CU doomed itself with mental mistakes

The 2019-20 college basketabll season will be remembered for its abrupt ending.

The 2019-20 Colorado Buffaloes basketball season will be remembered for the mistakes.

What was supposed to be the best season in CU history tanked in the final weeks. The Buffs stood on the brink of history for four-straight games, needing just one win to set a new all-time school record.

They didn’t get it.

The problems were mostly mental.

“When we miss shots, we put our heads down and it affects our defense,” star forward Tyler Bey said after what would turn out to be the season’s final game. “But we can’t have that. We’ve got to just keep our composure and just move on from it.”

In the last game of the season, there was a major defensive lapse; halfway through the first half, Buffs forward D’Shawn Schwartz ran into a Washington State player who was shooting a 3-pointer. The deep ball went on and so did the free throw. The lead jumped from six to 10.

Then, in the second half, Washington State extended its lead to 20 with another four-point play. This time, the call was on Bey.

Head coach Tad Boyle believes that’s the 18th time Colorado has fouled a jump-shooter this season.

“For some reason it just happens,” head coach Tad Boyle said. “I have to do a better job.”

Boyle has had his team work in this problem throughout the season, but there will likely be more work before next season’s opener.

“Maybe we‘be got to drill it more,” Boyle said. “We talk about it a lot. We show it on film a lot.”

The team wasn’t happy with how it ended the season.

“Obviously it sucks right now on the losing side,” point guard McKinley Wright IV said. “We came here to win a Pac-12 Championship and fell short. It’s not how we wanted it to be.”

The season ended abruptly but there’s plenty of reason for hope heading into the 2020-21 basketball season.

The biggest reason is the potential return of Wright and Bey.

“I love my team,” Wright said. “I’ll never give up on these guys. And especially these two, Tyler to my left and Coach Boyle, they believed in me since I stepped on campus. They’ve got my trust and I’ve got theirs.”