LAS VEGAS โ Colorado has won eight of its past nine games, including a 79-63 win over second-ranked Arizona, and finished 12-8 in the Pac-12 to finish in fourth place.
And yet, the Buffs are nowhere to be found in NCAA Tournament projections byย ESPN and CBS.
In fact, of the 133 bracket projections compiled by the Bracket Matrix, Colorado was mentioned only once โ by a website that is, believe it or not, called "All My Sports Teams Suck." (And actually, an updated look at that site has the Buffs now as the fourth team out.)
Not surprisingly, ever-candid Colorado coach Tad Boyle isn't too pleased with that. While he admitted the Buffs didn't help themselves by losing 10 games -- they also played a weak nonconference schedule, thanks in part to COVID-19 issues that forced the cancellation of a home game with Kansas โ he said the Buffs' conference performance should at least generate some discussion.
"I'm a little disappointed finishing fourth in a Power Five league, and we're not in conversation," Boyle said.
Then, when asked why, he continued:
"I think there's a big bias with East Coast and, quite frankly, ESPN. They're talking about Virginia Tech. They got one Quad 1 win. We got three (officially, Colorado is now 2-5 in Quad 1 games and 4-3 in Quad 2s). They're squarely on the bubble. We're not even in the conversation.
"I hope the committee is smarter than the people that are putting that thing together. But, look, I can't sit here and pound the table for Colorado because we lost to Southern Illinois. We had ten losses.
"But we have a young team. And if you look at the Colorado team today relative to where we were in November or December, if you don't think we're one of the top 68 teams in the country, you're sorely mistaken."
Boyle said the only way to deal with it is by winning "the next game. That's what we gotta do."
Except the next game is Friday against Arizona, which probably is still a little ticked off about its 79-63 loss to the Buffs less than two weeks ago in Boulder.
"They will be ready to play the Buffs," Boyle said. "They will be emotionally ready, mentally ready. I know Tommy Lloyd, he's a competitive dude. They got competitive players. But we're going to be ready, too. It's what makes this time of year so fun."
Lloyd was only available for comment before Colorado beat Oregon 80-69 so he took the expected route in addressing questions about the next game. The Ducks lost to Arizona just 84-81 on Feb. 19 in what might have been the most entertaining game of the Wildcats' season so far.
"Obviously I'm going to say they're both really good teams," Lloyd said. "Whichever one we play is going to be a hard-fought game. I respect both programs, and both of them obviously played us tough.
"Colorado gave it to us last time, and Oregon gave us a game very much like today's (an 84-80 win over Stanford), everything we needed. So a lot of respect for both programs, both coaches."
The 54.2% Stanford shot against Arizona on Thursday was the Wildcats' worst defensive field-goal percentage of the season. Arizona's previous two worst efforts were giving up 50% shooting to UCLA during its Jan. 25 loss at Pauley Pavilion and 48.4% at Colorado in the Buffs' Feb. 26 win in Boulder.
Arizona also allowed Stanford to shoot 48.4% on March 3 at McKale Center.
Those sorts of performances might have generated all sorts of dramatics from former UA coach Sean Miller but Lloyd issued a gentle critique.
"I'm going to give them (Stanford) some credit," Lloyd said. "They made some shots normally you would live with. Then they started making enough of them, so we had to make some adjustments in our coverages, and that's how these games go.
"It's single-elimination game. It's not the NBA where it's 1 of 82, make them today and, well, we'll get them next time. It's a make or miss deal. You can't coach like that in these because these games mean a lot, and I want to make sure I'm giving these guys every opportunity possible to come out on top.
"Our defense has been great all year. It has been far from perfect. And we'll get back and watch the film and ratchet it down, and hopefully the ball will bounce our way a little bit tomorrow."
The Wildcats' popularity might have hurt them during the Pac-12 rescheduling efforts earlier this season.
Arizona's games with UCLA (Dec. 30), USC (Jan. 2) and ASU (Jan. 8) were all postponed because of those teams' covid pauses. But the Sun Devils' pause meant the Wildcats could have quickly made up games with UCLA (Jan. 6) and USC (Jan. 8) -- but that was when the Los Angeles schools were not allowing fans.
That became a factor, along with television windows and other issues, in deciding when to make the games up.
"We had to take into account what the facilities looked like, not exclusively, but whether there were fans there or not certainly was a factor," said Jamie Zaninovich, who oversees men's basketball scheduling as the Pac-12's deputy commissioner. "We want our games to look good when they're on television and we want to give our schools an opportunity to maximize their commercial value and have fans attending their games on campus."
As it turned out, Arizona was asked to make up the UCLA game on Jan. 25, at the tail end of a three-game road trip that started at Stanford and Cal. The Wildcats lost that one 75-59.ย
The Wildcats survived the other two make up games with ease. They won at ASU on a Monday (Feb. 7) before leaving on Feb. 9 for the Washington trip, when they beat WSU and Washington.
Arizona then made up the USC game on March 1 by going home briefly after the Feb. 26 loss at Colorado, then flying to Los Angeles and crushing the Trojans 91-71 to wrap up the Pac-12 regular-season championship.
