Buffs Return Home For Pair This Week
February 18, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Minutes after Saturday night's 82-59 loss at Washington, Colorado coach Tad Boyle had a message for his team.
"I told our team in the locker room, this season will end how our players want it to end," Boyle said. "If they want it to end on a momentum high note going into the Pac-12 tournament, that will happen. If they don't, that won't happen and we'll limp into that thing."
The 15-12 Buffs, who now sit in ninth place in the Pac-12 standings with a 7-8 conference mark, have three regular season games remaining to determine that ending. Colorado plays host to USC on Wednesday in an 8:30 p.m. game, then welcomes UCLA to the Events Center on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the regular season home finale.
The Buffs then wrap up their regular season March 3 with a 5 p.m. game at Utah. The four-day Pac-12 tournament begins March 7 in Las Vegas, with the top four teams receiving a first-round bye.
"Everybody gets new life after the regular season," Boyle said. "We have three final games, all three (opponents) are battling for NCAA Tournament bids. We're not. We're going to be battling for an NCAA Tournament bid in Las Vegas, let's make that clear."
Indeed, the Buffs' hopes of earning an NCAA at-large berth took a mortal blow with the back-to-back losses to Washington State and Washington. Colorado entered last week with an RPI in the high 60s; that number has now dropped to the low 70s. To earn an NCAA berth, Colorado would likely have to run the table in Las Vegas.
But NCAA Tournament hopes aside, the Buffs still have plenty at stake — beginning with this week's final regular season homestand. USC and UCLA are currently tied for second in the conference standings, while Utah sits in fourth. Every win would be valuable to this team's development as well as enhance its chances for playing in the postseason.
"We still have a lot to play for," Boyle said. "Postseason play is still within shot of this team, but we better figure things out quickly. But it's past the point of learning. Now we have to start going, we have to start performing. We have to start winning. That's the only way good things happen."
If the Buffs are going to generate some momentum, there is no better place for them to begin than at home. At the Events Center, CU is 11-2 this year, including 6-1 in Pac-12 games. But on the road, Colorado is 1-9, with the only win coming at UCLA in mid-January.
The Buffs are 2-1 this year against their remaining three opponents, with a home win over Utah, a win at UCLA and a loss at USC.
But USC will come to Boulder with a two-game win streak, UCLA has also won two in a row and Utah has won four straight since losing in Boulder two weeks ago.
IF PAC-12 TOURNAMENT STARTED TODAY … Obviously the standings will see a shakeup over the last two weeks of the regular season. But if the tournament began today, the pairings would look like this:
Arizona (No. 1 seed), UCLA (No. 2), USC (No. 3) and Utah (No. 4) would earn first-round byes.
The first-round games, meanwhile, would have an array of rivalry matchups. No. 9 Colorado would meet No. 8 Arizona State; No. 5 Stanford would play No. 12 Cal; No. 7 Oregon would face No. 10 Oregon State; and No. 6 Washington would face No. 11 Washington State.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu