Boyle's Buffs Gear Up Six Straight Games Away From Home
December 09, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — The next time the Colorado men's basketball team plays at home, the calendar will have turned to 2019 and the 7-1 Buffaloes will have added six games to their ledger.
It will be an important and telling stretch.
Thus far, the Buffs have played well at home, where they are 6-0 this season, while splitting a pair of road games. But beginning with Tuesday night's contest at New Mexico (7 p.m., ESPN2), the road gets tougher — and the Buffs know if they are going to make a serious run at an NCAA Tournament berth, winning on the road is a requisite piece of the equation.
"We have to not be satisfied with competing," CU head coach Tad Boyle said last week when previewing the Buffs' upcoming stretch away from home. "We have to finish the game and come out with victories. At the end of the day, that's what we're judged on."
After Tuesday's game with the Lobos, the Buffs will have a couple of days off, then begin preparation for a Christmas trip to Hawaii, where they will participate in the Diamond Head Classic. CU faces Indiana State in the Dec. 22 opener in Honolulu, then either UNLV or Hawaii the next day. After a day off on Christmas Eve, the Buffs will then face one of four teams from the opposite side of the bracket — Rhode Island, Bucknell, Charlotte and TCU — on Christmas day.
Then comes Pac-12 play, where the conference schedule makers didn't do the Buffs any favors. CU opens in perhaps the toughest arena in the conference, as the Buffs travel to Arizona for a Jan. 3 game at the McKale Center, followed by a Jan. 5 game at Arizona State.
After that, Colorado will finally return home to the CU Events Center for a pair of games, beginning with a Jan. 10 game against Washington State, followed by a Jan. 12 matchup with Washington.
But then it's back on the road for three more games — at Utah (Jan. 20), Cal (Jan. 24) and Stanford (Jan. 26).
"We will be tested over the next month and a half," Boyle said after Saturday's win over Illinois-Chicago. "We better understand mental toughness and physical toughness, and handle adversity when we are on the road. We have to be able to do that because it isn't going to be easy. We play some really quality opponents."
While the Buffs have always been tough at home under Boyle — Colorado is 119-22 at the Events Center during his tenure — they have struggled on the road. Over the last three seasons, CU is just 9-26 on the road, including a 5-22 mark in Pac-12 play.
It's not that the Buffs haven't been competitive on the road, they just haven't been able to close the deal. Their only loss thus far this season — a 70-64 defeat at San Diego in November — is the perfect example. Colorado had a one-point lead with under two minutes to play, but then gave up an offensive rebound and second-chance bucket to lose the lead before turning it over on the ensuing possession. That led to a San Diego parade to the free throw line and ultimately a CU loss.
But these next four games — at New Mexico and the three in Hawaii — will give the Buffs a chance to hone their game away from home. When they hit Pac-12 play with their weekend in Arizona, they have a chance to take with them some momentum and confidence.
"We will find out if we have grown and how much we've grown up," Boyle said. "We don't have to win all those game. We just have to figure out how to win the next one."
LATEST NET RANKINGS: The Buffs climbed up a couple of notches in the latest NCAA NET rankings, moving up to 40th in the nation after Saturday's win over UIC.
Three Pac-12 schools remain ahead of Colorado — Arizona (24), Arizona State (29) and UCLA (35). The conference missed a chance for a high-profile win over the weekend when Arizona State fell to Nevada (sixth in the AP poll and NET rankings), but did get a nice victory from UCLA, which beat Notre Dame at home on Saturday.
But, the Pac-12 has not fared well overall. Seven different conferences have at least one team ranked ahead of any Pac-12 school in the NET rankings. That not only includes the other Power 5 conferences — Big 10, Big 12, SEC and ACC — but also the West Coast, Mountain West and Mid-American.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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