Colorado will face challenges against Oregon but pace of play won't be among them

BOULDER — The Cal Bears held Colorado at arm’s length all night on Saturday. They led for more than 37 minutes but never led by more than nine points.

“I just feel like we just couldn’t really get over that hump tonight,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. “Unfortunately it’s like that sometimes.”

There were plenty of reasons for the Buffs’ upset loss on the road, which probably crushed their chances at a Pac-12 title; tough shooting nights from D’Shawn Schwartz and McKinley Wright IV, a missed goaltend in the game’s final minutes that led to a five-point swing, a disappointing night at the free throw line, etc.

But one of the reasons was Cal’s slow pace of play.

“Because of that slow pace you look up and it feels like the first quarter or the first half or saying ‘I’ve just started’ but you know it’s 12 minutes left,” senior forward Jeriah Horne said after the game. “It’s just big chunks just kind of disappearing and it’s like, ‘Man, we haven’t really been playing.'”

Wright made a similar point.

“You know how slow they’re gonna play and that they’re 300 something in the country with their offensive pace and how slow they play and use the whole shot clock,” Wright said.

Cal’s pace wasn’t a surprise for the Buffs, according to Boyle.

“We were expecting that coming in and we prepared for that,” Boyle said. “It’s just the way Cal’ playing and they’re 316th in pace of play nationally, so you know we’re not the only team they do it on. They do it on everybody and that’s just how they have to play to stay in games and they do a good job of it.”

Boyle made the same points to his team before this game that he did before the Buffs played Cal last season, according to Wright.

“He told us last year, ‘Now we play to their pace,’ and we rushed some shots and today he told us we couldn’t do that and we did the same thing,” Wright said. “Our coaches drew up a perfect scouting report for us. We’ve got to execute better, man.”

Boyle agreed.

“I thought we were talking about the right things in our huddles, and our mindset was good, we just didn’t go out and get it done,” Boyle said.

Now, Colorado turns its focus to Oregon, which ranks right in the middle of the pack nationally with 71.3 possessions per game. Pace of play shouldn’t throw off the Buffaloes, but plenty of other issues remain.

The game will be an important one to both sides. Oregon is one spot ahead of the fourth-place Buffaloes in the standings and this game could go a long way in determining who finishes in front.

Additionally, the Pac-12 added four previously-postponed games to the schedule on Thursday, and two of them could impact Colorado.

First, Oregon will play at USC. Since both teams are in front of Colorado, it’s definitely good news that one will receive one more loss between now and the end of the season. USC would need another loss (not including the remaining game against Colorado) to be back within Colorado’s reach, but an Oregon loss would, of course, be huge for the Buffs in the standings.

The second game is Stanford at USC. Again, a pair of losses from USC down the stretch would give Colorado a chance to overtake them when the teams play in Boulder next weekend, but the Buffs would have to win out for this to come into play. Stanford is one game back of Colorado in the standings, so a loss would give Colorado some breathing room.

Although the Buffs got some help on Thursday from the Pac-12, the key to the season’s final two weeks will still be avoiding losses to Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and USC. Saturday’s performance doesn’t bode well for the Buffs but Wright found solace in the effort he saw from his team.

“I really felt like guys really we wanted this one and we see ourselves playing at a high level so we’ve got to continue to work, go back to practice, push each other because this one game doesn’t define our season but we do have to continue to push,” Wright said.