Colorado University Athletics
With League Race Still Tight, Buffs Aim To Bounce Back Vs. Stanford
February 28, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
PALO ALTO, Calif. — In the immediate wake of Thursday's 76-62 loss at Cal, Colorado coach Tad Boyle was in no mood to discuss possible Pac-12 tournament scenarios.
Boyle was much more concerned about Sunday's game at Stanford (4 p.m., ESPNU), where the 21-8 Buffaloes (10-6 Pac-12) will attempt to halt a two-game losing streak.
"I just want to win the next game," Boyle said. "That's me. You just gotta win the next game. You can't worry about all that other stuff. We could be playing on Wednesday night (in the tournament) again. But it's not about that, it's about winning the next game and we have two more to get."
Indeed, the Buffs have two more regular season games remaining — at Stanford and a March 7 date at Utah — before the March 11-14 conference tournament in Las Vegas.
Boyle can't be blamed for focusing solely on Sunday's game. His teams more often than not head down the stretch playing their best basketball of the season, and right now, that is not the case. CU's defense has not been good over the last three games (the Buffs beat USC because they shot lights out), and this is the time of year when good defense is at a premium.
That's an issue they need to address in a hurry, especially before they roll into tournament play. While Colorado is still seen by most "experts" as a virtual lock for an NCAA Tournament berth, Boyle isn't buying what the bracketologists are selling, and he doesn't want to head into Selection Sunday holding his breath and hoping for the best.
He'd much rather leave nothing to doubt when it comes to earning a berth, and a win Sunday against the Cardinal (19-9, 8-7) would be a big step in that direction.
But if you are wanting to look ahead, know this much: with five teams all still within 1.5 games of the league lead, the possible scenarios are dizzying.Â
CU could actually still win the Pac-12 title outright, but it would take a number of very unlikely occurrences over the last week of the regular season. Along with the Buffs winning their last two, UCLA and Oregon would both have to lose their last two games, Arizona State would have to lose two of its last three and Arizona would have to lose at least one of its final three.
The Buffs could also earn a tie with ASU for the title — and win the tiebreaker — if they win out, UCLA and Oregon lose out, Arizona loses one more, and ASU loses one more.
But the far more likely scenarios involve the Buffs finishing in the top four — if they can win their last two.
And, there is the worst-case scenario, one that would see CU lose its last two and finish out of the top four. The Buffs could actually still drop into the bottom half of the standings, or into a tie for the fourth spot and lose the seed on a tiebreaker (which has happened to them before).
Colorado would lose any head-to-head tiebreaker with UCLA and Arizona, would win a tiebreaker with ASU, and would have to resort to the next step of the tie-breaking process in the event of a tie with Oregon.
The bottom line?
Boyle is 100 percent correct. The only thing the Buffaloes can control is how they play — and they need to make sure they have their 'A' game Sunday at Stanford.
The rest will take care of itself.
REMAINING SCHEDULES: The remaining schedules for the top five teams in the Pac-12 standings:
OREGON (11-5 Pac-12)
vs. Cal, March 5
vs. Stanford, March 7
UCLAÂ (11-5)
vs. Arizona, Saturday
at USC, March 7
ARIZONA STATE (10-5)
at USC, Saturday
vs. Washington, March 5
vs. Washington State, March 7
COLORADO (10-6)
at Stanford, Sunday
at Utah, March 7
ARIZONA (9-6)
at UCLA, Saturday
vs. Washington State, March 5
vs. Washington, March 7
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SLIPPING DEFENSE: In their first 13 Pac-12 games, the Buffaloes held 10 of their opponents to less than 45 percent shooting from the floor.
But over the last three games — a win over USC and losses to UCLA and Cal — the Buffs have allowed three straight opponents to shoot at least 45 percent. That's their worst defensive stretch since late December, when Loyola Marymount, Kansas and Northern Iowa all shot better than 45 percent — and also the last time the Buffs lost two in a row.
"We're letting the offensive end affect us on defense," CU point guard McKinley Wright IV said after Thursday's loss. "We have to find a way when we're not making shots to buckle down and get stops. Right now we're not doing that."
Stanford is not a particularly high-scoring team, with the Cardinal just fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring (68.5 points per game). But Cal is still the league's lowest scoring team in conference play — and the Bears put 76 points on the Buffs Thursday, their highest output in a league game this year.
FREE THROW WOES: In their first 24 games of the season, Colorado shot an average of 22.3 free throws per game.
But in the last five, CU has averaged just 11 free throw tries, with 10 or less in four of them.
"For some reason, the whistle is not going our way and I don't know why," Boyle said after Thursday's game.
But Boyle also noted that officials tend to call games differently at this time of year, and a "bump" that might have been a foul in December or January is now ignored.
"You have to adjust," Boyle said. "You have to be able to finish through contact and we're not able to do that right now. That's the toughness factor I'm talking about. We're just not tough enough to finish through contact."
 Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
