Tad Boyle has brought all sorts of Colorado men’s basketball teams into the conference tournaments.
Three of them reached championship games and one of those, 14 years ago, won a conference title. There have been CU teams riding waves of late momentum and others that stumbled down the stretch. A few were good enough to earn first-round byes and one, last year’s bunch of Buffs, had the dubious honor of being the tournamentap lowest seed.
Yet with only one exception, the rest of Boyle’s previous 15 CU teams share a commendable distinction. All but that lone exception have won at least one game at the conference tournament.
Itap a streak the Buffs intend to keep intact on Tuesday night, when they square off against Oklahoma State in the final first-round game of the 2026 Big 12 Conference tournament.
The only time under Boyle the Buffs have failed to advance out of their conference tournament opener was in the first round of the 2020 Pac-12 tournament, when CU lost to Washington State in one of the final college basketball games completed before the start of the COVID pandemic canceled the remainder of the postseason. Even last year’s team, which finished with a last-place league mark of 3-17, won a pair of games at the Big 12 tournament before losing to Houston in the quarterfinals.
“Obviously there’s a lot of respect in the conference and you want to leave a last good impression,” CU forward Bangot Dak said. “I feel like whether you’re going to March Madness or not, thatap your league. Thatap your conference. You want to go out and win that. You just want to go out and be able to show things to some teams that you probably weren’t able to do in the season, or some teams you played on a bad night, or a team that maybe came in and caught you on a hot night.
“We just feel like, going into this conference, just take advantage of the games we have. Itap just really going to be the team that wants to keep playing.”
The 11th-seeded Buffs defeated 14th-seeded Oklahoma State 83-69 at home on Feb. 21. The Cowboys’ leading scorer that night was 6-foot-10 forward Parsa Fallah, who went 4-for-9 from the field and 6-for-9 at the free throw line before finishing with 14 points.
Fallah, though, suffered season-ending torn ACL in OSU’s next game, a win against West Virginia. OSU lost two of its final three regular season games, but the win was a high-scoring affair (111-104) on the road at UCF, and the Cowboys are coming off a competitive loss against No. 7 Houston.
Oklahoma State has featured a high-octane offense through much of the season, but the Cowboys displayed a willingness to slow the tempo during Saturday’s loss against Houston. In Big 12 games, the Cowboys ranked fourth in the league in points per game (79.5) but, in a testament to OSU’s pace, they ranked just 13th in field goal percentage (.433).
The Cowboys are one of the few Big 12 teams whose defensive struggles have outpaced those of the Buffs, with OSU ranking 11th in league games in defensive field goal percentage (.472), 15th in defensive 3-point percentage (.381) and last in points allowed (85.6).
“The first-round games, to me, are usually won by the team that does not want their season to end. We have to be that team more than Oklahoma State,” Boyle said. “Oklahoma State’s been playing well. They went down to Central Florida and won on the road. They played Houston really well. My guess is they’ll be ready. But we’ve got to get mentally, and emotionally, and physically, ready to play. Thatap our job as a coaching staff. Itap our players’ job to get that mindset right and letap go win a game in Kansas City.”
(14) Oklahoma State vs. (11) CU Buffs men’s basketball
TIPOFF: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. MT, T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
TV/RADIO: ESPN+/KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM.
RECORDS: Oklahoma State 18-13, 6-12 Big 12 Conference; Colorado 17-14, 7-11.
COACHES: Oklahoma State — Steve Lutz, 2nd season (35-31, 104-66 overall); Colorado — Tad Boyle, 16th season (329-218, 385-284 overall).
KEY PLAYERS: Oklahoma State — G Anthony Roy, 6-5, Sr. (16.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg, .395 3%); G Vyctorius Miller, 6-5, So. (11.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg, .381 3%); G Kanye Clary, 6-0, Jr.. (10.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.7 apg, .362 3%); G Jaylen Curry, 6-1, Jr. (10.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.7 apg, .423 FG%); G Christian Coleman, 6-8, Sr. (9.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg, .489 FG%); G Isaiah Coleman, 6-5, Jr. (6.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg, .489 FG%). Colorado — G Isaiah Johnson, 6-1, Fr. (17.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 3.0 apg, .494 FG%, .388 3%); G Barrington Hargress, 6-1, R-Jr. (14.1 ppg, 4.4 apg, .531 FG%, .495 3%); F Sebastian Rancik, 6-11, So. (12.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 2.0 apg); F Bangot Dak, 7-0, Jr. (11.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg, .479 FG%); F Alon Michaeli, 6-9, Fr. (6.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg); G Jalin Holland, 6-5, Fr. (4.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg); G Josiah Sanders, 6-5, Fr. (4.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg, .478 FG%); C Elijah Malone, 6-10, Gr. (4.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg, .515 FG%).
NOTES: The winner will play sixth-seeded TCU in the final second-round game on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. MT, ESPN2 or ESPNU). … On Sunday, the Buffs handed out their annual team awards at the year-end banquet. Johnson and Hargress shared the Chauncey Billups Most Valuable Player Award while Holland and fellow freshman Ian Inman shared the Most Improved Award. … Rancik has missed the past two games due to an injury. … Dak led the way for the Buffs during the Feb. 21 win against OSU, recording 17 points and seven rebounds. Hargress went 3-for-6 on 3-pointers with 16 points and eight assists. … OSU ranked seventh in Big 12 games with a .345 3-point percentage, but CU held the Cowboys to a 5-for-23 mark last month in Boulder. … CU went 2-1 in neutral-floor games during the regular season, defeating San Francisco and Washington at the Acrisure Holiday Classic in November before losing to Stanford a month later in Phoenix. OSU also went 2-1 in neutral-floor games.
