Colorado’s quest for final Pac-12 men’s basketball title comes up short

Regardless of Colorado’s promising status heading into Selection Sunday, this one stings

Regardless of the Buffs’ promising status heading into Selection Sunday, Colorado’s 75-68 loss to Oregon in Saturday’s Pac-12 men’s basketball championship game stings.

Colorado simply had no answer for Oregon center N’Faly Dante, who connected on all 12 of his field goal attempts en route to scoring a game-high 25 points. The Ducks are now dancing into the NCAA Tournament via the Pac-12’s automatic bid.

Playing in the final Pac-12 championship game before the conference likely dissolves, Colorado had another subpar shooting night in Las Vegas, finishing 20-for-48 (41.7%) from the field. KJ Simpson (23 points) and Luke O’Brien (11) were the only Buffs in double-figures.

Oregon dominated the Buffs in several key areas: turnovers (13-3), points off turnovers (23-0), second-chance points (10-1) and points in the paint (46-18).

The men’s March Madness bracket will be announced on Sunday at 4 p.m. MT. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi slid Colorado down to a “last four in” team following its title game defeat.

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