A week ago, the sky was falling for the Colorado men’s basketball team.
Exposed by a hot-shooting Colorado State team in the first loss of the season, the Buffaloes returned to Boulder to face finals week and address a number of defensive shortcomings.
The Buffs still have plenty to prove, particularly with Big 12 Conference play drawing closer. Yet with another well-rounded win in the books, the outlook no longer seems so dim.
CU got back on track on Saturday with a thorough 88-64 victory against Texas-San Antonio, using a monster second half to improve to 9-1 — the program’s best 10-game start since the 2015-16 team also started 9-1 (eventually reaching 11-1).
“When we have five guys out there playing together offensively and defensively, this team can be as good as they want to be,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “The sky’s the limit.”
Despite the slow start against UTSA, Saturday’s victory included all the earmarks of the elements that led to CU’s first 8-0 start in 76 years. The Buffs were extremely efficient offensively, shooting .622 in the second half, while recording 21 assists against 11 turnovers for the game. CU still hasn’t been outrebounded in any of its 10 games and posted its top rebounding margin of the season at plus-14. The defense rallied late, holding the Roadrunners to a .333 mark in the second half while forcing 16 turnovers overall, the most by a Buffs foe this season.
With finals complete, the Buffs will have several weeks to focus solely on basketball.
“We’ll have a lot of time on our hands because we won’t have to worry about class,” CU freshman guard Josiah Sanders said. “Everybody just getting in, getting their individual work and then at practice a lot of little things, like jumping to the ball on defense on help-side. Just a lot of those little things that we need to kind of rep-out. We’ll have time to get in and watch film and then rep it out a lot more as well. I think it will be a productive couple weeks.”
The Buffs have just three nonconference games remaining, a stretch that continues at home on Wednesday against Portland State (7 p.m., ESPN+). Colorado then travels to Phoenix for a neutral-court battle against former Pac-12 rival Stanford on Saturday, and afterward the Buffs will be allowed to travel home for a few days before reconvening ahead of the nonconference finale at home against Northern Colorado on Dec. 28.
CU then opens Big 12 play at Arizona State on Jan. 3 in a showdown that is shaping up to be a battle between two of the league’s most prominent pleasant surprises during the season’s early stages.
“We’ve really got an opportunity to dig in in the next three-four weeks, because they’ve got nothing else on their mind now. It’s all hoops from sunup to sundown,” Boyle said. “You get your rest, you get better, get stronger in the weight room. A lot of improvement can be made over these next three to four weeks as we head into conference play.”
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