Buffs end regular season Wednesday
Even if the Buffs beat the bottom team in the Big 12 Wednesday, they will still be ninth in the conference.
If the women’s basketball team has any chance of making the NCAA tournament, it will need an extremely strong showing, if not an outright win, in the Big 12 tournament next week. A win over Missouri in their final regular season game will not be the deciding factor.
However, for seniors Jackie McFarland and Susie Powers, the Missouri game will still be huge because it is their final home game in a CU uniform.
The Buff season started out promising. The team climbed up to No. 23 in the nation. Marquee victories included those over Top 25 teams Wyoming and Vanderbilt.
Once the Buffaloes hit their peak, which head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said was in December, things stopped going so well.
“It is a lack of maturity,” McConnell-Miller said of the slump.
The Big 12 conference play began, and the Buffaloes dropped three of their first four games. They are now 4-11 in conference.
Powers and McFarland have played strong through the entire season, whether that was reflected in the team’s record.
Powers transferred to CU from Notre Dame after her sophomore season. Now in their third season together, she and McFarland are not just friends, they are also roommates.
“It’s nice having Susie to go with it through and see her smiling face,” McFarland said. “We’ve been close through the ups and the downs.”
In a sense, Wednesday’s game is nothing more than one of those “ups and downs.”
However, it also symbolizes the end of their collegiate basketball careers in the Coors Events Center.
“You come out as a senior, and for me, I was really excited coming into the season. I was going to treat everything like my last,” Powers said, “But now that the end is here, it’s really emotional.”
McFarland said she will not be able to hold back her emotions after Wednesday’s game ends.
“This game has given me more than I ever thought it could,” McFarland said.
McFarland and Powers will join their team against Missouri in their last game as a Buff at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Coors Events Center.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Brent New at brent.new@colorado.edu.
