BOULDER, Colo.—Stanford’s superior size and swarming defense took Colorado and its sellout crowd out of Thursday night’s game early.
Just as swiftly, the Cardinal put a damper the Buffaloes’ ascent toward the top of the Pac-12 standings by handing them their first league home loss with a 74-50 rout behind 20 points from Chasson Randle and a superb defensive effort.
“I don’t have much to say after that one other than it was just an old-fashioned butt-whipping that we took in every phase of the game,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “We let a golden opportunity slip by.”
Along with plenty of Cardinal players who had clear lanes to the basket and open shots on jumpers all night.
“I don’t know if we were nervous coming into the game, if we were too excited or what the deal was,” Buffs forward Austin Dufault said. “But for whatever reason, we just got down on ourselves the first few minutes of the game and we couldn’t score. And instead of locking in, defending and rebounding, we just kind of folded, and they just took it to us.”
The Cardinal (19-9, 9-7) swept the season series against the Buffaloes, whom Stanford beat 84-64 in Palo Alto, Calif., before losing six of nine.
They led this one wire to wire, jumping to a 9-1 lead when the Buffaloes missed their first seven shots and never recovered.
“We really wanted to set the tone early, and I think we did that,” Randle said.
The Buffs (18-9, 10-5) had gone 7-2 since that blowout at Stanford and had been the only unbeaten team at home (7-0) in Pac-12 play.
“We had a lot more to play for than Stanford did, but we sure didn’t act like it and play like it tonight,” Boyle said. “I didn’t see this coming. I’m surprised.”
After talking about catching California and Washington to claim their first conference crown since the 1960s, the Buffaloes were embarrassed before a sellout crowd that streamed to the exits midway through the second half.
“They have been terrific here,” Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said of the Buffs. “I’m just really proud of our guys. I thought our effort was great. It was really fun to watch our guys grow in an atmosphere like this.”
The Buffaloes have not won a conference crown since taking the 1968-69 Big Eight title. Colorado is now two games out of first place with three games left heading into a big game against Cal on Sunday.
“I feel like our fans that came out tonight got cheated,” Boyle said. “So we’ve got a lot of things to make up. We cannot and will not feel sorry for ourselves. … We’ve just got to figure out a way to compete against Cal.”
The Buffs match up better with the Bears than they do the Cardinal, with its superior size, length and even depth.
Stanford held Colorado to 20.7 percent shooting in the first half and led 40-20 at the break.
“At times it may have bothered them,” Dawkins said of Stanford’s size. “More importantly, I think just overall we were just active tonight. I thought our guys did a really good job of helping each other. Because we rotate. It was just a good team effort defensively.”
The Cardinal, which also got 11 points from John Gage, held the Buffs to 29.6 percent shooting overall, outrebounded them 50-26 and led by as many as 29 points before the subs finished things off.
“That’s two games in a row they’ve just beasted us on the boards, where it’s not even close,” Boyle said. “But we’ve played against teams with bigger, stronger, taller, faster players, and we’ve competed with them before.”
While Stanford’s size and athleticism bothered the Buffs, the Cardinal players were unaffected by the altitude.
“We came here to play basketball, not climb mountains,” cracked Stanford forward Dwight Powell.
Instead, the Buffs were the ones breathing heavily and grabbing their shorts, and Boyle said maybe he hadn’t pushed them hard enough at practice.
The Buffaloes were 4 of 19 from 3-point range—the Cardinal was 9 of 18—and the Buffaloes even had trouble at the line, making just 14 of 30 free throws.
Then they couldn’t get stops or rebounds at the other end.
“We let our offense get to our defense,” said Askia Booker, who led the Buffs with 12 points. “Shots weren’t falling, and I think that transferred right to our defense. Everyone’s heads were down, didn’t play defense, didn’t get back, didn’t catch shooters.”
Stanford started the second half with a 12-8 run, capped by Randle’s 3-pointer—which he rushed with the shot clock ticking down and Booker all over him. When the basket popped the net, Booker trotted back downcourt looking at his coach with a what-more-can-I-do? shrug.
Even when the Buffs did break down Stanford’s swarming defense, they had a hard time putting the ball through the hoop, missing several shots at the rim.
“We didn’t play well, OK?” Boyle said. “We’ve played well enough to beat some of the lower-echelon teams in our league. We’ve beaten a couple of the upper-echelon teams as well, but you don’t do it with the way we played tonight.
“And I don’t have any answer for why. I wish I did. I’m searching for answers.”
