University of Colorado Athletics
Buffs Seek Rebound At Stanford
January 02, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
STANFORD, Calif. — When the Colorado Buffaloes left earlier this week for the Bay Area and a pair of Pac-12 games, head coach Tad Boyle said there was no such thing as a "must win" this early in the conference season.
But, he added, "it would certainly give us great momentum and great confidence to get a road win or hopefully two."
Two is now obviously off the table. The Buffs opened their Pac-12 season Friday with arguably their worst performance of the year, a 79-65 beating at the hands of Cal.
Now, if the 11-3 Buffs are going to salvage one win from the trip — and end a two-game losing streak in the process — they will have to do it Sunday in an 8 p.m. game at Stanford (ESPNU). It is a task that became significantly more formidable after the Cardinal opened conference play Friday with an overtime win against Utah.
"We'd better have a short memory," Boyle said. "Stanford on Sunday is going to be a dogfight."
The Cardinal did indeed show some fight in their upset win over the No. 21 Utes. Stanford rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to tie the game at 63-63 at the end of regulation, then outscored the visitors 7-5 in the extra period to collect the win. The Utes — the top free throw shooting team in the Pac-12 entering the game — missed seven straight freebies at the end of the game, including four straight in the final seconds of regulation.
But Stanford did its part to take advantage of the miscues. Senior forward Rosco Allen, who's banker with 10 seconds left in regulation sent the game into OT, scored five of his 17 points in overtime. Freshman Marcus Sheffield also had 17 for Stanford and Marcus Allen chipped in 14 for the 8-4 Cardinal.
The Buffs, meanwhile, had no such glowing statistics in their conference opener. They show a season-low 32 percent from the field (21-for-66), recorded a season-low six assists connected on a season-worst 27 percent of their 3-point tries (3-for-11) and were outrebounded for only the second time this season and first since a season-opening loss to Iowa State.
"We got beat in every phase of the game," Boyle said afterward. "The rebounding game, the toughness game … we've got to be tougher mentally and tougher physically."
The Buffs will certainly need better performances from their big guns to compete at Stanford. CU's leading scorer, Josh Scott, had 16 points and seven rebounds in the loss to the Bears, but endured a nightmarish 4-for-16 night from the field. Sophomore George King, meanwhile, had just nine points on a 4-for-12 night from the field.
The Buffs desperately need King to snap out of his recent slump. After averaging 18 points per game in the first five contests of the season, King is averaging barely 10 points per game over the last five while shooting just 37.5 percent from the floor. His rebound numbers have also dropped since the beginning of the season, and he's had 10 turnovers and just three assists in his last five games.
But it's not just King and Scott. If the Buffs don't want to return home with an "0-2" attached to their conference record, they'll need everyone to play better than they did in their conference opener.
"We have some guys that are capable of playing better than they did," Boyle said. "Your margin for error goes down on the road, your margin for error goes down in league play. we have to understand that."
NOTABLE: Sunday's game will be the 17th meeting between the two schools, with Stanford holding a 9-7 eged. The Buffs, however, have won the last four, including last season's 64-58 triumph in Boulder. The two squads did not play in Stanford last season. … The last time the two teams met in Maples Pavilion was late in the 2013-14 season, when Scott had 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead CU to a 59-56 win. … In the media preseason poll, the Buffs were picked to finish seventh in the conference and Stanford was picked ninth.
UP NEXT: After tonight's game, the Buffs return home for three straight contests, beginning with Friday's 7 p.m. conference home opener against Utah. After that, the Buff play host to Oregon State on Jan. 13 (9 p.m.) and Oregon on Jan. 17 (5 p.m.).
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
