Condensed Schedule Didn't Do Buffs Any Favors

BOULDER — When the Colorado Buffaloes started their season, their goal was to pick up where they left off a year ago and hit the ground running.

It was a reasonable goal. The Buffs returned every starter and most of their reserves from last season, players who accounted for roughly 95 percent of their scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes. Throw in the fact that CU won seven of its last nine down the stretch, including two in the Pac-12 Tournament and two in the NIT, and it made sense. The Buffs finished strong last year; they wanted to carry that momentum forward.

But 10 games into the 2019-20 season, the Buffs have yet to hit their stride. Despite a solid record and top 25 ranking for the last five weeks (a ranking that will likely not continue for another week), they have found a variety of ways to struggle.

There have been second-half swoons, offensive slumps and defensive lapses. They have been hot, cold, dialed-in and inattentive — sometimes all in the same game.

And always, it seems, there have been turnovers.

It has added up to a somewhat of a head scratcher for coach Tad Boyle, who thought this veteran team would be relatively immune to the ills of inconsistency that have hounded the Buffs thus far.

The good news is the Buffs have — for the most part — managed to survive those lapses. Other than a disappointing loss to Northern Iowa last week, those lulls have not been too costly.

"You have to figure out a way to win when you don't play your best basketball," Boyle said Friday night, after his Buffs had let a 16-point second-half lead slip away at Colorado State before righting the ship to slip away with a win. "We've done that on multiple occasions, and tonight was one of them. Now we have to start playing to the level of our capabilities. Right now we're not doing that."

Indeed, the Buffs don't have a lot of time remaining to work out the kinks. After next Thursday's home game with Prairie View A&M (6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), they head to Chicago the next day for a Saturday matchup with Dayton.

That's a game the Buffs have been eyeing since the season began, and it has only grown in importance. The Flyers, ranked 14th in the Associated Press poll and 12th in the coaches poll, are a team that will take advantage of every weakness the Buffs display.

After that, the Buffs return home for one more non-conference tuneup, a Dec. 29 game with Iona, before opening the Pac-12 season with a Jan. 2 home game against Oregon — currently ranked 10th in the AP poll.

One factor in the Buffs' recent inconsistencies that Boyle won't use as an excuse is CU's schedule. Butit has no doubt had an impact.

Because the Buffs opened the season in China, it meant an eight-day stretch between the opener and the second game because of travel considerations. That, in turn, produced a condensed late-November, early December schedule. Friday's game at CSU was CU's fourth in a 10-day span that included a pair of road games.

That — along with the fact that student-athletes are required to receive at least one day away from practice or competition every week — has meant the Buffs haven't had much time the last two weeks to work on their game. Instead, they have been limited to preparing for the next opponent.

"We haven't had a lot of practices where we're going to work on us," Boyle allowed. "We've had preparation practices for opponents and that's a totally different kind of practice. You're putting in game plans and trying to get guys rest and then make sure they're ready to go."

But now the Buffs should have a chance to play a little catch-up in that regard. Boyle gave his players the weekend off, and they will return to practice Monday with three days to prepare for their next game.

"We can just concentrate on what we have to do to get better," he said. "And hopefully that can help us."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu

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