Colorado
Arizona State
Boyle's Buffs Set For Two Critical Home Games
February 07, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — February is separation month in college basketball.
Every team with an eye on an NCAA Tournament berth is aiming to strengthen its resumé, improve its potential bracket seed and take its overall performance up to the next level.
Teams that steadily improve in February and early March are the teams that achieve those goals and hear their names called on Selection Sunday.
Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes want to be one of those teams — and they have a big opportunity in front of them this weekend with home games against Arizona State on Thursday (6 p.m., FS1) and No. 8 Arizona on Saturday (8 p.m., ESPN).
The weekend is a critical one for the Buffs for a number of reasons.
One, it's a chance for Colorado (15-7 overall, 6-5 Pac-12) to at least stay within striking range of the top spot in the conference standings. CU is currently in a four-way tie for fourth place but just one game out of the second spot and two games behind league-leading Arizona. Even a top-four finish in the league is valuable as it yields a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament.
Two, it's an opportunity for the Buffaloes to continue to improve their 12-0 home record. That's the best home mark by a CU team since the 1968-69 Big Eight champion Buffs won all 12 of their home games en route to the conference title.
But perhaps most importantly, it's a chance for the Buffs to improve their current NET ranking, a critical factor in the NCAA Selection Committee's process. Currently at No. 30, Colorado can't afford a loss to No. 136 Arizona State, while a win over No. 3 Arizona would be a big boost to CU's ranking.
But Boyle isn't looking ahead to Saturday's contest against the Wildcats. He's focused solely on Thursday's game with the Sun Devils, a team that dealt Colorado a 76-73 loss in Tempe in early January.
That loss came on the heels of a 97-50 rout at the hands of Arizona in Tucson.
"We've played them before and we came up short," Boyle said. "Slightly short against Arizona State and we got run out of the building in Arizona. So it's always about the next game and that's Arizona State on Thursday. I don't look at this as a weekend series. It's about trying to win on Thursday. And then Friday, we'll worry about Arizona."
One bit of good news for the Buffs is that they should be back to relatively full strength this weekend. CU played without standout freshman Cody Williams and key reserve Luke O'Brien — both out with injuries — in last weekend's 73-68 loss at Utah.
Both have a good chance of being available for both games this week. If Williams is available, it will be his first action against the Sun Devils as he missed the early January matchup with a wrist injury.
Meanwhile, the Buffs will need junior point guard KJ Simpson to continue producing the numbers that have put him on the late-season watch list for the Wooden National Player of the Year award.
Simpson is one of just two players from the major conferences and one of just four in all of Division I who is averaging at least 19.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
He is also one of three players nationally shooting at least 50 percent from the floor, 45 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent from the free throw line (minimum five field goals made per game).
And, he has averaged 8.0 rebounds per game his last four outings while averaging 6.5 boards per game in Pac-12 play. That ranks him first among all major conference players listed at 6-foot-2 and under, third among all major conference players who average at least 4.0 assists per game and puts him eighth overall in the Pac-12.
ASU UPDATE: The Sun Devils' win over the Buffs on Jan. 6 improved their conference record to 4-0. But since then, they have lost six of their last seven, including their last four, and they now sit at 11-11 overall and 5-6 in Pac-12 play.
Guard Frankie Collins leads ASU in scoring (13.5 ppg), assists (3.5 apg) and steals (3.1 spg) and guard Jose Perez is averaging 12.9 points per game. The Sun Devils are averaging 68.9 points per game while yielding an average of 72.0 points per game.
Colorado leads the all-time series,15-12, including a 9-3 lead in Boulder — but the Sun Devils have won the last two on Colorado's home court.
