Colorado Basketball: Game 27 Preview: Colorado Buffaloes vs. Stanford Cardinal

The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team has hit a surge of late, winners of their last four games. The team looks to finish their three-game road trip going 3-0 as they take on the Stanford Cardinal Saturday night.

This is an important one for the Buffs and could set them up well down the line in terms of Pac-12 seeding. Colorado, winners of four-straight, have dominated this road trip with wins over Oregon State and California. The Buffs needed a second-half comeback to take down the California Golden Bears Thursday night in Berkeley.

Jabari Walker continues to carry this team of late, recording his 14th double-double of the season — his 5th-straight.

In 26 games this season, Walker is averaging 14.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 46.3% from the field and his three-point percentage continues to rise at 30.7%.

Colorado needs all they can get out of Walker down the stretch in order to produce wins and hopefully make a run in the Pac-12 tournament.

This is the only regular season matchup between the two this season. The last time these two met was back on Feb. 11, 2021 where #22 Colorado went on to defeat Stanford on the road, 69-51.

Stanford is coming off a letdown loss at home against the Utah Utes.

The Cardinal shot just 36.2% from the field and 26.7% from three and still managed to hang around. Stanford took a 28-21 lead into the half but solid games from Branden Carlson and Both Gach (each scored 13 points) helped Utah collect their tenth win of the season.

Stanford has a pretty balanced attack with Harrison Ingram, Jaiden Delaire, and Spencer Jones. All three are averaging over ten points per game while shooting over 40% from the field.

Colorado and Stanford are averaging roughly the same amount of rebounds per game, so this game will be a testament of who wants it more. If you look down the line at all of their team stats, both teams are almost mirror images of each other.

Colorado must continue to be dominant on the glass and limit turnovers. This is the final big road test before returning home to face Arizona State and Arizona.

Every game matters as this point.