The Colorado Buffaloes went 2-0 in the first week of the college basketball season with victories over Montana State and New Mexico.
In the initial AP Top 25 preseason poll, the Buffs landed in the Others Receiving Votes category.
But, when the newest rankings dropped on Monday, the Buffs were nowhere to be found and received zero votes in that category. Unfortunately, this seems about right.
Yes, the Buffs won both games, but barely escaping Montana State at home is not a good look at all. Sure, they got the victory, but that doesn’t exactly make the voters excited.
The Buffs responded by handling New Mexico with an 11-point victory and face Maine on Monday in another winnable game.
Sadly, that overtime victory against Montana State will be a lot to overcome for the time being, and the non-conference slate isn’t exactly a tough one for the Buffs.
After Maine, they face Southern Illinois and Stanford in a strange scheduling mishap. After that, the Buffs face UCLA and Tennessee in a brutal stretch.
The Buffs then finish the non-conference slate with Eastern Washington, Milwaukee, and Cal State Bakersfield before another massive game against Kansas.
Three Top 25 teams are coming up and the Buffs can make a statement by winning one of these games or competing against these loaded teams.
There is a ton of basketball left to play, so the Buffs can indeed crawl back in but will need to win a lot of games to do so, and they need to do so in convincing fashion.