BOULDER — Saturday, the Colorado men’s basketball team went through one of the worst losses of the Tad Boyle era.
Monday, the Buffaloes were focused on what lies ahead.
“Kids are resilient,” Coach Boyle said. “Kids are a lot more resilient than adults. We had a good film session, two good practices, so we’ll be ready to go.”
Boyle’s Buffaloes (3-1) host Air Force (3-1) on Tuesday and hope to have a much better performance than they did Saturday in their 56-33 loss at Wyoming.
“We’re not going to forget about it, but we’re not going to dwell on it,” Boyle said. “You don’t have time to do that during the season. We’re going to try to learn from it; recognize our mistakes, learn from our mistakes and try not to have them happen again. A lot of it is execution.”
A lot of it, but not all of it. Boyle said the biggest red flag from Saturday’s game was the Buffs’ demeanor when Wyoming started to pull away.
“When things don’t go (well) for us, when we face adversity, our heads go down, our daubers get down; it affects our body language, it affects our attitude,” Boyle said. “It’s a learning opportunity for us.”
Asked where the Buffs need to turn for leadership in those times, Boyle said, “It’s got to come from Josh Scott, as our leader, and hopefully it’ll come from Askia Booker; hopefully it’ll come from Xavier Talton and Xavier Johnson.”
Watching film of the Wyoming game together ought to help the Buffs, because their mistakes were glaring.
“Oh, they know,” Boyle said. “You can’t argue with the tape and what happened, you can’t argue with the score.”
Colorado will try to bounce back against an Air Force team that has won three in a row since a season-opening loss to Army. The Falcons are shooting 56.6 percent from the floor, including 50.6 percent from 3-point range.
“I’m not sure we can shoot 50 percent in an open gym,” Boyle said.
Colorado has won four in a row against the Falcons, including an 81-57 win at the academy last year, but Boyle expects a better challenge this time. Air Force has four senior starters, and coach Dave Pilipovich usually has his team playing disciplined ball, Boyle said.
“We better be ready,” Boyle said.
