Tad Boyle was ready to bury the past.
Colorado had just defeated No. 10 Oregon at home Jan. 28 to provide a soothing salve in what had been an otherwise miserable first half of its Pac-12 schedule. The Buffaloes had dropped their first seven conference games, each more agonizing than the last. In the span of three weeks, the optimism that CU carried into a new year had been gashed.
But big upsets have a way of emboldening teams searching for traction.
“The joy and togetherness in that locker is something we can build on,” Boyle promised after the victory over Oregon. “The first nine games are in the rear-view mirror.”
Build they have. The Buffs begin this week’s road trip — they play at Oregon State on Thursday and visit No. 7 Oregon on Saturday — with victories in five of their last six games. CU is not on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Not close. At No. 107 in the RPI entering Wednesday, the Buffs are below Colorado State, which is 101st and owns a win over CU this season. The lowest RPI an at-large team in the tournament has ever had was No. 67, which was Southern California’s slot in 2011.
Yet, with games against the Oregon schools followed by home games against Stanford, California and Utah, a 4-1 finish seems attainable. Throw in a first-round victory in the Pac-12 tournament and the Buffs would have 20 wins in a season that was on the verge of spiraling out of control. This is now a team using it considerable talent to play the brand of basketball — defensive toughness, strong on the boards, quick movers of the ball — that has been a trademark of most of Boyle’s teams in his seven years in Boulder.
“Guys have been coming out like if we are down 20 at the (start) and playing better on the defensive end,” freshman guard Bryce Peters said after CU blasted 81-49 on Sunday. “So when we start playing together, they give us the ball and that is when we go on runs.”
This second-half surge, the fuse of which has been lit by a fresh intensity, gives the Buffs plenty of reasons to look forward. No, they aren’t on the NCAA bubble. Yes, it’ll take a near miracle run through the Pac-12 tournament to grab one of the 68 spots in the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs, though, are on a run that is making coming to the gym fun again, and that’s been motivation in itself.
Yet, while Boyle directs his gaze and that of his team forward, it’s hard not to take a look at what could have been. Of CU’s seven losses in league play, four came down to the final possession, and two of those were in overtime. The ghosts — of a rebound not collected or a defensive stop that never came — are haunting. Had the Buffs found a way to win all of those games, they would be 19-7 and playing the ‘Which region do you think we’ll land in” parlor game.
Even two more victories would have had the Buffs at least able to see the bubble.
That bubble is nowhere in sight, at least right now. Oh, what could have been.