Sometimes the big picture gets a little hazy. Especially when your team limps home repeatedly from lopsided losses on the road.
Before taking BYU to the brink in an overtime loss last week, the Colorado men’s basketball team kept facing the same dreary refrain on the road. A 30-point loss at Iowa State. A 19-point defeat at Baylor in which the Bears built a 30-point lead. And then a 34-point loss at Texas Tech that completed CU’s sad trilogy.
Earlier this week, head coach Tad Boyle said he remains confident his team has been improving incrementally, even with a few less-than-stellar efforts competitively recently. Boyle reiterated that point on the eve of the Buffs’ Big 12 home date on Saturday against Oklahoma State.
“That was mostly about effort and competitiveness. And if you don’t have that, you can’t even think about competing in this league,” Boyle said. “When I think about improvement, I think about are we getting better offensively? Are we running our stuff the right way? Are we getting great shots? Defensively, is our ball-screen coverage on-point?
“As a coach I guess I shouldn’t take anything for granted. But playing hard and competing is the price of admission. That’s the price of putting the jersey on. If you can’t do that, there’s not a coach in the world that can help. I think it has a lot to do with a lot of young guys that don’t understand the importance of being dialed-in mentally.”
The Buffs have won their past two home games, against Arizona State and TCU, and with five games remaining in the regular season, they still have ample opportunity to make a push for the top portion of the Big 12’s bottom eight, which would at least land a favorable first-day matchup at the conference tournament.
Among those final five games, CU visits No. 2 Houston next week and hosts No. 4 Arizona in the regular season finale. The other three — home against Oklahoma State and Kansas State, plus a road date at Utah — certainly are more winnable than the two games against top-five foes. Sweeping those three would leave the Buffs with a 7-11 league mark, barring upsets against either Houston or Arizona.
That still wouldn’t be the mark Boyle and the Buffs would prefer, yet given how heavily they have leaned on freshmen, it would be a credible outcome in one of the toughest men’s basketball conferences in the nation.
“To me, our schedule sets up well from the standpoint that we’ve got winnable games, but we also have two top-five teams in the country and you’ve got to relish those opportunities as well,” Boyle said. “I just try to think about winning the next game and get on a roll and gain some confidence.”
The matchup with a fast-paced Oklahoma State team projects as another possible high-scoring affair. In Big 12 games, the Cowboys rank last in points allowed (84.3), 15th in defensive 3-point percentage (.375) and 15th in average rebounding margin (minus-5.1). CU isn’t better in any of those categories, but even a slightly above-par defensive performance by the Buffs’ standards would set the stage for a win to jump-start the final three weeks of the regular season.
“We want to score in the 90s. We just don’t want them to,” Boyle said. “They’re very talented. They’ve got guys who are good offensive players. If they play in Boulder like they play in Stillwater, it should be a track meet and a fun game to watch.”
Oklahoma State Cowboys at CU Buffs men’s basketball
TIPOFF: Saturday, 1:30 p.m., CU Events Center.
TV/RADIO: TNT and truTV/KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM.
RECORDS: Oklahoma State 16-10, 4-9 Big 12 Conference; Colorado 14-12, 4-8 Big 12.
COACHES: Oklahoma State — Steve Lutz, 2nd season (33-28, 102-63 overall). Colorado — Tad Boyle, 16th season (326-216, 382-282 overall).
KEY PLAYERS: Oklahoma State — G Anthony Roy, 6-5, Sr. (17.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, .416 3%); F Parsa Fallah, 6-10, Sr. (14.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg, .606 FG%); G Vyctorius Miller, 6-5, So. (12.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, .445 FG%); G Jaylen Curry, 6-1, Jr. (9.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.1 apg); G Christian Coleman, 6-8, Sr. (9.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg, .505 FG%); G Kanye Clary, 6-0, Jr. (9.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 5.0 apg). Colorado — G Isaiah Johnson, 6-1, Fr. (16.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.6 apg, .490 FG%, .381 3%); G Barrington Hargress, 6-1, R-Jr. (14.1 ppg, 4.3 apg, .544 FG%, .500 3%); F Sebastian Rancik, 6-11, So. (12.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.0 apg, .340 3%); F Bangot Dak, 7-0, Jr. (10.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, .470 FG%); F Alon Michaeli, 6-9, Fr. (7.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg); G Jalin Holland, 6-5, Fr. (4.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg); G Josiah Sanders, 6-5, Fr. (4.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, .448 FG%).
NOTES: This is Oklahoma State’s first visit to CU since a Buffs win on Jan. 15, 2011. … OSU leads the all-time series 62-48 and has won five of the past six matchups. … The Cowboys have lost four consecutive games since a home win against BYU on Feb. 4. … OSU is 1-5 in true road games. … Rancik has shot .520 on 3-pointers (13-for-25) in CU’s past five home games, but he is coming off a 1-for-11 showing from the arc in CU’s two road losses last week. … Dak put together a solid game at Oklahoma State last year, going 6-for-8 with 15 points. … In Big 12 games, OSU ranks just 12th with a .432 field goal percentage. The Cowboys, though, have used a high-paced attack and the fifth-best 3-point percentage in league games (.347) to rank fifth in Big 12 games in scoring (77.0). … The Buffs continue a two-game homestand against Kansas State on Wednesday (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1).
