Three questions ahead of Colorado's matchup with USC

The Colorado Buffaloes will look to bounce back from a tight loss to UCLA when they take on the USC Trojans Saturday night.

Here’s what we want to see:

Can the Buffs’ offense gel?

It was pretty easy to see that things weren’t going well for the Buffs on the offensive end of the court but it wasn’t always easy to pin down the reason why. Colorado made a better percentage of its 3-pointers and its field goals than UCLA did and the Buffs only had two more turnovers than the Bruins.

But Colorado only had eight assists in the loss to UCLA.

That isn’t nearly enough.

There’s plenty of blame to go around but it’s fair to expect point guard McKinley Wright IV to bear the brunt of it, despite leading the team with five assists.

Colorado will need to kick things into gear if it wants to take down USC on Saturday.

Will Colorado box out?

It isn’t a matter of capability, it’s solely a matter of effort.

This difference between wins and losses this season have often been whether Colorado could pull in defensive boards. Against UCLA, the Buffs gave up 13 offensive rebounds, the third most this season, and ended up losing the game.

Keeping the Trojans off the glass will be crucial against USC.

How does Dallas Walton fare?

The Buffs’ 7-footer only saw three minutes of action against UCLA, but that was expected.

Earlier in the week, head coach Tad Boyle said his usage of Walton will depend upon the matchup he faces in each game. Boyle added that USC is one of the teams with length in the frontcourt that would likely necessitate more playing time for Walton.

Walton could be key in bouncing back from the poor rebounding performance on Friday, but the bigger question is whether he can stack up against USC’s big men on the offensive end.

The No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes will take on the USC Trojans at 8:30 p.m. MST Saturday in Los Angeles. The game will be broadcast nationally on FS1.