Buffs Aim To End Skid Against Washington, Collect Weekend Sweep
January 24, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Saturday night, the Colorado Buffaloes will try to finish a weekend the way they started, something they have yet to accomplish in Pac-12 play this year.
To do that, they will have to beat a Washington team they haven't beaten since 2017, a string of five games — including three last season.
Tipoff between the 23rd-ranked Buffs (15-4 overall, 4-2 Pac-12) and the Huskies (12-8, 2-5) is set for 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center.
Tad Boyle's Buffs have started three Pac-12 weekend sets this year with victories, including Thursday night's 78-56 win over Washington State. They also opened weekend series with wins over Oregon and Arizona State. But the Oregon win was followed by a home loss to Oregon State and the ASU victory was followed by a loss at Arizona.
Now, the Buffs have another chance to pick up a weekend sweep — and Boyle made no bones about what's at stake for his team.
"I told these guys if we want to compete for a Pac-12 championship, we have to win (Saturday)," Boyle said after Friday's practice. "That's the bottom line. I don't say that to put pressure on them. There's no pressure involved. It's, 'Do you want to do that or not?' If we do, we'll come out and play with the intensity and the toughness and the aggressiveness that we're going to need for 40 minutes."
The Huskies have clearly been a thorn in CU's side for the last couple of seasons, sweeping the regular season series both years, along with beating Colorado in the 2019 Pac-12 tournament semifinals.
This year, Mike Hopkins' Huskies are a talented but young team that still relies on the 2-3 zone defense Hopkins has made a staple of the program.
Washington opened the season with a 67-64 win over Baylor, a team now 15-1 and ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. But since then, UW has had some dramatic ups and downs that include a 72-40 thumping of Southern California and a win over Oregon State, as well as losses to Utah, UCLA, Cal and Oregon.
But the fact that Washington is talented is not in dispute. UW has a pair of 6-foot-9 freshmen — Jaden McDaniels and Isaiah Stewart — who have both been been projected as NBA first-round draft picks. The Huskies' biggest problem has been filling the vacancy created when point guard Quade Green, a transfer from Kentucky, was declared ineligible in early January. Since Green's departure, the Huskies are just 1-4, including a narrow 67-66 loss Thursday at Utah that saw UW let a seven-point lead slip away in the final minutes.
But Washington's recent woes haven't made the Buffs overconfident. The only player on CU's roster who has played in a win over Washington is senior Lucas Siewert, who was around when the Buffs beat UW in Boulder in 2017.
"They're long and they're athletic, there's no doubt," Boyle said. "That's the M.O. with Coach Hopkins and his recruiting style. They are loaded in terms of athletes and length. But they're also very young and they're turnover prone and they have trouble scoring at times. But they've got very capable basketball players."
Indeed, it's no coincidence that more than a dozen NBA scouts are expected to be in attendance Saturday. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound Stewart is averaging 18.0 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots per game while the 6-9, 200-pound McDaniels is averaging 13.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
The Huskies no doubt make their living on defense. They are the Pac-12's leading team in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to connect on just 36.9 percent of their shots this year, including a league-leading 29.9 percent from 3-point range.
But Washington has also committed a league-high 295 turnovers, including 17 that led to 21 points for Utah in Thursday's game.
Boyle believes his Buffs are ready for the challenge — and ready to complete a weekend sweep.
"I love the depth of this team," he said. "We can withstand foul trouble, we can withstand a lot of things. But we can't withstand getting outrebounded like we did at Arizona. We can't withstand getting eight or nine shots blocked. We have to be strong going to the hole and making extra passes."
BEY READY: CU got some good news Friday when forward Tyler Bey, the league's leading rebounder, practiced and said he would be ready for Saturday's game. Bey sat out Thursday's game with a hand injury, but said he would be full go for the Huskies.
"It was weird, but I'm glad I was there for my teammates and glad we got the dub," Bey said of watching the WSU game from the bench — the first time in his CU career that he has not played in a game, a string of 87 contests. "That's all that really matters."
In his absence, the Buffs picked up the slack with three double-doubles, including double-digit rebounding efforts from Siewert and Evan Battey, both of whom finished with 10 boards.
"I told (Lucas), you've got to go off bro and he did," Bey said. "He did his thing. I'm proud of him. It just shows what we're capable of. When we play together, we're good and can beat any team."
RANKINGS & RATINGS: The Buffs have been ranked in the AP top 25 eight weeks this year, already tying the program record for most weeks in a season (matching the eight in 1996-97). More importantly, they are holding steady in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, one of the analytics used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. Colorado is No. 20 in the NET heading into weekend play, and is No. 23 in the Kenpom.com ratings, another analytic used by the NCAA committee.Â
And, the Buffs are a No. 5 seed in the latest bracketology projections by ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
TIPOFF: The game is set for 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center.
THE SERIES: Washington holds a 17-11 all-time edge in the series, including five straight wins. Colorado has an 8-4 advantage in Boulder, but the Huskies have won the last two at the Events Center.
BROADCAST: The game will be televised by FS1 with Aaron Goldsmith and Casey Jacobsen on the call. The radio broadcast will be carried by 850 AM and 94.1 FM KOA, with Voice of the Buffs Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
UP NEXT:Â The Buffs hit the road next week for a pair of late games in Los Angeles, beginning with a Thursday contest at UCLA (9 p.m.), followed by a Saturday tilt at USC (8:30 p.m.).
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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