No Lack Of Incentive For Buffs In Saturday's Utah Game

BOULDER — There's plenty riding on this weekend's Colorado-Utah game for both teams. Pac-12 Tournament seeding, RPI ranking and other NCAA Tournament metrics are at stake.

But as far as CU coach Tad Boyle is concerned, there's one overarching incentive: the chance for the 21-9 Buffs to become the winningest regular season team in CU history.

With one regular season game remaining, the Buffs are currently tied for the most ever regular season wins in CU's 115-year basketball history. The only other teams to produce 21 regular season wins were the 1996-97 Buffs with Chauncey Billups and Boyle's 2013-14 squad.

These Buffs have one chance at 22 — Saturday's 7:30 p.m. contest at Utah.

“This team has an opportunity to establish themselves as the all-time winningest team in regular season history of Colorado basketball. What an opportunity,” Boyle said. “How often do you get a chance to break a record, something that's never been done in 115 years? That's pretty special. It's about cementing this team's legacy.”

Fact is, there's all kinds of incentive for the Buffs in this affair. Along with the possibility of still squeezing out a top-four conference finish — and thus a first-round Pac-12 Tournament bye — Colorado players would also like to “return a favor” to the Utes.

That, of course, is Utah's win on CU's homecourt in early January, a 56-54 decision in that ended up as the only blemish on the Buffs' home court this season.

“I think the word for us is 'payback,'” CU senior Josh Scott said after the Buffs' win Sunday over Arizona State. “They beat us on our home court and we would like to get them back.”

It won't be easy. The Utes are currently 15-1 at home, with their only loss a 77-59 decision at the hands of Oregon. Saturday's game will also be Senior Night for the Utes.

Wednesday afternoon, Boyle shied away from the “payback” or “revenge” description.

“I think revenge is for suckers,” Boyle said. “I've never been a revenge guy. It's not about that. It's just about let's go in their building and try to do to them what they did to us. It's not about payback or revenge, it's just about returning a favor.”

Scott, though, reiterated his stance about a game that has obviously stuck in his craw since the Utes walked off the Coors Events Center floor with a buzzer-beating win.

“I'm sure if the roles were reversed, they'd want the same thing,” Scott said Wednesday. “It's just about coming out and playing our basketball and trying to get a 'W.'”

For Scott and the other seniors, each game is now growing in importance. They almost certainly won't play at home again. All that's left of their college careers is one regular season game and however far they can advance in the postseason.

“What we want to do is focus on the task at hand,” said senior guard Xavier Talton. “We can cement our legacy and have 22 wins. Being the first team to do that in the regular season would be great.

“But you can tell there's some kind of feeling in the air, and not just because of the 22 wins. What they did here, what we still have to accomplish … all those things are in front of us, but we have to take care of the business at hand.”

TOUGH ON THE ROAD: Pac-12 teams are just 27-71 on the road in conference play this year, making it the toughest conference in the nation to win on the road (just ahead of the SEC's 31-81 mark). Last week, home teams were a perfect 12-0 in conference play. If the .276 road win percentage holds up, it will mark the toughest road season in Pac-12 history.

LOGJAM: Just six games separate the top 10 teams in the Pac-12. The smallest separation between 10 teams in league history was seven in 2013-14, a season in which a record-tying nine teams participated in the postseason (6 NCAA, 2 NIT, 1 CBI).

As for the Buffs, currently sitting in fifth place with a 10-7 record, a multitude of scenarios still exist that range from one that could see the Buffs end up in third, to others that would result in the Buffs finishing in fourth, fifth or sixth.

The picture will become a little clearer after Wednesday's and Thursday's games, in particular Thursday's Cal at Arizona contest.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu