Buffs Prepare For Visit From Bears

BOULDER — Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes have no trouble remembering their last meeting with Cal.

It's just a memory they'd like to erase.

"They whipped us," Boyle said of the 79-65 loss in CU's Pac-12 opener. "Their big guys whipped us, their guards whipped us. It was a beatdown, is what it was."

Indeed, it's a game CU senior Josh Scott admits is probably the Buffs' worst performance of the season to date. The Buffs fell behind early, trailed by 13 at the half, and never made a serious run at closing the gap the rest of the game.

"I look at it as there's a lot to improve upon," Scott said earlier this week. "I don't think we can play that bad again, but we've got to be ready to play."

The 16-5 Buffs (5-3 Pac-12) will have that chance Sunday when the 14-7 Golden Bears (4-4) pay a 3 p.m. visit to the Coors Events Center (Fox Sports 1, KOA 850 AM).

Cuonzo Martin's Bears have been the textbook example of home-court advantage and road woes this season. The Bears are 4-0 in Pac-12 play at home and 0-4 on the road in conference play.

They're also not the same team the Buffs saw on Jan. 1. They'll be without the services of senior guard Tyrone Wallace, out with a broken hand. Wallace is Cal's second-leading scorer (15.4 ppg) and the Buffs remember him well — he had 16 points and eight assists in their first meeting.

But the Bears have plenty of other firepower. Freshman Jaylen Brown is scoring at a 15.5 clip, Jordan Matthews is adding 13.2 per game and another freshman, Ivan Rabb, is adding 12.5 per game.

The Bears are also a solid defensive team. In Pac-12 games, they lead the league in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to hit just 41.5 percent of their shots; and they're second in 3-point defense (32.4). Cal builds its defense around the Bears' big men in the middle: 6-11 Rabb, 7-0 Kameron Rooks and 7-1 Kingsley Okoroh, who combined for seven blocked shots in their first meeting.

"They've got some good bigs inside we're going to have score over," Boyle said. "We're going to have to make great decisions."

Boyle and the Buffs would love to see a repeat of Wednesday night's performance against Stanford, when CU shot nearly 70 percent (13 for 19) from 3-point range. George King was a perfect 3-for-3 from long range and Josh Fortune was 5-for-7, a combination for which Stanford had no answer.

But if the Buffs shoot like they did in their first game vs. Cal — 32 percent from the field and just 27 percent from 3-point range — the Buffs have to do a better job inside. It will mean scoring over the Bears' bigs and getting to the free throw line.

"We want to really attack the basket, get the ball in the paint," Boyle said. "We want paint touches. We're going to shoot some threes, we're going to get some threes and hopefully we make some threes. But we want to play the same way we always play, which is inside out."

The Buffs will also need a better game from Scott. In CU's first game against the Bears, Scott finished with 16 points, but shot just 4-for-16 from the field.

"They didn't block a lot of my shots, it was more I missed a lot of jumpers," Scott said. "You've got to keep shooting those with confidence, and we have to be more on the attack in terms of our perimeter players. They're big. They run some muscle and some height at you. You have to be ready to make plays."

Sunday's game marks the halfway point of the Pac-12 schedule. After Sunday, the Buffs will have five road games and four home contests remaining. Their 5-3 Pac-12 mark is just one game out of the league lead, and today's game would be another opportunity for the Buffs to provide a little separation from the current logjam in the top half of the conference standings.

Colorado has won four of its last five, and a win Sunday would be CU's third in a row — the Buffs' longest streak since an 11-game win streak in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

"Some of the greatest pleasures in life come from doing things people say you can't do, and people picked us seventh in this league," Boyle said. "We have to make sure we don't finish in seventh. We want to finish better than that. We have a chance to compete for a league championship. That's what we want."

JOHNSON UPDATE: CU senior Xavier Johnson continues to practice with the team several times per week, but has yet to put together any significant stretch of practicing on a daily basis. He's still deciding whether to attempt to return and play this season, or take a redshirt year and return next season.

"I don't expect him to play this year, but nothing's official," Boyle said. "Every day he's trying to get a little bit better and a little bit stronger (but) the explosion isn't there. I don't expect him to play this year, but I'm not going to rule it out."

APKE REUNION: This weekend marks the reunion of the "Tom Apke era" of CU basketball. A number of players and coaches from the early 1980s — including Apke and assistants Bob Hofman and Ralph Patterson — are in town for the festivities. They attended Saturday morning's practice, and will also be present at Sunday's game.

Colorado hosted a reunion for the Bill Blair era last year, and is planning to invite players and coaches from the Tom Miller era next year.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu