Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Turn Focus To Thursday Showdown With Ducks
February 10, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — The "noise" got a little louder this week for Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes.
Their challenge will be to see if they can continue to tune out the noise and focus on the task at hand.
The Buffs — who jumped up to No. 16 in the Associated Press poll and No. 15 in the coaches' poll Monday — also happen to be in sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 standings. It means Colorado (19-5 overall, 8-3 Pac-12) finds itself squarely in the spotlight, with Thursday's prime-time, nationally televised (7 p.m., ESPN) showdown at Oregon (18-6, 7-4) generating all the attention that comes with such a game.
"Our guys are starting to hear noise," Buffs coach Tad Boyle said Monday. "They always hear noise with social media. We always try to ignore the noise, but it gets harder to ignore the noise the louder it gets. It's just a challenge."
That outside distraction is not new to these Buffs, as they opened the season amid high expectations. Colorado was picked in the Pac-12 preseason media poll to finish second in the conference — just behind Oregon — and jumped into the top 25 after the opening week of play. They have since spent the majority of the season in the national polls, with this week's No. 16/15 ranking their highest yet.
But as Boyle noted, learning to deal with big expectations early in the season isn't the same as keeping an even keel at this stage, when the stakes grow larger every week.
"It's a bigger challenge (now)," Boyle said. "At the beginning of the year everything is in front of you. There's a lot of runway. Now the runway's getting a little shorter. We've put ourselves in good position but it's also a very small margin. If we don't win on Thursday, we're not in sole possession of first place anymore. We know that. That's the challenge."
Thus, Monday proved to be the perfect time for Boyle and his assistants to reaffirm with their team some of the tenets they discussed when the season began.
"We've got four weeks left in the regular season," Boyle said. "Now more than ever we have to kind of reaffirm our commitment to each other, our willingness to sacrifice — which a lot of guys have done this year — our commitment to playing for each other and to doing whatever we have to do to try to win the next game."
So far, the Buffs have done a good job of adhering to those principles. They currently own a three-game win streak and their 19-5 record is the best 24-game record ever for a CU team. Along with their No. 16/15 national ranking, they are also No. 16 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings, one of the key metrics used by the NCAA Selection Committee.
But now, Boyle also wants his players to remember that the growing social media noise that is accompanying their success is just that — noise.
"It's easy for me as a 56-year-old guy who's not on social media," Boyle said with a laugh. "It's a little more difficult for our players. That's the challenge. We talked about it, we addressed it — now it's their job to actually go out and do it, which is easier said than done sometimes."
This week's trip to Oregon, which wraps up with an 8 p.m. game Saturday at Oregon State, is the beginning of a home stretch that will see the Buffs play five of their final seven games on the road. They return home next week for their final home games of the season when USC visits Feb. 20 and UCLA comes to town Feb. 22. Then comes a three-game road trip to close the regular season — at Cal (Feb. 27), at Stanford (March 1) and at Utah (March 7).
The Buffs spent most of Monday's practice working on individual improvement and will begin preparation for the Ducks on Tuesday.
"Tomorrow and Wednesday we're going to dial into Oregon and get better as a group as we prepare for that trip," Boyle said.
CONFERENCE LEADERS: A quick glance at the conference statistics gives a good indication of why the Buffs are currently atop the league standings.
CU is first in the league in scoring in Pac-12 games, averaging 73.36 points per game, and second in team defense, yielding 65.0 points per game. That plus-8.36 differential is also easily the best in the league.
Colorado is also second in the league in free throw shooting in Pac-12 games (74.5 percent), first in field goal percentage (46.7), first in assists 14.27 per game) and second in 3-point percentage (37.6). Meanwhile, although the Buffs are just fifth in rebounding, they are still second in rebound margin, averaging 3.73 more boards per game than their opponents.
CU's balance is also evident in the individual columns. The Buffs' leading scorer in Pac-12 play, McKinley Wright IV, is tied for 12th in the league leaders at 15.09 points per game. Wright is the only Buff in the top 20. CU's Tyler Bey is third in rebounding (8.7 rpg) and Wright is 20th (5.09).
Wright does lead the league in assists, averaging 6.27 per game, and he is third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.97).
Bey leads the league in defensive rebounding (7.3) while Evan Battey is fourth in offensive rebounding (2.45).
LAST TIME VS. DUCKS: In their first meeting with the Ducks this year, the Buffs bounced back from a disappointing loss to Oregon State to record a 74-65 win over the Ducks, who entered the game ranked No. 4 in the nation.
Wright sparked a decisive 10-2 run down the stretch in that game, and finished with 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Bey had 15 points and 14 rebounds and D'Shawn Schwartz added 13 points.
That game came in front of a sold-out CU Events Center crowd — and the Buffs will almost certainly see another sellout Thursday at Oregon's Matthew Knight Arena, where the Ducks are a perfect 12-0 this season.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
