Boulder – Outgoing Colorado men’s basketball coach Ricardo Patton already has removed personal effects from his office. The Buffaloes’ RPI power ranking was terrible, its win-loss record worse.
Frustration had reached a boiling point Tuesday night in an ugly loss at Baylor when two Colorado players got into a shoving match during a first-half timeout.
Would anyone have given CU a chance on Saturday against 12th- ranked Oklahoma State?
“We did,” CU junior guard Richard Roby said moments after scoring 20 points in the Buffs’ 89-77 victory – the most stunning upset by any Big 12 team since conference play began. Colorado’s string of defeating at least one ranked team was extended to five consecutive seasons, a trend that most expected would end this season.
But don’t tell that to the Buffaloes.
“We knew we had it in us,” Roby said. “We just needed to put a whole game together.”
A Coors Events Center crowd of 3,470 watched one of the smallest players on the court, CU’s 6-foot-3 senior guard Dominique Coleman, slither and sky for 21 points and 15 rebounds. Against one of the league’s top backcourts, freshman point guard Kal Bay buried five 3-pointers and tied Coleman for game-high honors with 21 points, matching Bay’s career best.
CU won the rebounding battle (45-35) and never trailed after Roby finished a spin move along the baseline to put his team up 27-26. The Buffs, looking more like a conference contender than cellar-dweller, likely shocked the college basketball world by finishing the first half with a 19-3 run to take a 44-29 lead into the break.
CU (6-13, 2-7) played its most complete game of the season against a confident Oklahoma State squad (18-4, 4-3) with the top one-two punch in the Big 12 in senior forward Mario Boggan and junior guard JamesOn Curry. The Cowboys have defeated Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Texas, and expect to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.
March Madness for CU will mean getting giddy over a new coach.
“There is no excuse for how we played,” said Curry, who led the visitors with 20 points. “We definitely took (this game) lightly.”
That’s not giving Colorado enough credit. CU limited OSU to 38.8-percent shooting. And the Buffs made enough big plays during the second half when the Cowboys went inside to Boggan and began to chip away.
A dagger 3-pointer by Bay with 14:47 left made it 58-41. And 15-for-18 free-throw shooting during the final four minutes calmed some nerves and enabled the Buffs to hold on despite not scoring a field goal for a 5 1/2-minute stretch until Coleman’s layup with 26 seconds left.
“I thought our guys played one terrific defensive game,” Patton said. “If you just keep plugging along … these guys worked hard enough to deserve some success.”
OKLAHOMA STATE (18-4, 4-3 BIG 12)
Boggan 6-11 4-8 17, Dove 1-3 3-5 5, Cooper 1-4 0-0 2, Eaton 6-16 5-6 19, Curry 7-17 2-3 20, Harris 2-8 1-1 6, Bowman 0-0 0-0 0, Hatch 1-2 0-0 3, Monds 2-6 1-1 5. Totals 26-67 16-24 77.
COLORADO (6-13, 2-7)
Williams 3-8 0-0 8, Silas 3-11 2-3 9, King-Stockton 1-1 0-1 2, Roby 5-10 9-11 20, Bay 6-9 4-4 21, Coleman 5-10 10-15 21, Thorne 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson-Wilson 3-4 2-4 8, Kowal 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 27-38 89.
Halftime – Colorado 44-29. 3-point goals – Oklahoma St. 9-26 (Curry 4-9, Eaton 2-9, Hatch 1-1, Boggan 1-2, Harris 1-5), Colorado 10-21 (Bay 5-7, Williams 2-3, Coleman 1-2, Roby 1-3, Silas 1-6). Fouled out – Dove, King-Stockton, Monds. Rebounds – Oklahoma St. 35 (Boggan 8), Colorado 45 (Coleman 15). Assists – Oklahoma St. 14 (Eaton 4), Colorado 15 (Jackson-Wilson 5). Total fouls – Oklahoma St. 31, Colorado 25. A – 3,470.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
