A week ago, after the Colorado men’s basketball team was routed at Utah, optimism still permeated the next meeting between head coach Tad Boyle and his staff.
Sure, it was ugly in Salt Lake City, a trip that ended with a 78-69 loss in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated. But point guard McKinley Wright, who missed the Utah game due to a shoulder injury, was on the comeback trail. And even though the Buffaloes still were another two-game road trip away from a turn in the schedule that finally would see CU playing at the CU Events Center far more frequently, Boyle figured the favorable turn in the schedule actually began this weekend in the Bay Area.
It simply didn’t happen.
While the Buffs managed a split over the weekend, winning for the first time at Cal since joining the Pac-12 Conference before squandering a lead at Stanford, the collapse against the Cardinal not only left the Buffs with a bitter taste in their collective mouths going into this week’s home dates against Oregon State and Oregon, but it also left CU squarely in the bottom third of the Pac-12 standings regardless of the Sunday night outcome between Washington State and Oregon.
“I thought the schedule turned after Utah,” Boyle said. “I fully expected to come to the Bay Area and get a sweep. We didn’t make that happen. That’s an opportunity that’s lost that we’re never going to get again. One thing about Stanford and Cal is we only get them once this year. Now we go back home and we get Oregon State and Oregon, but we only get them once. These games are becoming critically important. I said Cal was a must-win. Well, Oregon State (on Thursday) is a must-win. For us to do what we want to do, which is to finish in the top half of the league, we have to be able to do that.”
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