Woelk: Boyle's Buffs Prepare For Pac-12 Battles

BOULDER — With an 11-2 non-conference finish in the rearview mirror and 18 Pac-12 games on the horizon, Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes will reconvene today from a brief holiday break and begin preparations for the road ahead.

It's a road the Buffs hope will lead to their fourth NCAA Tournament berth in the last five seasons.

Colorado opens conference play next weekend with a two-game road swing through the Bay Area. Friday, the Buffs face Cal in a 9 p.m. game at Haas Pavilion (Pac-12 Networks) before heading to Stanford on Sunday for an 8 p.m. game at Maples Pavilion (ESPNU).

While CU's nonconference schedule offered plenty of reason for optimism, including an 11-game win streak and a pair of road wins, it is the most-recent game that might serve as the biggest motivation for the weeks and months ahead.

Still fresh in the Buffs' minds is a 70-66 loss to No. 18 SMU in the Las Vegas Classic championship game — a game the Buffs led by eight points midway through the second half and by seven with seven minutes to go. The Buffs saw a late-game 14-1 Mustangs run end their hopes of collecting their first win over a ranked team in almost two years (the drought is now 10 games) and also end a golden opportunity for what Boyle called a “marquee” win.

The Buffs have had their fair share of such victories in Boyle's tenure. Since he took the reins in 2010, CU has 11 victories over top-25 teams. But, like most coaches, Boyle remembers the big games that got away, those program-defining moments that slipped from the Buffs' grasp.

The SMU game was such a moment.

“When I look at the course of time since we've been here (at CU), I feel good about the body of work,” Boyle said immediately after the loss to the Mustangs. “But these are the ones you remember. I remember our Texas A&M loss in our first year (a 75-72 overtime defeat to the No. 22 Aggies). I remember it like it was yesterday.

“I'm going to remember this loss for a long, long time because it was a winnable game that we let slip away. I don't remember the ones that we won. I won't remember the Penn State win, but I'll remember the SMU loss. That's coaching.”

But if there's any silver lining from the game, it is that the Buffs believe they can use it as a teaching moment, one that will serve them in conference play.

“We're close,” CU center Josh Scott said. “Close to being a really good team. (But) I don't think this is going to linger on us, I think it's just going to motivate us.”

While a win over the Mustangs almost certainly would have moved the Buffs into the nation's top 25 in the national polls, the neutral-court loss didn't have much of a negative effect — if any — on their RPI.

Sunday evening, Colorado was still sitting at No. 22 in the NCAA and CBS Sports RPI rankings, and at No. 18 in the ESPN version.

One thing Boyle will almost certainly be looking at closely this week is his starting lineup and the rotation he's been utilizing up to this point. After the SMU game, he made it clear that he was less than happy with a starting perimeter group of George King, Tre'Shaun Fletcher and Dominique Collier that committed eight turnovers and had just one assist. In the same vein, he had praise for reserves Josh Fortune, Thomas Akyazili and Xavier Talton, who came off the bench to spark a 14-0 CU run that put the Buffs in the lead in the second half.

“There are certain guys that are starting, certain guys that are playing more minutes, and they have to understand that with that comes responsibility,” Boyle said. “They've got to play better than that if they want to be the guys that are playing the most minutes. If they're not, then maybe I need to make some adjustments. That's part of having a deep team.”

The Buffs will no doubt have more games against ranked teams, beginning with their Jan. 8 conference home opener against Utah, who was No. 24 in last week's AP poll. Arizona, ranked No. 8 last week in both polls, visits Boulder in late February and the Buffs will also face UCLA and Oregon, both of whom are receiving votes in the polls.

Those are the kind of signature games that turn heads, not only locally, but across the nation. They are the kind of games that catch a recruit's attention and the kind that can give a program a national reputation that is built over time, not overnight.

But as far as quality opponents, the Buffs won't have to wait long. Friday night, they'll face a 9-3 Cal team that has been receiving votes in the polls, and just last week lost an overtime heartbreaker, 63-62, at No. 5 Virginia.

“It's going to a battle every night,” Boyle said of the Pac-12 lineup. “There's going to be a lot more games like we just had in our immediate future. We've got to understand that, we've got to prepare for that, we've got to play better down the stretch in those games to win those games.”

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu