Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Know It's 'Separation Time' In Jammed Pac-12
January 26, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — With just one game separating eight teams at the top of the Pac-12 standings, Tad Boyle's message to the Colorado Buffaloes on Monday was a simple one.
"It's separation time," Boyle said. "The one thing we know, on Thursday morning when we wake up we're going to be one game ahead of Stanford, or Stanford's going to be one game ahead of us. It's time to separate ourselves."
Indeed, 15-5 Colorado and 11-7 Stanford are two of the six teams that are currently 4-3 in conference play and one game behind co-leaders Washington and Oregon. Also at 4-3 are USC, Cal, Arizona and Utah. The Buffs and Cardinal meet Wednesday in a 7 p.m. game at the Coors Events Center, with the winner assured of staying directly on the league leaders' tails while the loser falls one game farther back.
Wednesday's game is the first of two at home this week for the Buffs, with a 3 p.m. Sunday matchup with Cal next on the docket.
Both are rematches from the Buffs' conference opening weekend in early January. The opener is not one the Buffs remember fondly, a 79-65 loss to Cal. But they bounced back to take a 56-55 win over the Cardinal two days later, giving them a split of the road trip — something they matched last weekend with a loss at Washington and a win at Washington State.
Now, the Buffs know they have to do what every team must do in order to stay afloat in the league standings — protect their home floor.
"If we want to get to where we want to get, top half of the league and competing for a league championship, you have to win at home because you know how hard it is on the road," Boyle said.
While the Buffs do have a pair of road wins in conference play, they also already have a costly home loss, a 56-54 defeat to Utah. With six home games and five road games remaining, it makes it even more imperative that they take care of business this week before venturing back on the road next week for games at Oregon and Oregon State.
What's become quite clear in the Pac-12 is that there are no guaranteed "W's" for anyone anywhere. The league standings — and who is leading those standings — are evidence.
"You look at Washington and they were picked 11th and here they are tied for first," said Boyle, who also noted that USC was picked to finish 10th in the league. "I don't put a whole lot of stock in preseason prognostications, but if there's a surprise, those two teams up to this point, through seven games, have done better than anybody else."
The teams that emerge, Boyle predicted, will be the teams that win the squeakers. Thus far, the Buffs have been solid in that category, owning a 3-1 record in conference games decided by five points or less.
"It's going to come down to who wins close games," Boyle said. "We won the game at Stanford. That was a big win for us. We won a close one at Washington State (75-70), that's a big win. Every win, you just feel like it's almost a relief. There's no exuberation after wins because you know there's somebody else staring down the barrel."
Another key will be stringing together a few wins at a time. After seven Pac-12 games, the Buffs have won two in a row in conference play just once. The teams that do put together at least some mini-streaks down the stretch will almost certainly be the teams at or near the top of the standings when it comes time for the Pac-12 Tournament.
"The only way you do that is by winning the next game and hopefully getting on a little bit of a run," Boyle said, "but you can't get on a run unless you win the next game."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
