Time and time again when analyzing a team’s record, it is important to look at the good wins compared to the bad losses.
Thursday night, the No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes took a bad loss.
In the 72-68 defeat at the hands of the UCLA Bruins, Colorado had a rude reality check after jumping up into the national limelight. They wave they were riding after sweeping the Washington schools crashed quickly in the first half, as UCLA jumped ahead and finished the first half up 13.
Although the Buffs’ made a valiant effort down the stretch to close the gap, they could not catch enough breaks to make up for the halftime deficit.
Here’s what went down on Thursday night:
The shooting was not the problem
For one of the first times in a loss, Colorado cannot blame this performance on its shooting numbers. The Buffs’ had better percentages from three as well as the field and had just two fewer makes from the charity stripe.
So, where did it all go wrong?
The Bruins dominated both the offensive and defensive boards, grabbing 10 more rebounds than Colorado. The extra possessions they attained helped lead to nine additional shot attempts.
Colorado lacked urgency in rebounding, which is an aspect of their game that head coach Tad Boyle emphasized during the Washington games last weekend. The problem stemmed from the combination of Evan Battey’s foul trouble and poor effort from the guards to get back to the glass.
Another huge factor was the explosion from UCLA’s Chris Smith, as he dropped 30 points and nine rebounds to lead the game in both areas. The junior guard was a matchup nightmare for Colorado, as his speed allowed him to blaze into the post while his height gave the Buffs’ no choice but to play their bigs against him.
The matchups do not get any easier moving forward, as USC’s Nick Rakocevic is a scoring machine and dynamic player for his size at 6-foot-11.
It is time to get back to basics
Colorado crushed Washington by doing two things above all else: playing loose and playing strong.
No, not loose with the ball and without urgency. Loose by letting the game come to them and not deciding the outcomes of plays before they happened. Too often this season players have talked about overthinking plays because of how they should run rather than analyzing the defense and playing to their strengths.
While playing loose offensively helps lead to points, they need strength to beat a team defensively. The rebounding numbers are not acceptable and will not get this team out of the first round come March. If this season’s goal is to simply make the tournament, they are on a great pace to do so, but the expectations must be higher.
This is one of the most experienced rosters in college basketball with a wide range of abilities and athleticism. Colorado went away from what worked in their previous victories by only playing Dallas Walton for three minutes on Thursday.
The matchup did not favor a big seven-footer like against the Huskies, but Walton has been making steady progress and was beginning to carve his own role out in the rotation. Looking forward, Walton should try and get more involved early to establish a presence in the post and force Tad Boyle into a rotational problem in the best way possible.
This loss is a tough one to the record, but only dropped Colorado’s NET ranking from No. 17 to No. 20. A three-spot drop after a loss to an 11-10 team is at least one bright spot to point to.
Looking ahead
Colorado will have a chance to bounce back on Saturday night as they travel to USC to take on a strong Trojans team. USC sits second in the Pac-12 and will be a strong battle with some of the conference’s top players squaring off.
Although the Buffs fell to an inferior opponent in UCLA, they can help their national rankings and overall confidence by closing out the weekend on top.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MST on FS1.
