Two takeaways from the Buffs' 78-57 victory over USC

The No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes traveled to Galen Center Saturday night looking for retribution following their disappointing loss to UCLA two days prior, and they cashed in.

In a dominating win over the University of Southern California Trojans, Colorado took care of business with a 21-point victory. Winning in almost every major statistical category was great, but the Buffs passed the eye test as well. They were strong matching up with USC’s athletic bigs on the defensive end as well as capable shooting the ball on the offensive end.

In the first game of February, and as conference play begins to heat up, Colorado gave fans hope once again.

Here’s what went down Saturday night:

The frontcourt played lights-out

The Buffaloes came into the game Saturday night ready to fight after a poor game on the boards against UCLA, and the frontcourt led this charge. CU grabbed 1o more rebounds than the Trojans behind strong play from Tyler Bey and Evan Battey, as well as great minutes from Lucas Siewert and Dallas Walton.

To be honest, the rebounding took a backseat for this group due to their shooting numbers, as each one of them cashed in from deep to combine for 6-7 outside the arc. Such a percentage should not be counted on from the bigs but, Saturday night, it pushed Colorado’s team percentage to 47% from outside.

On top of that, Tyler Bey dominated the inside, including two highlight blocks and two even better dunks. Bey ultimately finished the night with 16 points and seven boards, as well as one technical foul caused by his intense celebration after a big slam.

Lucas Siewert continues his impressive play off the bench, dropping in 12 points and three rebounds to help the Buffs’ offense with dynamic post finishes and two makes from deep. This makes four straight games in which Siewert has double-digit scoring, aiding the Buffs rotation and giving a different look from the 4/5 position.

Such dynamic play from the inside opened up opportunities for the guards on the outside, giving them open looks as well as one-on-one matchups to take advantage of.

With McKinley Wright IV continuing his unreal statistical season (12 rebounds, 6 assists, and 8 rebounds Saturday) and Tyler Bey showcasing new ways to win each night, Colorado just needs to continue improving its consistency. They have shown their high ceiling as well as their low floor at times this year, but altogether the Buffs are trending up heading into the last month of regular season play.

The win helps cancel out the loss

USC sits tied for second in the conference with Colorado at 6-3 in-conference and 17-5 overall. In laymen’s terms, the Trojans are a strong basketball team.

With that in mind, the box score would indicate Colorado is that much better. They led the game in shooting percentage, 3-point percentage, free throw percentage, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. That’s just about all there is.

While it is important to take care of business against lower-tier teams (see tough losses against Oregon State and UCLA), it is equally important for the Buffs’ to play well against tournament-caliber teams, especially on the road.

It will be interesting to watch where CU stacks up in national rankings as well as NET and KenPom next week, as teams ahead of them continue to falter. College basketball is having one of its craziest seasons to date, with new teams flying in and out of the top rankings.

Looking ahead

Colorado will come back to Boulder to host California on Thursday night. Cal is not playing great basketball and should give the Buffs a warm-up in preparation for their showdown with Stanford two days after. However, no game should be overlooked, and the Buffs learned that the hard way last week.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. MST at the CU Events Center. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.