Colorado's season ends with an NIT loss to Utah Valley
On Sunday, Colorado held its first official practice under new head coach Deion Sanders, a reminder that one of the most anticipated seasons in program history is only so far away.
Another indication of that reality came later in the day. After 35 games and more than four months, Colorado’s 2022-23 men’s basketball season is officially over.
Lawson Lovering scored a career-high 21 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to help an unusually porous Buffs defense keep pace with Utah Valley in a 81-69 loss in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament at the CU Events Center.
The Wolverines – the regular-season champions of the Western Athletic Conference, who came into the night with a 26-8 record – shot 55.9% from the field and 52.9% from 3-point range.
“It’s lack of focus,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. “It’s lack of respect for the scouting report. It’s lack of toughness at times. I don’t think our guys are lazy. I don’t think we’re always playing smart. There are a lot of things that go into being a great defensive player. You’ve got to be smart. You’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to want it. You can’t put your head down. You’ve got to take a challenge. We have a lot of guys with an offensive mindset. The only guy I can say who has a defensive mindset is Lawson Lovering. That ain’t enough. It’s not enough. That’s why our team was 18-17.”
It was Utah Valley’s second win against a Pac-12 team this season, having already won at Oregon, 77-72, on Dec. 20.
Guard Trey Woodbury embodied his team’s offensive excellence, pouring in a game-high 25 points while making 11 of his 15 shots and three of his four 3s.
“If you want to be simplistic about this game tonight, the reality is they had Trey Woodbury and we didn’t. It was the difference in the game,” Boyle said. “We had no answer for him. Our ball-screen coverage wasn't good enough. Our one-on-one defense wasn’t good enough. Our gap help wasn’t good enough.We just weren't good enough and he was terrific. They deserved to win. They were the better team tonight.”
With the loss, Colorado finishes its season 18-17, giving the program its eighth-consecutive winning season. It’s tied for the longest run in program history. This most recent addition to that stretch, however, left an unmistakable feeling of disappointment, that a team that showed it was capable of doing more often failed to do so.
Entering Sunday’s matchup, Lovering, a former top-60 recruit, had scored more than 10 points just once in his two college seasons. Making the effort more impressive was that it came against Utah Valley’s Aziz Bandaogo, who was fourth among all Division I players with 2.9 blocks per game.
“I think with him, it’s a lot about confidence,” guard Ethan Wright said of Lovering. “He’s really, really coming into himself and he knows we trust him. He knows that we believe in him. Today, he was just playing free, just taking what the defense gave him. He’s got all the ability in the world and I think he showed that tonight.”
In addition to Lovering’s outburst, Wright and Tristan da Silva also scored in double figures, finishing with 17 and 12 points, respectively. In his final college game, Wright made four of his eight 3s.
The Buffs were without guard KJ Simpson, the team’s second-leading scorer and assists leader, who had also missed their NIT opener, a 65-64 win against Seton Hall. Julian Hammond didn’t earn the start after Boyle said he was late for a film session two days ago and a practice yesterday, problems he said hadn’t arisen at any other point in the season. Hammond ended up playing 22 minutes and scoring six points in that time.
It was an unexpectedly strong offensive showing in a matchup pitting two teams that were both ranked among the top 34 Division I squads in defensive efficiency coming into the evening.
The game’s non-stop pace was set early.
There wasn’t a stoppage in play until 8:03 had already elapsed, meaning the first media timeout wasn’t taken until the point when the second such timeout would occur. The teams excelled in that free-flowing, non-stop environment, going into halftime tied, 38-38, with Colorado and Utah Valley shooting 54.8% and 51.6% from the field, respectively. In the game’s opening 20 minutes, there were 10 ties and eight lead changes.
As the second half began, though, Utah Valley started to take control. The Wolverines opened the period with seven unanswered points. The Buffs clawed their way back, tying it on two separate occasions about midway though the half, but they were never able to make that decisive push to take and build a lead.
Trailing by five, 69-64, with 4:20 remaining, Utah Valley scored six of the game’s next seven points to build the first double-digit advantage of the night for either team, 75-65, with 1:56 left. Colorado wouldn’t get closer than eight for the remainder of the night.
After shooting 54.8% in the first half, the Buffs made only 38.7% of their field-goal attempts in the second half.
“We could just never string together stops,” Boyle said. “The teams that advance this time of year are the teams that guard. That’s the bottom line. I don’t care if you’re in the NIT or the NCAA Tournament. I watched Michigan State against SC. I watched them today. They are guarding at such a high level. It’s like ‘Holy cow.’ Then I look at our team and it’s like ‘Eh.’ We’re not there. We’re a long ways away from that. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
da Silva’s future
After the game, da Silva said he feels like he “should definitely test the waters” with regards to the NBA Draft process, with Boyle being more definitive and saying the junior forward is going to do so.
“We’ll get that feedback, see what it is and then we’ll move forward,” Boyle said.
The move itself isn’t particularly surprising after a season in which da Silva earned first-team all-Pac 12 recognition, nor should it be read as a sign that he won’t be with the program next season. With new rules in place the past several years, college players can work out with teams, get their game assessed and make a decision based on that. A player can enter the NBA Draft process with no intention of going, but merely as a way to get feedback from and exposure to the league’s teams. The deadline to withdraw this year is June 12.
“That doesn’t tie me to anything,” da Silva said. “That’s kind of a process for the summer and I haven’t made a final decision yet. You guys are going to be the first ones to know.”
The Wright stuff at the wrong time
After graduating from Princeton, and with the Ivy League rule against its athletes competing as graduate students, Wright had no choice but to leave the New Jersey school, eventually ending up at Colorado.
But as Princeton has made an improbable run through the NCAA Tournament this week, becoming just the fourth 15 seed ever to make the Sweet 16, it has been undoubtedly strange for Wright to watch his former teammates accomplish the feat while he’s halfway across the country.
While many have been stunned by the Tigers’ wins against Arizona and Missouri, Wright hasn’t.
“People say ‘upset’ all the time, but when I was there, we beat a lot of good teams,” Wright said. “A lot of guys that we had last year are still there and they’re really talented. There were a lot of freshmen that were ready to make the jump. There are really, really talented basketball players anywhere. You look at this Utah Valley team. That’s a really, really good basketball team. I know [Princeton has] shocked the world and all this stuff, but those guys can play. The Ivy League is a really good league and Princeton has a really good team and a good coach. They’re showing the world that right now.”
Still, Boyle can’t help but feel disappointed over how the Buffs’ season went in Wright’s lone season in Boulder.
“I feel like we let Ethan Wright down,” Boyle said. “Ethan Wright didn’t let us down. When we recruited Ethan, he was really disappointed he had never played in an NCAA Tournament at Princeton. They always lost to Yale, Jalen’s team…He came here to play in an NCAA Tournament. We let him down.”