Contact CU Independent Men’s Basketball Beat Writer Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu and follow her on Twitter @crazysportgirl1.
With confidence spiking after two consecutive home wins against talented schools, the University of Colorado men’s basketball team must regroup as it heads to the Pacific Northwest to face Washington on Wednesday and Washington State University on Saturday.
Last Sunday on their home court, the Buffaloes took down the Oregon Ducks 91-87 as they stormed to a raucous four-point victory after 15 lead changes and seven tied scores. This, of course, was preceded by an even bigger margin of victory over Oregon State last Wednesday night, 71-54.
Against Oregon, the Buffs looked excellent from nearly all areas of the floor. They shot 50 percent from the field on 58 attempts and were especially efficient from long range, going eight of 14 on 3-pointers. Colorado also went to the line 32 times and converted 25 of those opportunities.
More impressive than those numbers were the stats that came from the bench. As a whole, the four players that came off the bench and scored for Colorado combined for 45 total points, almost half of CU’s overall total. By the game’s end, Colorado had five scorers in the double-digits.
With a 14-4 record overall, and a 3-2 mark in conference, the Buffs sit at fourth in the Pac-12 behind No. 21 USC, Washington and No. 12 Arizona. At second in the conference, the Washington Huskies are 12-5 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Some of their most notable wins came against then-No. 25 UCLA, USC and most recently, Arizona State.
The Huskies boast serious firepower from the likes of guards Andrew Andrews (21.4 points per game), Dejounte Murray (15 ppg), David Crisp (10.1 ppg) and forward Marquese Chriss (11 ppg). Expect head coach Tad Boyle to put the burden of guarding Andrews on the shoulders of the sophomore Dom Collier and freshman Thomas Akyazili, while leaving the responsibility of Chriss to Pac-12 Player of the Week, senior forward Josh Scott.
The Huskies are shooting roughly 41.8 percent from the field this season and 33.4 percent from deep, whereas the Buffs are shooting 44.7 percent from all areas of the hardwood and a near-40 percent from behind the arc.
If the Buffs come out clawing and can control their hold on the ball without committing too many turnovers, they have a good chance of winning this one. If they play as well as they did on Sunday night against Oregon, there’s no reason the Buffs can’t come out on top.
Now onto Washington State.
The Cougars, on the other hand, are at the opposite end of the spectrum from their in-state rival. They currently sit at last place in the Pac-12 with a 9-8 overall, 1-4 conference record with their only notable win occurring against No. 25 UCLA at the beginning of 2016.
That’s not to say Washington State doesn’t have tricks up its sleeve, though. The Cougars have two players averaging double-digits as of late, led by Josh Hawkinson with 16.8 ppg and Ike Iroegbu at 14.2 ppg.
What the Buffs will really have to watch out for with this team is its 3-point shooting, 37.8 percent. Hawkinson and Iroegbu are especially lethal from that area of the floor, so they’ll have to take extra care to contain those two.
If these areas are covered, there isn’t much of a chance of the Buffs losing this game. They should finish the road trip 2-0 if they play at their best.
The Buffs head first to Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 20 to play at 8 p.m. before heading to Washington State on Saturday, Jan. 23 to play at 7 p.m. Both games will be broadcast through the Pac-12 family of networks.
