After falling short in another hard-fought battle marked by a healthy dose of tough luck, Tad Boyle took a moment to lament the little quirks that can change the fortunes of any basketball game.
Every so often, doing the right thing doesn’t matter.
“Low shot-clock, and (they) bank in a three,” Boyle said. “That’s when you know it’s probably not going to be your night. We played good defense. He just banks in the three.”
In a testament to how often it hasn’t been the Buffaloes’ night lately, that comment from Boyle was made after Saturday’s loss at West Virginia, yet it very well could have applied to Tuesday’s eventful 75-69 defeat against No. 19 Kansas at the CU Events Center.
CU (12-7, 2-4) suffered its fourth consecutive loss after a 2-0 start in Big 12 play, a slide that has been marked by controversial officiating decisions and the answering of long-range, late-game prayers for the opposition.
Boyle certainly would be the first to say a few isolated plays aren’t the reason the Buffs have lost four in a row. Yet it’s equally true that Colorado has been on the wrong end of some critical breaks throughout the slide.
“This is what we signed up for when we signed our letter of intent to Colorado,” CU guard Barrington Hargress said. “We knew these games were going to be tough. We knew that this was the best league in the country. And we understand that you can’t fold from tough games. Just like that, we can be 5-0. The same way that we just dropped (four), we’ve got to turn around and get right back to it.
“We’ll be good. Just staying down, staying ready, and putting the hard work in at practice.”
Plenty of basketball issues have led to the four-game losing streak. The Buffs have been outrebounded in three of the four losses, with the lone exception being a narrow 33-32 rebounding advantage last week at Cincinnati. CU was outrebounded by an average of 12.7 in the other three losses.
Additionally, the Buffs’ early promise from long range has slowly faded. CU owns a .304 3-point percentage in six Big 12 games, with a .296 mark (29-for-98) during the four-game losing streak. CU also has posted three of its four lowest shooting percentages of the season during the losing streak, including the two lowest of the year in the past two games against West Virginia (.393) and Kansas (.357).
Still, a team that has stayed in games due largely to its scrappy competitiveness will have to shake off a frustrating level of recent bad luck.
Against then-No. 14 Texas Tech on Jan. 10, the Buffs might have pulled off the biggest comeback victory in program history if not for a potential shot clock violation on the Red Raiders late that wasn’t called. The play that survived a video review despite evidence of Tech’s Jaylen Petty still in contact with the ball when the shot clock hit zero.
At West Virginia last week, it was Honor Huff who launched a wild 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer that banked in. Instead of CU getting the ball back down by six points, Huff extended the Mountaineers’ lead to nine with about 4 minutes, 20 seconds remaining. The Buffs didn’t get closer than seven the rest of the way.
And then against Kansas on Tuesday night, the Jayhawks’ Melvin Council Jr. followed his own fast-break layup by stealing an inbounds pass from CU’s Sebastian Rancik, despite Council clearly being out of bounds. Yet no whistle blew, and Council’s second layup in quick succession turned CU’s one-point deficit into five.
To add insult to injury, KU’s subsequent game-clinching 11-1 run included another improbably banked 3-pointer from freshman Darryn Peterson that gave the Jayhawks a nine-point lead with 2:09 to play.
“Really frustrating, and then the kid banks in the three,” Boyle said following the loss against KU. “Sometimes the breaks go your way. Sometimes they don’t. This year they haven’t, so far. Not in these close games.”
