Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Take Aim At Ending Skid As Oregon State Visits
January 26, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Still in search of their first conference win, the Colorado Buffaloes won't be alone in their quest Thursday night at the Coors Events Center.
Visiting Oregon State comes to Boulder with the same Pac-12 record, meaning that sometime before the evening is over — tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. — either the Buffs or Beavers will leave the Coors Events Center with their first conference win of the season.
The Buffs — 10-10 overall and 0-7 in Pac-12 play — believe they are ready to be that team. To do that, they'll need a complete game against OSU (4-16, 0-7), something they have struggled to produce for much of the season.
"This team has not played like a veteran team all year," Boyle said of a squad that boasts four fifth-year seniors, something considered to be a major strength when the season began. "It's not just conference play. Even when we were 10-3 and we lost to Colorado State, we were inconsistent. You can make an argument that our best, most complete game was Sacramento State, which was our opener. We haven't played a complete game since."
It's been a perplexing year for Boyle, the Buffs and their fans. A team that entered the season with high expectations has instead hit a low not seen in the Boyle era.
Wednesday afternoon, Boyle hinted that his senior-laden squad may have considered CU's recent successes — four NCAA Tournament berths in the last five years — as an assurance that another was virtually a foregone conclusion this year.
"I always go back to my days as an investment advisor," Boyle said. "Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. That's truly the case with this basketball team this year. Past performance of recent Colorado basketball teams doesn't guarantee you're going to win a game this year. You have to understand that."
But, despite the disappointing turn of events, Boyle said he doesn't believe his team has checked it in. The demeanor of the team has not been one of a squad that is ready for the season to end.
"This is not a team that dogs it in practice, and I've been around teams that dog it in practice," Boyle said. "We don't dog it in games, either, we just haven't been able to finish it off. One thing I know is we haven't lost this team. It's all about what we've got to do tomorrow night at 6:30."
It's not as if the Buffs haven't come close to ending their skid. Four of their seven Pac-12 losses have come in games they led in the final minute of regulation or overtime. CU's last three losses have come by a total of seven points, including a pair of overtime defeats.
But as they all know, close doesn't show up in the standings.
"There's still time to turn it around," CU senior Xavier Johnson said. "We all know what we're capable of. We just have to just go out and show it and stop losing in overtime and stuff like that. … I know we're capable of doing it, we just have to do it. At the end of the day it's stop talking. It's all about action."
The Beavers, meanwhile, haven't even been able to look to close losses as motivation. Their narrowest margin of defeat in Pac-12 play was a seven-point loss to USC in their conference opener. Since then, they've lost six in a row by double digits.
But the key to a Buffs win, Boyle said, won't be how the Beavers perform. Rather, it is whether the Buffs are sick and tired enough of losing to change their direction. With just 11 regular season games left and No. 10 Oregon scheduled to visit Boulder on Saturday, it needs to happen in a hurry.
"There's no reason it can't happen," Boyle said. "It's having a chip on your shoulder. That's what we need. We've got to come in with our hard hats on and ready to go to battle. We have to play with an edge about us and we have to do it for 40 minutes."
GORDON'S BIG GAMES VS. OSU: CU senior Wesley Gordon has had some of the best games in his career against the Beavers. Last year, Gordon put up two double-doubles vs. OSU, with a 12-point, 14-rebound effort in a Colorado win in Boulder and a 13-point, 11-rebound performance in a loss in Corvallis.
THE SERIES: Colorado holds the all-time series edge, 12-6, including a 6-4 mark since joining the Pac-12. The two teams split their season series last year, each winning on their home court. CU is 8-1 vs. OSU all time in Boulder while Boyle is 7-6 against OSU all-time. Oregon State's Wayne Tinkle is 2-2 against the Buffs.
BROADCAST: Fox Sports 1 will televise the game with Kevin Burkhardt and Casey Jacobsen. DenverSports 760 AM will carry the radio broadcast with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
