It’s getting to that point late in the season where every conference game matters for the Colorado Buffaloes — let’s face it, every conference game matters from the get-go. However, this young Buffs men’s basketball team is running out of time if they want to make some noise and potentially play postseason basketball.
We all knew what we were going to get with this years team. It’s a young and inexperienced team led by two seniors Evan Battey and Eli Parquet. Unfortunately for Colorado, Parquet is out for the remainder of the season, which leaves one upperclassmen left on the team that currently sees prominent minutes.
The rest of the players that see game action are all underclassmen.
After starting 3-1 in conference play, the Buffs hit a bump in the road which started at home against USC and UCLA. From Jan. 20th to Feb. 3rd, the Buffs lost five of their six conference games, including a humiliating 70-43 defeat in Pullman, Washington to the Washington St. Cougars.
During that time, Colorado was turning over the basketball at an alarming rate while getting dominated on the glass.
Colorado has won two-straight games at home over Oregon State and Utah, while finding themselves back at .500 in conference play at 7-7 with six games remaining. The one thing I’d like to point out about this young team is the fact that they haven’t given up and continue to scratch and claw through adversity.
During those two games, Colorado still turned the ball over both 13 and 14 times respectively. However, the team has been much more active on the glass and even out-rebounded Oregon St. 40-23 and Utah 38-31.
The Buffs have a pretty favorable schedule coming up in which they start their three-game road trip.
First they’ll take on the Beavers in Corvallis Tuesday night, followed by the California Golden Bears Thursday night. Those two teams are a combined 6-24 in conference play so realistically, those are two must-win games for Colorado.
Colorado caps their road trip off Saturday night against the Stanford Cardinal who sit one spot above them in the Pac-12 standings. That could potentially big a big one for Pac-12 tournament seeding.
A 3-0 road trip would sure be nice.
After that is all said and done, the Buffs host the two Arizona teams. Arizona State has been very underwhelming this season, collecting just four conference wins to-date while sitting in 9th in the Pac-12. Colorado’s biggest test the remainder of the season will be against the Wildcats who are arguably a top-3 team in the nation and have lost just two games all season.
Colorado ends the season on the road Mar. 5th against the Utes.
If anything, going 4-2 the rest of the way will set up the young Buffs up well for the Pac-12 tournament. I want to be greedy and see the team go 5-1 into the postseason, but the Buffs must take care of business first on their three-game roadie.
They’ll have to use that one game at a time approach.