Buffs Ready For Visit From No. 4 Bruins

BOULDER — Colorado coach Tad Boyle hasn't sugarcoated his assessment of fourth-ranked UCLA this week.

Steve Alford's Bruins, Boyle has said repeatedly, are as good on the offensive end of the floor as anyone in the country.

"This is the best offensive team that I've coached against in 26 years of college basketball," Boyle said. "They've got firepower from every player on the floor and certainly coming off the bench."

The Buffs will see the Bruins up close and personal Thursday in a nationally televised game set to tip off at 9 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

It's the first of four games in four days featuring ranked teams for CU's men's and women's teams. The CU women host No. 24 Cal on Friday (7 p.m.) and No. 13 Stanford on Sunday (2 p.m.) while the men finish the weekend off with a 6:30 p.m. game Sunday vs. No. 25 USC.

"All you can ask for in life is an opportunity, and what an opportunity we have on Thursday night with UCLA coming to town," Boyle said. "A heck of a challenge, too, but a great opportunity."

The 16-1 Bruins (3-1 Pac-12) are certainly the best team Boyle's Buffs (10-6, 0-3) have faced this season. They are third in the nation in scoring (92.8 points per game), they have six players averaging in double figures and they are shooting at a red-hot 53.4 percent clip from the field.

The headliners are freshmen TJ Leaf (17.4 ppg, 9.1 rebounds per game) and Lonzo Ball (16.8 ppg, 8.0 assists per game), a pair of players expected to be one-and-done performers for the Bruins. But there's much more to UCLA then their fab freshmen. Bryce Alford, the coach's son, averages 16.8 points per game, including a 45 percent clip shooting from beyond the arc. Center Thomas Welsh, a 7-foot junior averages 10.6 points and 8.8 rebounds and Aaron Holiday comes off the bench to add 13.1 points per game.

"If you make a mistake, you pay," Boyle said. "If you make a mistake guarding a screen, you pay and they whap a three. If you make a mistake showing out on a single screen, they're going to slip it for a dunk. You make a mistake on a ball screen, they're going to split it for a layup. You will pay for your mistakes defensively."

Not that the Bruins have been perfect. They did lose at Oregon in their Pac-12 opener on a buzzer beater and the Buffs hope to take a lesson from the Ducks in that regard.

"Oregon was down, they kept battling and fighting," Boyle said. "Oregon has great toughness. That's how they won the game. They just never went away. UCLA is so talented they're going to make runs, they're going to make shots. (But) if you don't get your head down and don't act like you lost your puppy and keep fighting, you have a chance. That's how Oregon beat 'em and it took a buzzer beater to beat 'em."

While the Buffs are currently mired in an 0-3 skid, they did show some promise in their last two games, particularly in a loss at Arizona. There, they showed the kind of resiliency Boyle has been searching for when they cut a 20-point deficit down to five in the final minutes before finally falling, 82-73.

But even against the Wildcats, the Buffs didn't display the consistency they know they will need against the Bruins.

"I think we definitely can be consistent," said CU senior Xavier Johnson, who had a season-high 26 points at Arizona. "It takes not just the starting five, though, it takes everybody. People coming into the game have to be ready to play and play hard. Give effort. Dive on the loose ball. Give their all. If every man does that, we'll be fine."

They'll need that type of effort for 40 minutes, something Boyle said has been a rarity this season.

"We're not going to play a perfect game on Thursday," Boyle said. "We don't have to play a perfect game. We just have to play with great toughness and great resiliency. That's what I just talked to our team about — when they make a shot and whap a 3 in our face and it's really good defense, we can't let that affect us. We can't drop our heads. We have to sprint back to offense, get a great shot for our team, come back on defense and dig in again. It's going to be that grind-out, keep coming at you for 40 minutes mentality that's going to give us a chance to win this game. If we don't have that, it's going to be difficult."

BROADCAST: The game will be televised by Fox Sports 1 with Justin Kutcher and Bill Raftery. DenverSports 760 AM will carry the radio broadcast with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke. Raftery attended CU's Wednesday practice and chatted with Boyle afterward.

THE SERIES: The Bruins hold a 10-2 all-time edge, including a 6-1 mark since Colorado joined the Pac-12 for the 2011-12 season. CU's last win in the series came in early January 2015, when the Buffs took a 62-57 decision in Boulder.

HOT INSIDE: CU big men Wesley Gordon and Tory Miller have been shooting at a nice clip recently, combining to hit 31 of their 43 field goal attempts (72.1 percent) over the last five games. Gordon is averaging 9.8 points and Miller six in that span.

AT HOME: The Buffs have won 15 of their last 16 at the Events Center, including eight straight in Pac-12 play. Overall, Colorado is 95-16 at home in the Tad Boyle era.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu