Puke & Rally: Buffs' surge falls short

LAS VEGAS — The life of a head coach in the Pac-12 could never be described as a walk in the park, evidenced by the look on Colorado head coach Tad Boyle’s face as he left the MGM Grand Garden Arena’s court on Thursday evening.

Boyle looked vexed, caught between the disappointment of another early exit in Las Vegas and the pride that he expressed postgame towards his team’s resolve.

His Buffaloes nearly erased a 17-point halftime deficit against Arizona before ultimately falling 82-78 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. Coming within two points in the final seconds, it was a furious rally that nearly overshadowed a nightmarish start to the game by Colorado, seeing the Wildcats lead by as many as 22 points.

However, it wasn’t enough—though that didn’t seem to weigh on Boyle too heavily once he’d made his way into the post-game press conference.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” he said, acknowledging the hole his team forged for themselves before slowly climbing out, nearly reaching the edge. “(This team has) tremendous fight, tremendous resolve.”

A back and forth start to the second half had the Buffs searching for a break through, getting Arizona’s lead down to 13 points multiple times only to see UA go and a mini-run to stem the tide. George King, who finished the day with 22 points and five rebounds, banked home a lay up with 6:15 remaining in the game to finally pull Colorado back to within 10 points. One minute later, a Josh Scott lay up cut the deficit to single digits.

For the first time since the opening minutes, there was nervousness through the sea of red dominating the arena. And hope, too, for the slice of Buffs fans waiting for something to cheer for.

“They were down,” Boyle said about his team heading into the halftime locker room. “There’s no quit in these guys.’

As Boyle now counts down the days until Selection Sunday, one couldn’t help but notice a different air surrounding the coach compared to one year ago when he took the podium underneath the MGM, following his team’s loss to Oregon and having just suffered the final nail into what was that season’s true coffin.

There’s no doubting that Colorado wanted to win this game. For whatever reason, though, they were unable to respond accordingly when Arizona came out focused and energized, punching the Buffs in the mouth early and often. It’s what makes the second half so perplexing, when trying to lock down a true angle, a riveting story line, for the day.

On one hand, they only showed up for about 24 minutes of competitive basketball against a program that they no reason to cower against, at least, this season. On the other, they unleashed an offensive attack and gritty second half performance that had even the most negative followers of the program shrugging their shoulders, applauding their team as they left the floor, and heading out into the casino with a sense of unnerving calm.

In the end, Colorado found a way to show just enough to keep those inside and outside of the program optimistic.

“One thing these guys did from a leadership standpoint…they took it upon ourselves and said we’re not going to go back to last year and that feeling,” Boyle explained about his seniors. “It’s still disappointing, but I’m real proud of Josh and the leadership he’s shown.”

Speaking of Scott, barring an unforeseen match-up in the latter rounds of the NCAA Tournament, that was the final time he’d lineup across from the Wildcats and Kaleb Tarczewski, the UA big man who had developed a friendly rivalry with Colorado’s homegrown star.

When asked to reflect on his days playing against Arizona, Scott provided the stock answer of complimenting their players, showing his respect for the program, and remembering the times that he came out on top.

But he didn’t forget one particular moment, way back when he was a freshman.

“I’ll always feel like that was stolen from us, my freshman year with the buzzer beater didn’t count,” he said.

His head coach, unsurprisingly, hasn’t forgotten either.

“Sabatino’s shot was good,” Boyle said with a smile. “Just for the record.”