Big-picture approach kept Buffs poised for stretch run
LAS VEGAS>> The loss at UCLA on Feb. 15 wasn’t the ugliest of Colorado’s shortcomings on the road this season. Nor was it the most frustrating, as the Buffaloes were a month removed from wasting a 19-point second-half lead at California.
Yet that loss during the final Pac-12 Conference visit to Pauley Pavilion sent the Buffs to a new nadir with their road woes.
The CU men’s basketball team has changed that narrative, though, over the past month and will take a six-game winning streak, along with renewed hopes for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, into their final appearance in the Pac-12 tournament.
The first round began on Wednesday, but the third-seeded Buffs don’t play until the final quarterfinal game on Thursday night (9:30 p.m. MT, FS1) against either 11thseeded Arizona State or sixth-seeded Utah, who were set for the final firstround game late Wednesday night.
“I think the coaching staff really emphasizes that. At the beginning of the season, they always talk about how the season is a marathon,” CU senior Tristan da Silva said. “They kind of make the players aware that the games are important, but even if you’re struggling you’ve still got a lot of time to get better, to get to the point where you want to get at.”
CU’S season was on the brink following the loss at UCLA, which left the Buffs at 7-7 in the league, 1-7 in true road games and 3-8 away from home overall.
What happened next might have turned the fortunes of the entire season.
The Buffs (22-9, 13-7 Pac-12) were on their way to another road loss two nights later at USC when KJ Simpson scored 11 points in a late 20-5 run that got the Buffs back in the game.
A Simpson-to-luke O’brien dunk tied the game with 3.7 seconds left, and CU ultimately prevailed in double overtime.
Afterward, the Buffs returned home to go 3-0 during their final homestand, then recorded a critical two-game road sweep — just the program’s fourth in 13 seasons in the Pac-12 — last week at Oregon and Oregon State.
CU probably needs one more win to feel more confident about its NCAA tourney prospects, but if the Buffs hear their name called on Selection Sunday, the final seven-plus minutes of regulation plus the overtimes at USC will be remembered as the most important minutes of the season.
“It’s just the maturation process of our team and the culmination of a lot of hard work,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “I think we’ve shown really good improvement over the last three weeks defensively. And I think we’ve shown really good improvement in terms of taking care of the basketball. If you don’t turn it over on the road and you take care of the ball, and you guard, you give yourself a chance to win. And that’s what we’ve done.
“We had the great comeback win at USC, which I think gave this team a lot of confidence. Without that, you come back and the heads are down a little bit. Not to say we couldn’t have got on the run that we’re on. We could have. But that was the spark that kind of ignited the flame and got our guys believing.”
In 13 previous seasons under Boyle, the Buffs have won their first conference tournament game 12 times.
The only time CU lost its opener, in 2020, the tournament was canceled the following morning at the start of the COVID pandemic.
Given the Buffs won’t know their opponent until late Wednesday night — CU split the regular season series with both Utah and ASU, with the home team winning every game — that focus-on-ourselves approach will be key to a Vegas run.
“It’s a new season. What we’ve done in the past doesn’t matter,” da Silva said. “It’s really only about that one game. And then when you take care of that one, you can move on to the next one. If you’ve won zero games all season and get to Pac-12 play, you can still come away with a win. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the season.”