Tag: Colorado Basketball

Colorado bubble analysis: Win over Washington State was enough to make NCAA Tournament

Colorado’s late winning streak was enough to get the Buffs into the field and give the Pac-12 four NCAA tourney teams.

The Colorado Buffaloes were not a lock to make the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, but their odds were decent, given that they won two games at the Pac-12 Tournament and beat an NCAA Tournament team from Washington State in the semifinals. Their loss to Oregon — which gave the Ducks the automatic bid from the Pac-12 — did create some bubble drama. A lot of bubble teams’ dreams were crushed by the parade of unexpected autobids which emerged over the weekend. Colorado did have reason to sweat. However, most bracketologists did have the Buffaloes in the field on Sunday.

All the team could do was wait.

The waiting was worth it. Colorado reached the First Four in Dayton and will face Boise State on Wednesday night at 9:10 p.m. Eastern time, 6:10 p.m. Pacific, on TruTV.

Buffaloes Wire had more on the story:

“One day after falling to Oregon in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game on Saturday, the Buffaloes received a First Four bid for the 2024 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Colorado will battle Boise State in Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday with the winner earning the right to face No. 7 seed Florida on Friday in the round of 64.

“Head coach Tad Boyle and the Buffs, who enter the First Four as a No. 10 seed, finished their regular season on a six-game winning streak before reaching the final Pac-12 title game.”

Colorado needed every last one of those six straight wins to sneak into the field. The Buffs saved their season just in time.

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2024 NCAA Tournament: Boise State Basketball-A First Look at the Colorado Buffaloes

2024 NCAA Tournament: Boise State Basketball-A First Look at the Colorado Buffaloes Who are the Buffaloes? Contact/Follow @HardwoodTalk & @MWCwire Boise State draws First Four matchup in Dayton against Pac-12 foe Colorado. The Mountain West …

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2024 NCAA Tournament: Boise State Basketball-A First Look at the Colorado Buffaloes

Who are the Buffaloes?

Contact/Follow @HardwoodTalk & @MWCwire

Boise State draws First Four matchup in Dayton against Pac-12 foe Colorado.

The Mountain West Conference received a record setting six bids to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. Though after hammering each other twice a week, every week since January. The six teams that had their tickets punched, were given what many consider to be lower than deserved seeds.

For a conference that KenPom.com ($) has ranked as the seventh best in the entire country. With an extremely comfy margin between their Adjusted Efficiency ranking of +10.39 & the next best’s, the Atlantic 10 at +5.13. Even giving the Pac-12 a run for their money and their number 6th ranking of +10.94. Never the less, one of the Mountain West’s bigger seeding causalities on Selection Sunday was the Boise State Broncos.

After Leon Rice led his team to a second place tie with Nevada and a 22-10 (13-5, 2nd in the MWC) regular season record, top-30 NET Ranking (w/six Quad 1 wins) & a top-40 KenPom ranking.

It’s very frustrating, as the Broncos now have to earn their spot in the Field of 64. In a battle for the No. 10 seed against the Colorado Buffaloes, scheduled for Wednesday March 20th, in Dayton, OH with a 5:10 PM MT tip-off. The winner of that First Four contest goes on to face the Florida Gators as the No. 7 seed in the South region.

Who Are The Buffaloes

The Colorado Buffaloes have an extremely long history as members of the Big 12, dating all the way back to post-World War II, when the conference was known as the Big 7.

Possibly known for their gridiron dominance from the early eighties to mid-nineties under all-time great Buffaloes coach Bill McCartney. Who led them to nine bowl appearances in 13 seasons, not to mention the schools lone football National Championship in 1990.

On the hardwood though, Colorado hasn’t made a deep run since before the end of the Vietnam Conflict. Since, the program has seen five different head coaches come and gone.

With only two NCAA Tournament appearances to show for it, in over four decades. To say the program was a bit of an after thought in the Big 8 as well as out West is an understatement. But change was coming in Boulder, plenty of it.

As an announced move to what was then known as the Pac-10 was made public in 2010. The move also brought the program’s winningest head coach with them, in first year head man Tad Boyle.

Coach

Boyle took over at Colorado in their last season in the Big 12. Taking over from former NBA Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik, who left when he accepted his “dream job” at Wake Forrest in 2010.

Boyle had just led his hometown Northern Colorado Bears to a second place finish in the Big Sky behind a Damian Lillard led Weber State team. A mark celebrated after aiding Northern Colorado in their transition to the D-I ranks, beginning with a 4-24 season just three seasons prior.

After arriving in Boulder in 2010, he led the Buffaloes to a 5th place finish in their final season in the Big 12, their best in five years. He would then lead them to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. For a grand total of six in fourteen seasons.

Their most recent trip coming in 2021, as a No. 5 seed, their highest in the tournament’s most modern iteration. A trip that is something fans in Boulder are coming to expect out of their basketball program. As they should, with a coach like Boyle in charge. With his local ties to the area, it’s easy to buy in to what the Buffaloes are selling every season.

Star Players

Jr. G-KJ Simpson (6’2, 190)

Stats: 19.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.9 APG & 1.6 SPG in 34 Games, 34 Starts

Sr. F-Tristan Da Silva (6’9, 220)

Stats: 15.8 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 2.4 APG & 1.1 SPG in 31 Games, 31 Starts

Fr. F-Cody Williams (6’8, 190)

Stats: 12.6 PPG, 3.3 RPG & 1.7 APG in 21 Games, 18 Starts

How Did They Get Here

Colorado was brought into the Pac-12 promise lands by Boyle almost immediately. But with conference realignment charged turmoil surrounding their home last year with the departures of UCLA, USC, Oregon & Washington to the Big Ten starting the summer of 2024, the Buffaloes had to act. Announcing a move back to the Big 12 last July, Tad Boyle will now be tasked with a move back to the conference where he cut his high major teeth in. So enjoying their last ride in the Pac-12 as fans everywhere know it, they went to work.

Using a strong yet short, 9-2 run through non-conference play with a pair of impressive wins over Richmond & Miami (FL) to prepare for their last run at a Pac-12 title. The ensuing 20-game conference slate would prove challenging.

As the Buffaloes battled their way to a 3rd place finish & 24-10 (13-7, 3rd in Pac-12) regular season record while earning the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament in Las Vegas.

Colorado earned a opening round bye & was slated to take on No. 6 seeded Utah in the quarterfinals on Thursday. They had split the regular season series with the Utes, but managed to post a solid 72-58 win over their conference foes to advance to the semifinals. Thanks to a great scoring performance from their trio of KJ Simpson, Eddie Lampkin Jr. & Tristan da Silva.

Next came Washington State on Friday, another team whom they had split their conference series with. The Cougars though, proved to be a formidable opponent for the Buffaloes. As Tad Boyle’s group narrowly advanced with a 58-52 win over Washington State, thanks again to an offensive effort spearheaded by Simpson with a game high 16 points.

That took them all the way to the championship game on Saturday night, against No. 4 seed Oregon. A game lost in the post, in part due to a flawless performance from Oregon big man N’Faly Dante who had 25 points off of 12-12 shooting from the floor.

With that Colorado was sent home without any hardware, though their fate as an at-large bid might have just been sealed in Vegas. As the Buffaloes were announced as a First Four selection on Sunday, pegged to due battle for a spot in the Field of 64 against a Cinderella-esque Bronco team on Wednesday.

Biggest Wins

Thursday January 18th, Home vs. Oregon 86-70

Saturday February 24th, Home vs. Utah 89-65

Friday March 15th, Neutral vs. Washington State 58-52

The Metrics

NET Ranking:  25th

KenPom:  26th

Larry Muniz covers college basketball as a writer for Mountain West Wire and WAC Hoops Digest. Also as a co-host of the college basketball podcast “Hoops Talk W/Jay & Larry”. He is also a USWBA Member.

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Pac-12 men’s basketball bubble watch: Oregon pushes Colorado into uncertainty

Colorado is not a lock, and could easily go to Dayton.

The Oregon Ducks are a bid-stealer. They won the Pac-12 Tournament and grabbed an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12 is guaranteed to have three bids to the Big Dance. Now we get to see if Colorado will make it four.

Colorado is not in bad shape, but it’s not a lock with Oregon shrinking the bubble. North Carolina State grabbed a surprising automatic bid in the ACC. Florida Atlantic losing in the AAC Tournament means the AAC should get a second bid, which reduces the size of the bubble even more. Colorado could be thrown into a pot with Oklahoma, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Michigan State, Texas A&M, and a few other schools still on the bubble and not completely guaranteed to be in the NCAA Tournament. Colorado had a good week at the Pac-12 Tournament, beating Utah and Washington State, but with the bubble results we had on Friday and Saturday — in which a lot of automatic bids reduced the size of the bubble — at least one or two teams believed to be in good shape on Thursday or Friday will be pushed out of the field. That’s what those surprising automatic bids can do to bubble teams. Someone will be gut-punched on Selection Sunday.

We will see if Colorado is that team. That’s all for another year of bubble watch, the last one for the Pac-12 Conference.

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Pac-12 men’s basketball bubble watch: Oregon could ruin a lot of bubble teams, including Colorado

If Oregon wins the automatic bid in the Pac-12, that shrinks the bubble, and Colorado could be affected.

The Pac-12 basketball season just took a huge turn on Friday night at the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas. The Oregon Ducks, who trailed top-seeded Arizona by 19 points early in the Pac-12 semifinals, stormed back for an absolutely shocking 67-59 win over the regular-season Pac-12 champion. The Ducks are now in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game and are one win away from getting an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Ducks Wire has more on the story, and here’s the bubble overview flowing from Oregon’s win:

Colorado beat Washington State in the second Pac-12 semifinal, with Buffaloes Wire providing complete coverage. Colorado’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament did increase with the win, but they might not have increased nearly as much as the Buffaloes and their fans would have liked.

Why? Oregon can now steal a bid from bubble teams, Colorado being one of them. If Colorado loses to Oregon on Saturday night, the Buffs’ chances of making the NCAA Tournament would be better than 50-50, but they would be far from a lock and could be excluded if other bubble teams succeed or if other surprising automatic bid-holders emerge from conference tournaments. We’ll have one more bubble watch on the morning of Selection Sunday. The Men’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show is Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific, on CBS.

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Pac-12 men’s basketball bubble watch: Utah steps on a rake while Colorado boosts its chances

Losing to Oregon State 10 days before Selection Sunday? Not a good move, Utes. You really stepped in it.

We saw two entirely different Pac-12 bubble results emerge on Thursday night. One team played its way off the bubble, while another team took a good step forward. Utah ruined its bubble existence by eating a decisive loss at Oregon State, while Colorado secured a vital bubble win by prevailing at Oregon.

Let’s go through these bubble situations and evaluate where the Utes and Buffs stand with just one regular season game left before the Pac-12 Tournament, keeping in mind that other bubble teams across the country are also going to be in action on Saturday and are part of the larger bubble calculus. The bubble is a study in moving parts, which means some wiggle room can exist. However, certain outcomes can carry more weight than others:

A bubble team cannot afford to lose at Oregon State, but that’s exactly what Utah did on Thursday night in Corvallis. Utah still has just one road win in Pac-12 play this year. Winning against Stanford and Cal at home last week merely kept Utah alive. Those wins did not increase Utah’s chances of getting into the NCAA Tournament; they merely prevented Utah from a downward fall on the bubble. The Utes needed to continue to win the games they were supposed to win, but winning was merely going to maintain Utah’s position, not improve it. After losing to Oregon State, Utah has clearly lost at least five or six slots in the bubble pecking order, if not more. It’s a very bad loss at a time when the Utes had very little — if any — margin for error.

Utah goes to Eugene on Saturday to face the Oregon Ducks. This much is clear: Utah has to win that game to stay alive in the bubble conversation. A loss means Utah would have to win the Pac-12 Tournament or — at the very least — reach the final by winning three straight games. We doubt Utah would win four straight in Vegas, so if we’re being realistic, this is Utah’s last best chance. A win wouldn’t put Utah in the field, but it would keep the Utes alive … barely.

We told you days ago that Utah needed three wins to make the NCAA Tournament. It might now be four, but let’s assume Utah does win in Eugene. It would now need at two wins at the Pac-12 Tournament, possibly three. Utah cannot make the NCAA Tournament with merely one win next week in Vegas. The Utes greatly increased their degree of difficulty by losing to Oregon State. Three wins is the absolute minimum right now. Four might be needed.

Oregon isn’t an NCAA Tournament team, but Colorado’s win in Eugene is still a solid win which will move the Buffaloes up a few spots in the bubble pecking order. Colorado is, one would think, in that “last four in or first four out” group right now. Winning at Oregon State on Saturday is essential. If the Buffs do that, they go to Las Vegas knowing that if they can win one game, they will be in the conversation on Selection Sunday. If they win two games in Vegas following a win over Oregon State, they should be in. Given how bleak everything looked for CU a week ago, it would be a Harry Houdini-style escape if they can make March Madness. Now they have a decent chance.

Rick Pitino’s St. John’s Red Storm have surged in the past two weeks, putting themselves in the NCAA Tournament hunt. Colorado could really use a St. John’s loss. However, while some bubble teams have helped themselves, others have not. Wake Forest, Ole Miss, Utah, and Cincinnati have played their way out of the field the past week, so that’s why Colorado still has a decent chance of getting in, provided it can do the job in the coming days. Stay with Buffaloes Wire for complete Colorado coverage.

USC, JuJu Watkins turned the tables on Colorado and Jaylyn Sherrod

USC didn’t just avenge the Colorado loss from January; the Trojans won the way CU defeated them a month ago.

USC did indeed avenge its loss to Colorado from earlier in the season. The Trojans’ victory on Friday night in Los Angeles enabled the Women of Troy to split the season series against the Buffaloes, who had defeated USC in Boulder on January 21. Winning the game is what mattered most to USC, but the way in which the Trojans won this game had to be particularly satisfying for them. They really did turn the tables on Colorado in an instance of basketball role reversal.

In order to understand this, you need to go back to that January 21 game before returning to Friday night’s action.

Let’s take a look:

Kayla Padilla once again answers the call for USC women’s basketball

Kayla Padilla’s unselfishness and efficiency helped USC in a big way against Colorado.

JuJu Watkins is the superstar on this USC women’s basketball team. McKenzie Forbes is the 1-B to JuJu’s 1-A most of the time, and she was very much the main supporting actress in USC’s 87-81 win over Colorado on Friday night in the Galen Center. Yet, as much as USC gained from its premier duo, this win was more the product of three players than two. Kayla Padilla was a central, not peripheral, part of this victory.

Padilla exists in the background partly because of the enormity of JuJu Watkins’ superstardom, but also because her smaller frame makes it harder for her to create her own shot against taller defenders. McKenzie Forbes and JuJu can both play over the top more than Padilla can.

It has been important for USC’s offense to give Padilla opportunities to shoot. Friday we were reminded why that is the case. Let’s go into the details on her performance against Colorado:

McKenzie Forbes dazzles for USC in complete performance versus Colorado

McKenzie Forbes learned a lot from the first USC-Colorado game of the season one month ago.

When JuJu Watkins fouled out against Colorado on January 21 in Boulder, USC had to play the final six minutes of regulation without its best player. McKenzie Forbes had to handle the ball more than she usually does in those final minutes. It was a tough adjustment for the veteran, whose turnovers helped Colorado beat the Trojans, 63-59.

We wrote about that game: 

“USC watched JuJu Watkins foul out with under six minutes left in regulation on a highly questionable foul call. Playing the final five-plus minutes without their superstar player was expectedly rough for the Trojans, but they can certainly learn from the experience. McKenzie Forbes committed multiple turnovers against Colorado’s defensive pressure with JuJu out. Those turnovers led to Colorado baskets and were important in shaping the ultimate four-point final margin for the Buffs.”

McKenzie Forbes has bounced back from that game. She has learned from that game. Given a chance to face Colorado a second time, Forbes played miles better versus the Buffaloes on Friday night. She was instrumental in leading USC to an 87-81 win which has the Trojans in position to contend for the Pac-12 title and a top seed at the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament. Let’s say a little more about Forbes’ performance below:

USC delivers best offensive game of the season in huge win over Colorado

USC could not have played much better on offense than it did versus Colorado. The timing was exquisite.

The USC Trojans picked a mighty good time to have their best offensive game of the 2023-2024 women’s college basketball season. USC became a team of flamethrowers in an 87-81 win over Colorado in a game which became a surprising shootout. For the sake of comparison, the first game between these two teams in Boulder one month ago (January 21) was a 63-59 slugfest. This rematch was anything but. It was a hot-shooting, free-flowing display of offense — maybe not an NBA All-Star Game, but certainly a lot more wide open than anyone was ready to anticipate.

How great an offensive performance was this for USC? Several details immediately jump off the page, and they all flowed through USC’s three best offensive players:

JuJu Watkins gets big-league test against Colorado

JuJu Watkins, like all elite players, loves a challenge. Colorado should give her one on Friday. Here’s what to watch for:

JuJu Watkins has had a lot of special, memorable and unique games in her freshman season at USC. The game she played at Colorado on January 21 in Boulder was unique in a very bad way. That game against Colorado was the only game out of 24 in which JuJu Watkins fouled out. Not only did she foul out; she fouled out with nearly six minutes left. USC fought well but imperfectly with JuJu out. The Trojans had a chance to lead or tie in the final minute but ultimately fell short, 63-59.

As USC plays Colorado in a rematch on Friday night in Los Angeles, Watkins will definitely be motivated — not just to win, the central goal, but to prove a point and to show the discipline she lacked against Colorado. There’s a lot to consider about JuJu Watkins entering this game. Let’s take you through some of the most interesting JuJu Watkins plot points against Colorado, helping you to watch for certain details during Friday night’s game: