Colorado is putting the pieces together at the right time

BOULDER — The landscape changes quickly in college basketball.

Just a week ago, the Colorado Buffaloes were in a tough position. They’d lost two of their last four games, to a pair of teams in the bottom half of the Pac-12. In one of the games, Colorado blew a 19-point lead. Andy Katz of NCAA.com didn’t project the Buffs to make the NCAA Tournament. A few days later, Colorado blew another big lead, but managed to pull out a win in the closing minutes.

Now, Colorado is in third place in the conference, just one game back of the leader, USC, and the Buffs still have games in Boulder against both of the teams in front of them.

And head coach Tad Boyle isn’t looking back.

“The Utah game was in the past,” Boyle told reporters Thursday after Colorado’s 69-51 road win over Stanford. “I mean, believe me, I think about it more often than I should. But our players don’t. And that’s a good thing.”

The 10-day stretch the Buffs endured was, admittedly, difficult. But this is a team that is less than 12 months removed from a season-ending five-game losing streak. Colorado knows adversity.

“I think what you’re seeing with this team is a bunch of seniors who know what happened last year—they had the NCAA Tournament pulled out from underneath them last year,” Boyle said. “They don’t want to let that happen again this year, and they’re sacrificing off the court, they’re sacrificing for each other on the court. This is a really cohesive group and mature group.”

It’s easy to imagine how the team is sacrificing off the court—extra time spent shooting after practice, more time watching film, vets helping out the younger players in the rotation, etc.—but the sacrifices on the court are just as important.

McKinley Wright has the ability to score 20 on command, but he moves the ball to whoever is open. Jeriah Horne has been as valuable as anybody other than Wright, and he’s coming off the bench. When healthy, Jabari Walker is as talented as anybody but his usage depends on those ahead of him in the rotation.

“On the offensive end, everything is just such balanced,” Boyle said. “I mean, you had seven or eight or nine guys that gave you 8, 9, 10 points right in that area. Very, very good. When this team shares the ball, and we don’t care who gets the credit, or who gets the shots, we’ve got it because we got so many weapons, and whether it’s inside whether it’s on the perimeter.”

And if basketball coaches like an unselfish offense, they love defensive effort.

Junior Eli Parquet and senior D’Shawn Schwartz have led the way defensively this season, along with Wright. Both players have taken massive steps forward on that side of the ball and were key contributors, not just against Stanford, but throughout Colorado’s three-game winning streak.

“Eli is a lockdown defender, it’s something he’s taking pride in,” Boyle said. “His teammates appreciate that about him. And when you have players like that, who accept their role and understand how what their value is to the team. It’s it’s really special and Eli’s value to this team is immeasurable. And you don’t see it on the stat sheet. You see it if you watch the game, you watch him guard. And, you know he’s made big open shots for us. But he’s he’s, he’s really coming into his own. Really proud of Eli Parquet, and this is a this is a big breakout year for him. I’ve always said ‘You know, when sophomores become juniors, it’s time for them to play like upperclassmen’ and Eli’s playing like an upperclassman.”

With five games left on the schedule, including one each against USC and UCLA, the time is now for Colorado to make its regular-season title run. If the Buffs win out, there’s a good chance they’ll be crowned champion. If they don’t, the odds become longer but a championship certainly wouldn’t be out of the question.

Next up is the second half of the road trip, against Cal at 8 p.m. MST Saturday.

“I told them after the game, ‘Good teams split on the road in Pac-12 play. Great teams sweep,’ and we did the first part,” Boyle said. “Now we’ve got to turn our attention to Cal, which we’ll do tonight, and prepare for them tomorrow and then make a great, great effort on Saturday.”

Following a pair of wins in which the average margin of victory was over 20 points, Colorado will be favored over last-place Cal on Saturday, but things change quickly in college basketball and it wouldn’t be the first time a favorite lost a late-season road game in the Pac-12.

Hopefully, the Buffs can keep it rolling.