A big game looms on the horizon for Colorado Thursday night as the Buffaloes (16-6, 10-5 Pac-12) head to Eugene for a showdown with Oregon, which came in at No. 25 in the latest Coaches Poll.
Colorado, sitting at fourth place in the Pac-12, a half-game behind the Ducks, looks to avoid losing two straight games for the first time all year tomorrow night.
While Oregon of late has won three straight, Colorado comes off a disappointing road loss to last-place California this past week.
The Buffs have certainly had their fair share of bad losses so far this season, but to date have yet to drop back-to-back contests, in doing so showing an impressive knack for damage control.
Of course, Thursday night will doubtless feature the biggest challenge in front of Colorado's attempts to mitigate a recent loss.
Following a Jan. 20 defeat at Washington, the Buffs took on Wazzu and after the team's collapse at home vs. Utah on Jan. 30, Colorado got some extra time to prepare for its next game, Arizona, after a Feb. 4 matchup with ASU was postponed.
Tad Boyle didn't make light of facing the Ducks in Eugene, where Colorado has not won since early 2013, but sees his veteran-led team as capable of doing so, perhaps more so than in the immediate past, especially coming off a loss.
“This year, this version of the Colorado Buffaloes, from my standpoint as their coach, they hurt and they’re as mad and disappointed after our losses as much as the coaching staff is," Boyle said. "I can tell you — not every team is like that."
"Sometimes, players just brush off a loss like it’s no big deal. ‘Well, it's like taking a shower, we’ll get another one tomorrow.’ Our team’s not like that and I think that’s one of the reasons we have bounced back after losses.”
If there's been any correlation to the Buffs' recent losses to Washington, Utah and California, it has been that one opposing player has taken over the game and sank CU.
For Washington, it was Marcus Tsohonis, who lit up the Buffs for 27 points in Seattle on Jan. 20. Then, when Utah came to Boulder about a week and a half later, Alfonso Plummer scored all of his 23 points in the second half.
And most recently, Cal's Matt Bradley dropped 29 against the Buffs last Saturday in a 71-62 Bears win.
When Colorado beat Oregon on Jan. 7, it survived a similarly effective individual performance by an opponent, as Chris Duarte led all scorers with 27 in the game.
"All those guys have been perimeter players — they haven’t been post players — so, you look at who Oregon puts out there with Duarte and Will Richardson, with guys like that, we're going to be challenged on the perimeter in a big way," Boyle said.
"(LJ) Figueroa is playing really well right now, so we’ll regard him as a perimeter player, most likely, (and) Eric Williams is a terrific talent.”
The Buffaloes did not see Richardson in January; Oregon's junior guard missed much of the season leading into February following surgery to his left thumb but since his return, he's averaged 12 points through four games played.
A loss at the hands of the Ducks, which, if that did happen, would in all likelihood be a Q1 loss as far as the NET Rankings are concerned, would not be catastrophic.
As mentioned, it would be the first time all year CU has lost two straight and without a doubt would put more pressure on the team to finish strong in the final three games of the season against Oregon State, USC and UCLA.
But far from calculating the damage a loss would do, Boyle instead is making sure his players are ready to go snatch a NCAA Tournament resume-building win on the road from a top tier league opponent.
Easier said than done.
“We’re going to get their best shot tomorrow, I can promise you that," Boyle said. "Dana Altman’s going to have them ready, they’ll be frothing at the mouth and we need to be doing the same.”
The Buffaloes and Ducks tipoff from Matthew Knight Arena Thursday, Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. MST. ESPN2 will televise the game nationally.
