Boyle’s Buffs Host Oregon, OSU In Critical Homestand This Week

BOULDER — With 16 Pac-12 games still remaining — 80 percent of the conference schedule — it might sound like a stretch to say the Colorado Buffaloes are facing a must-win weekend in Boulder.

But if Tad Boyle‘s Buffs have any designs on an NCAA Tournament berth, home wins against Oregon on Thursday (7 p.m.) and Oregon State on Saturday (7:30 p.m.) would go a long way in keeping those hopes alive.

Just a week ago, the Buffs (9-6 overall, 1-3 Pac-12) were in decent shape in the postseason hunt. Despite some disappointing losses early, CU was situated comfortably in the mid-40s in the NCAA’s NET rankings, and they bolstered their situation with a road win at Stanford.

But a shocking New Year’s Eve defeat at Cal — only the second win this year for the struggling Bears — handed CU its first Quad 4 loss of the year and pushed Colorado down into the 70s in the NET.

Now the Buffs need to right the ship in a hurry, especially with their annual road trip to the Los Angeles schools coming up after this week’s two-game homestand.

No doubt, with 16 conference games still to play, plus the conference tournament, there are myriad ways the Buffs can put themselves back into the NCAA Tournament picture. A sizable win streak down the stretch could do the trick, and there’s always the possibility of a conference tourney title to guarantee themselves of a bid.

But the best way to insert themselves back in the conversation is to protect their home floor the rest of the season and steal a few more road victories along the way — then tack on a couple of wins in the conference tournament.

That could be enough to bump their NET ranking back to an acceptable level and potentially give them a tournament-worthy resumé.

But to achieve those goals the Buffs will need to establish some consistency, something that has evaded them for much of the year.

It wasn’t until the 11th game of the season that CU managed to post back-to-back wins, which set the stage for a five-game win streak. The game at Cal seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Colorado to push the streak to six, as well as collect a rare Pac-12 road trip sweep.

But the Bears jumped on the Buffs early and only a furious rally in the final two minutes made the 80-76 final look respectable.

Now, as Boyle is fond of saying, the price of poker has gone up…