Of course the Colorado women’s basketball team would have preferred to extend their stay in Kansas City, Missouri, last week and play in the Big 12 title game Sunday.
After the grind of the conference tournament and the regular season as a whole, however, the Buffaloes were also looking forward to a bit of a break.
Following a heartbreaking 48-47 loss to West Virginia in the Big 12 semifinals Saturday at T-Mobile Center, the Buffaloes took some time off. They’ll gather together for a weightlifting session Wednesday and return to practice Thursday.
“Oh, I definitely need a rest,” guard Zyanna Walker said. “You know, I kind of got a little banged up with this tournament, so rest is going to be really important just because we got some games left.”
Walker and the Buffs (22-11) played three games in three days in Kansas City, and itap been a grind of a season with 33 games, 12 of them since Feb. 1.
Next up for the Buffs is Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show, where they’ll find out where they’re going next. By the time they play again, on March 20 or 21, the Buffs will have had 13 or 14 days between games.
Walker has no doubt her team will be ready to go when itap time to play again.
“We still have the most important part of the season, March Madness, so, I mean, if you dwell (on the loss to West Virginia), itap just going to hurt you,” she said.
Team pride
Despite the grind, and the disappointment of the loss to West Virginia, head coach JR Payne was pleased with how her team performed in Kansas City, especially after two crushing losses to Utah and BYU in the final week of the regular season.
Had CU won either one of those final games of the regular season, it would have had a double-bye as the No. 4 seed. But they didn’t hang their heads and pout about missed opportunities after landing in the No. 6 seed.
“That takes a lot of fortitude to be that devastated at what we did last week, because we were crushed at missing the opportunity (against Utah),” CU head coach JR Payne said. “And then (Texas) Tech loses, and you have another opportunity, and then you lose again. Like, the emotional rollercoaster of that is pretty hard to recover from.
“So, to do what we did here, I mean, holy smokes. I’m really proud of that.”
Stepping up
Walker has been one of CU’s top players all season but was particularly impressive in the past two games — a 62-53 win against No. 20 Baylor and the narrow loss to 15th-ranked West Virginia.
Walker scored 19 points and had four rebounds, two assists and two steals against Baylor. She added 16 points and five rebounds against West Virginia.
“I’ve just been getting more comfortable (throughout the season),” said Walker, a transfer from Kansas State. “So, I just feel like I’m just taking what the defense gives me and just making sure I’m just controlling what I can control, like my effort and my defense, making sure I’m coming out aggressive with that.”
