Pac-12 fate up in the air for CU
Protecting home court key for Buffs
The Colorado men’s basketball team has not finished with a sub-.500 record in Pac-12 Conference play since the 2017-18 season. The Buffaloes have been a doubledigit seed just once in 11 previous appearances at the Pac12 tournament.
Both possibilities very much are in play for the Buffs. Unless, of course, CU protects its home floor.
Where CU finishes in the final Pac-12 standings remains very much in the air. Yet despite all the ups and downs of a wildly inconsistent season, the Buffs still have an opportunity to land a favorable slot at the Pac-12 tournament in two weeks, or even an NIT bid. But it will require a finishing flourish during a regular season— closing homestand that begins on Thursday against USC (7 p.m., ESPN2).
“We’re always confident. The moment we lose that confidence, our season will be over with,” CU point guard KJ Simpson said. “No matter what, win or lose, we’ve got to maintain that confidence and just live to play another game. Learn from what we could’ve done better last game and just move on and focus on the next one. I feel like we have still a lot of confidence and fight left.”
At 7-10 in the Pac-12 (15-13 overall), the Buffs need only one loss to secure a sub-.500 season within the league, and the first since going 8-10 for a second consecutive year in 2017-18.
CU was seeded 10th at the 2015 Pac-12 tournament, but otherwise the Buffs have never been seeded lower than eighth. The Buffs still can finish anywhere from fifth to 11th, although it would take an unlikely series of events to land at either of those extremes. With only two games separating the four teams currently slotted between sixth and ninth (Oregon 9-8; Washington State 8-9; Washington and CU 7-10), the Buffs are more likely to finish in the middle of the pack among the bottom eight teams that play in the conference tournament’s first round.
Playing in the Buffs’ favor is they typically have performed better at home this season, with wins in nine of their past 10 at the Events Center since a Dec. 1 loss against Arizona State. And while CU still has to take care of business against USC first, Sunday’s matchup against No. 4 UCLA also presents another huge opportunity. CU authored a legitimate upset bid at UCLA on Jan. 14 until the Bruins came alive late, and the Buffs will be looking to keep an annual streak alive against ranked foes.
The Buffs have posted at least one win at home against a ranked opponent in five consecutive seasons dating back to 2015-16 (not including 2018-19, when CU didn’t play a ranked opponent the entire season). Sunday will mark the final opportunity to keep that streak alive.
“Our past is our past. All we can do is move forward and try to get these last three wins going into the postseason,” CU wing Nique Clifford said. “One thing we’ve talked about is we’re still very confident. Like we’ve been saying all year, it’s just the little things we’ve got to touch up. We were in the game at Arizona, and just a couple little things could’ve changed to get that win.
“So we definitely feel confident. We didn’t play our best against USC last time and it still was a very close game. It just shows us what we’re capable of when we’re playing at our best.”