KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Colorado managed just three wins in the entire Big 12 regular-season slate.
Now the 16th-seeded Buffaloes are riding a two-game winning streak as they prepare to face eighth-seeded West Virginia in the second round of the conference tournament on Wednesday.
Colorado (13-19) opened tournament play with a 69-67 win on Tuesday against TCU — the same team the Buffaloes beat 76-56 on Saturday in Boulder, Colo. Now the Buffaloes will have to defeat the Mountaineers to keep their season alive.
On Tuesday, the Buffaloes opened the second half on a 14-1 run to grab a 40-28 lead after less than five minutes. Colorado managed to maintain the advantage the rest of the way, although TCU made it a one-possession game in the final minute.
Andrej Jakimovski led Colorado with 18 points, and Julian Hammond III scored 16.
“I would say that when you don’t play your best — and we were far from our best today — and you figure out how to win a game in March, it says something about your guys,” Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle said postgame.
“This team has come a long way. We’ve been through a lot together and they’ve stuck together, and to see them with the fight today, even though we didn’t play our best, (is impressive). I mean, you give up 22 offensive rebounds, you turn it over 15 times and you win, it’s kind of a head-scratcher.”
Style points don’t count in the postseason, so now the Buffaloes get an inconsistent West Virginia team. The Mountaineers (19-12) have not won or lost more than two consecutive games since January.
They will have a significant rest advantage, having last played on Saturday when they beat UCF 72-65 in Morgantown, W.Va.
West Virginia earned a 78-70 win at Colorado on Jan. 12, with four Mountaineers scoring in double figures. Coach Darian DeVries hopes for more balanced offense in the Big 12 tournament.
“If we can get multiple guys — if we can get (Jonathan) Powell or Amani (Hansberry) or even Joe (Yesufu) to go along with Javon (Small) from a shooting standpoint, that opens up our offense dramatically,” DeVries said after the regular-season-ending victory over UCF. “You saw that in the first half. You’re up 22 at the half because your offense is rolling along.”
–David Smale, Field Level Media
