Los Angeles: A windmill, woodwinds and a whirlwind win for the Buffs and Colorado fans.
Senior guard Carlon Brown’s windmill dunk with 58 seconds remaining in the game put a giant exclamation point on an upset victory over the No.2-seeded University of California. The Buffs band, C-Unit student section members and thousands that occupy BuffNation rose to their feet and chanted, “One more day!” as the buzzer sounded and the Buffs took home the historic 70-59 victory.
Above, Carlon Brown goes for a lay up in the Feb. 4 win over Oregon. In the Pac-12 Tournament on Friday the Buffs upset Cal in a 70-59 win in Los Angeles. The Buffs move on to play against Arizona on Saturday in the championship game. (CU Independent File/James Bradbury)
Colorado is headed to the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game against the University of Arizona today at 4 p.m. MST with an invigorated spirit.
“I told the team tonight I think we found our heart,” said CU head coach Tad Boyle. “I really do.”
Colorado looked tired even before the ball was tipped as this was their third game in three nights. But there was no way that they were going to let Cal breeze their way into Saturday’s championship game.
“Right now we have a team that’s really mentally tough, and guys are playing banged up and through fatigue,” said senior forward Austin Dufault, who scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half. “Tomorrow I think we’re going to be playing on a lot of adrenaline, and that’s really what’s going to have to fuel us.”
Boyle pointed to his seniors, and they stepped up throughout. Brown, who was stiff and had his knees swell up on him the night before, was a huge factor. He made several key plays both offensively and defensively late in the second half.
“Carlon’s playing with a sense of urgency right now that I love,” Boyle said. The University of Utah transfer has eased into his role as a leader and others are looking to him, now more than ever, to be the big guy in critical situations. “I think it’s really infected our team.”
CU will go to the conference title game for the first time since 1990. The Buffs have knocked off the University of Utah, the University of Oregon and now Cal; the latter two are both bubble teams.
But while, according to experts, Colorado may still be on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament, Boyle doesn’t want to overlook the matters at hand.
“I don’t want to talk about bubbles, I don’t want to talk about the NCAA Tournament,” Boyle said. “We want to just come here and get the job done.”
A task that, at this point, seems more probable than possible. Expect the Buffs to be ready to fight.
“We just want to come out and compete and lay it on the line and play Colorado basketball,” Boyle said. A win would leave no doubt, and assure Colorado of at spot on the dance floor. “If we can do that, we’ll live with the results.”
Dunk Contest
Carlon Brown and sophomore forward Andre Roberson took to the skies and used huge dunks to spark the Buffs. They aren’t the only ones who rattled the rim in the semifinals against Cal, though.
Asked who had the better dunk, Brown or Roberson…
Austin Dufault: “What about mine (laughing).”
Carlon Brown: “I don’t want to get into all of that. I’m going to let the Twitter Nation be the judge of that.”
These guys have really responded to challenges at halftime over the last couple of nights. They’ve been playing with unbelievable heart and desire.
What road woes?
Coming into the Pac-12 Tournament, Colorado had only five wins away from the Coors Events Center. A win against Saturday would mean the Buffs’ fourth of the tournament, nearly doubling their previous away-game total.
“I think we’re a good road team,” Boyle said. “I know our record doesn’t say we’re a great road team, but I think we’re a good road team, and we’re obviously getting better.”
Climb to the top
Preseason polls pitted the Buffs to finish 9th in the Pac-12 Conference. Even after beating that mark and finishing in 6th place in the Pac-12 regular season, Colorado didn’t seem to be satisfied.
“We’ve got a bunch of competitive guys, and they didn’t like where we were picked,” Boyle said. We don’t blame people for doing it, it was fuel and food for us to motivate ourselves.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Andy McDonnell at Andrew.mcdonnell@colorado.edu.
