Colorado University Athletics
Gordon, Buffs Ready For Visit From Utes
February 23, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — When Colorado's Wesley Gordon prepares to play against Utah, the CU senior knows there is one thing he can always count on.
The Utes will have a big, powerful man in the middle. The names may change — Collette, Poeltl, Bachynski — but the game is always the same. The Utes' offense will run through the paint.
"They definitely seem like they have a big ogre in the middle every time," Gordon said with a laugh Wednesday afternoon. "You just expect it. Different guys, but there's always somebody there."
Thursday, Gordon will line up against the Utes for what might be the last time in his career in a 9 p.m. game at the Coors Events Center. He will be tasked with the job of squaring off with 6-foot-10 Utah junior David Collette, the Utes' second-leading scorer (14.4 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (5.0 rpg).
"There's good bigs all through the Pac-12, but you expect it from them, and they're usually part of their main focus," Gordon said. "You have to play good post defense and not get into foul trouble."
But what Gordon would most like to do Thursday is collect one more win over Utah before he leaves Colorado.
It's something not many of the current Buffs have managed. In fact, just Gordon, Xavier Johnson and George King have played in a win over Utah in their careers at CU. The rest of the current CU players have endured various lengths of a losing streak to Utah that hit six straight in this season's conference opener in Salt Lake City.
"It's definitely time to get this one," Gordon said. "We're 0-6. You don't really think about it being that long until somebody points it out, but then it just adds a little to the motivation."
The Buffs, 16-12 overall and 6-9 in Pac-12 play, need a win to keep alive their hopes of finishing with a .500 record in conference play and taking some momentum into the Pac-12 tournament.
It won't be easy. While the Utes have dropped their last two — including Sunday's defeat at Oregon State, the Beavers' first conference win of the season — they still bring a 17-10 overall record and 8-7 conference mark to Boulder.
Even more importantly, they bring the same team that dealt the Buffs a 76-60 loss on Jan. 1. Utah boasts balanced scoring — four players averaging in double figures — and the Pac-12's fourth-leading scoring defense, giving up just more than 70 points per game in league play.
This year, the Utes' go-to guy has been junior forward Kyle Kuzma, who is averaging a healthy 15.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. In their first meeting, Kuzma and Collette had 14 points each while guard Lorenzo Bonam — who beat the Buffs with a buzzer beater a year ago in Boulder — had 15.
The Buffs, meanwhile, had just 15 points from Derrick White and 11 from George King, CU's only player in double figures.
That conference opener, the first of seven straight Pac-12 losses for Colorado, still rankles CU head coach Tad Boyle.
"They kicked our tail in the second half and I don't think we competed in that game," Boyle said. "It's the one game probably in conference play that I can look at and say Colorado did not compete. That bothered me at the time, it bothers me now. … They played harder, they played tougher, they made the plays and we didn't."
The Buffs are coming off a 1-1 road trip to Oregon, one in which they claimed a victory at Oregon State before falling to Oregon.
Now they finish the regular season with three home games. After Thursday, they play host to Stanford on March 2 and Cal on March 4.
"We need to make a run these next three and then make some noise in the Pac-12 tournament," junior guard Dom Collier said. "But right now, all of our focus is on Utah. We don't want them to make it seven in a row on our home floor."
THE SERIES: Colorado leads the all-time series, 26-20, but the Utes have won the last six, including two in Boulder. The last game in Boulder, Jan. 8, 2016, resulted in a 56-54 Utah win at the buzzer. Utah has a 7-5 edge in the series since the two teams joined the Pac-12 for the 2011-12 season.
BROADCAST: The game will be televised by ESPNU with Roxy Bernstein and Corey Williams. DenverSports 760 AM will carry the radio broadcast with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
