The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team starts an important two-game home stand Thursday night against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Although their record might say different, this isn’t a team Colorado should sleep on.
With three games remaining in the regular season, every game matters for the Buffs from here on out.
Arizona State is a tricky team. Prior to Tuesday night’s loss to UCLA, the Sun Devils won three-straight, including a solid win over Washington State on the road.
The Sun Devils kept it close with the Bruins until Jaylen Clark and company pulled away late. The Bruins held a 13-point lead at halftime but Arizona State pretty much matched them point for point in the second half, losing by 14.
Colorado is coming off their fifth-straight win; three of which were on the road. However, the team hasn’t played since Saturday night so there might be a bit of rust — we will see.
The Buffs defeated Stanford 70-53 behind senior Evan Battey last Saturday. Battey scored a team-high 15 points while going a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point land.
Four of Colorado’s starters were in double-figures that game.
This will be Colorado and Arizona State’s second and final time seeing each other this season (depending on the Pac-12 Tournament). The Buffs improved to 12-4 on the season after defeating the Sun Devils in Tempe back on Jan. 15.
Jabari Walker had a monster game for Colorado, recording a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Like the previous game against Stanford, Colorado had four of their five starters in double-figures.
Arizona State shot just 33.9% from the field and 23.8% from three — not a recipe for success. Jalen Graham scored a team-high 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting off the bench while starting guard Jay Heath accounted for 15 points.
The Buffs know what they need to do and not look ahead to Saturday’s matchup against the #2 ranked Arizona Wildcats.
Control the tempo and eliminate second-chance points.