One and Done: A foreshadowed ending to Colorado's season

DES MOINES – The ending of every story has usually been foreshadowed along the way. That was certainly the case for the 2015-16 Colorado Buffaloes. On the biggest stage, The Buffaloes saw a substantial second-half lead slip away for the umpteenth time this year, as they fell to the Huskies of Connecticut, by the score of 74-67.

“We’re up nine at the free throw line with two foul shots, we miss it, they come down get a three, we turn it over,” head coach Tad Boyle remembered of the momentum shift halfway through the second period. “You look at three things that cost us this game and one of them is turnovers at inopportune times, the overall number wasn’t too bad, 12. But inopportune turnovers, lack of rebounding in the second half. They dominated us in the second half. We didn’t do a very good job rebounding the ball. Not able to finish. We weren’t able to finish at critical times in the game.”

There are a plethora of places to look when searching for the source of the Buffaloes undoing, none more prevalent than the inability to handle UConn’s increase in pressure as the momentum began to shift.

“We knew the pressure was coming,” a disappointed Boyle stated. “How do you handle the pressure? You have to attack the pressure. We didn’t attack the pressure. We wilted. We turned it over. We didn’t attack it and handle it like we needed to. That was of the difference in the game. They exerted their will on us and we weren’t able to answer the bell.”

The meltdown was a scene that was seen all-too-often for Colorado.

“It’s really frustrating, it happened so many times this year,” admitted point guard Dom Collier. “We talk about it after every game and during the week of practice, so for it to happen today it hurts. This is the NCAA Tournament, nobody wants to go home at this point in the year. Now we have to wait until November to play another game and that’s the worst feeling in the world as a basketball player.”

The ending of every story has usually been foreshadowed along the way. For the Buffaloes, it was their inability to hold a lead that they were warned about all along the way. But as the ending will be most memorable, it’s easy to forget the beginning.

As the Buffaloes took to the floor in the first game of the season against Iowa State, only the most optimistic Colorado fans would have predicted the Buffaloes making the NCAA Tournament and tying the program record for regular-season wins. Boyle vowed to Colorado fans that last season’s disappointing campaign would be an outlier, “The future of Colorado basketball is bright,” he said. The head coach promised to coach with an extra intensity, a different edge to make sure the Buffaloes stood where they did today and he came through.

“Like I said, I’ve loved this team,” he said, putting the crushing loss behind him for a second. “I’ve loved coaching this team and it’s been a privilege to coach this team because of what they brought to the practice floor most days, and certainly how hard they’ve fought and their toughness and bounce back ability. . . You saw it again tonight. We didn’t play well for a big stretch in that second half, but they didn’t give up. This team has great fight, resiliency, toughness, and we’ve got a lot of good guys coming back.”

As he stepped from the podium at the end of another season, Boyle went back to a familiar phrase.

“The future of Colorado basketball is bright,” he said. “The future of Colorado basketball is in good hands in terms of the players we have in our program and the ones we have coming in.”

“We will be back here.”