym. Yet on Sunday morning the ESPN College Game Day crew, while discussing the Pac-12’s surprising 5-0 start going into Sunday’s play (6-0, if you count Oregon advancing after Virginia Commonwealth was forced to withdraw due to coronavirus issues), the talking heads gushed about the Ducks, UCLA, and USC with nary a word about the Buffs.
CU went 5-2 this season against those teams and owns seven straight wins against USC. None of those three teams advanced to the Pac12 title game, as CU did. The Buffs own the highest NET ranking, and highest tournament seed, among the Pac-12’s five entries. Yet national respect apparently will not arrive unless the Buffs keep winning.
“There’s a feeling amongst our league, certainly of our coaches and maybe even our players, but I know our coaches feel like our league is a lot underrated and disrespected, so to speak,” Boyle said. “The only way to combat that is to come to a tournament like this and win games, and hopefully continue to win games and put multiple teams in the Sweet 16.”
Florida State survived a rugged first-round date against 13th-seeded UNC Greensboro, advancing with a 64-54 win. The Seminoles committed 15 turnovers and went 0-for-9 on 3-pointers, but still produced an impressive overall field goal percentage of .521 (25-for-48).
“They’re a team that’s pretty similar to us in a lot of aspects,” CU senior D’Shawn Schwartz said. “They’re really deep. We’re pretty much evenly-matched with size in our starting lineups. They’re a long, aggressive team.”