Colorado
Florida
Boyle's Buffs Ready For NCAA Matchup With Florida
March 21, 2024 | General, Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
INDIANAPOLIS — Tad Boyle's Colorado Buffaloes have seemingly been in "survive and advance" mode for the last month.
But there's no rest for the weary. The 10th-seeded Buffs (25-10), winners of nine of their last 10 games — including Wednesday night's 60-53 win over Boise State in the NCAA First Four — face No. 7 Florida (24-11) in a 2:30 p.m. matchup Friday in the South Regional in Indianapolis.
The game will be CU's fifth in the last nine days, with the winner advancing to a Sunday matchup against the winner of Friday's game between No. 2 Marquette and No. 15 Northern Kentucky.
It all means another quick turnaround for Tad Boyle's Buffs, who bussed from Dayton to Indianapolis on Thursday morning in time for press conferences, practice and scouting reports.
"Every one of our guys on the team knows what they need to do," Boyle said Thursday. "It's just getting them mentally and emotionally to the point where we're at the best of our ability when we tip it off against Florida. We feel like we've been in a one-game elimination tournament since the middle of February, so this is nothing new … They'll be ready to go by tomorrow afternoon."
The Buff survived against a physical Boise State squad by putting forth an outstanding defensive effort that proved to be just enough to offset a sub-par offensive performance and a rare thumping on the boards.
The Buffs' 60 points was CU's second-lowest total in a win this season, barely surpassing last week's 58-52 win over Washington State. CU shot just 21-for-48 against the Broncos, including a 4-for-15 effort from 3-point range.
But Colorado held BSU to 34 percent shooting (23-for-67), including a 2-for-18 night from beyond the arc. That was just enough to make up for a 10-rebound edge for the Broncos that included 19 offensive boards.
Friday's opponent will present an entirely different challenge.
The Gators finished sixth in the regular season SEC standings with an 11-7 conference mark before making it all the way to the conference tournament final. They love to run and gun and are averaging just more than 85 points per game, with four of their five starters averaging double figures, led by Iona transfer guard Walter Clayton Jr. (17.1 ppg).
The Gators are also tall and long, even without 7-1 regular Micah Handlogten, who suffered a broken leg in the SEC title game loss to Auburn. Forward's Tyrese Samyuel and Alex Condon check in at 6-10 and 6-11 and are a big reason the Gators have recorded 184 blocked shots this season — tied for eighth-most in the nation and more than twice as many as CU's 76.
The Gators also average nearly 15 offensive rebounds per game (third in the nation) and have outrebounded opponents by six per game (20th in the nation and tied with the Buffs in that category).
"We've got our hands full there," Boyle said. "Florida presents some problems at the rim. Without a doubt, we're going to have to have a better showing on the glass tomorrow than we did last night against Boise."
Gator coach Todd Golden, in his second year at Florida, loves to have his team get out in transition.
"We're fine playing fast," Boyle said. "I love playing fast, without a doubt … The best way to have good transition defense is to take care of the ball on offense and to be efficient on offense so they're taking the ball out of the net. I'd like them to be running after makes, not after misses. If they're running after misses, we'd better get back and shore things up because they will pitch ahead. They are very good in transition but I think we are, too. I'd love an up-tempo game because we haven't had one of those in a while. Our guys would be ready for that."
Colorado All-American candidate KJ Simpson will likely get the defensive assignment on Florida's Clayton.
"Obviously I have respect for him," Simpson said. "He's done great things over there at Florida. He's just a three-level scorer. There's not a shot that he doesn't like. We're going to have to as a team have great team defense and kind of make shots tough for him … It's just going to take guarding as a whole team, honestly."
The Buffs would no doubt like to get their offense cranked back up. After scoring at least 72 points in seven straight games — all victories — Colorado has averaged just 62 points per game over the last three.
But if the offense is still not firing on all cylinders, the Buff believe they can give themselves an edge on the defensive end.
"We know that some nights the ball is not going to go in the hoop," Buffs guard J'Vonne Hadley said. "We know that, understand that, and at the end of the day it comes down to defense and rebounding. Those are the two things that Coach always emphasizes and we believe in. So we have to go out and do those two things."
ON THE AIR: As always, the game will be carried by the KOA Radio network with Voice of the Buffs Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke. TBS will televise the matchup with Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, Stan Van Gundy and Andy Katz.
