3 takeaways from Colorado's blowout loss to Arizona State

BOULDER — Yikes.

The Colorado Buffaloes lost 82-65 to the Arizona State Sun Devils at the CU Events Center on Thursday. The win drops the Buffs’ record to 18-10 on the season and 10-8 in Pac-12 play. The loss ends Colorado’s five-game winning streak. The Sun Devils improve to 11-16 on the season. It was the second time that ASU has won in Boulder in 11 tries.

Here’s what we learned:

Colorado gets smoked

The Buffs didn’t belong on the same court as the Sun Devils on Thursday.

And that’s saying something, because ASU came into the game with a 10-16 record.

Even facing an 11-point deficit at halftime, the game felt like it was there to be stolen back if Colorado could put together a pretty solid 20 minutes. The Buffs were coming off a three-game road trip in which they outscored opponents by 16 points per game in the second half.

The Buffs felt poised for a comeback.

But the run never happened. Colorado was never within single-digits in the second half. The closest they came in the final 10 minutes was a 15-point deficit with under 90 seconds to go. In fact, in a lot of ways the second half was worse than the first.

The five-game winning streak is dead.

The nine-year winning streak against ASU in Boulder is dead.

The tournament hopes probably rest on a run to a Pac-12 Tournament title.

And the Buffs deserved all of it.

Jabari battles foul trouble

Star CU forward Jabari Walker only played nine minutes in the first half thanks to three quick fouls.

While the team wasn’t good with him on the court, it got a lot worse without him. When Walker checked out of the game with 4:46 remaining in the first half, Colorado trailed 26-23. By halftime, the Sun Devils led 37-26.

The Buffs needed Walker out there, even though he wasn’t playing like a savior.

Walker put together one of his worst performances of the season. He finished with 12 points on 3-of-9 shooting. He grabbed seven boards and turned the ball over three times.

In fairness to Walker, he’d been one of the Buffs’ over the past month. He’s playing some of the best ball in the Pac-12. And it’s hard to play well when all of your teammates are struggling.

But Walker’s role on this team is to be a dominant player and he was far from it on Thursday.

The postseason hopes take a near-fatal blow

The Buffs came into the game with a solid chance to earn a top-four seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, and the bye that would accompany it.

To do so, they’d have to make up the half-game deficit between them and Oregon. But, of course, the Buffs lost and Ducks handed UCLA their sixth loss of the season.

Now, the only way for Colorado to earn the bye is to win both of its remaining games, including against No. 2 Arizona on Saturday, and for  the Ducks to only win one of their final three. The odds are slim.

In terms of the NCAA Tournament, the Buffs are probably out of the picture unless they win the Pac-12 Tournament. Even winning out until the title game would more than likely leave the Buffs not only outside the tournament but also outside the tournament bubble.

It was a bad day to be a Buffalo.