KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s a much-used expression in March, when every game can be a team’s last of the season. Survive and advance.
Colorado has survived twice this season in the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo., but advancing means a matchup with the No. 2 team in the nation, Houston, on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals.
The 16th-seeded Buffaloes (14-19) have defeated TCU and West Virginia in back-to-back games, but the challenge just got a lot tougher. No. 1 seed Houston (27-4) won the difficult Big 12 Conference regular season by a whopping four games.
The Cougars have won 10 games in a row and 23 of their last 24. And they’re rested, while Colorado has played 80 minutes of tournament basketball in the last two days.
“All I know is we’re ready to take on Houston and we will worry about that tonight,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said after the victory over West Virginia on Wednesday. “(I’m) really, really proud of this group, because we have had a rough year in terms of coming up short in some of these games.”
Elijah Malone scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to help the Buffaloes defeat West Virginia 67-60 in the second round. Colorado also got 13 points from RJ Smith and 11 from Andrej Jakimovski.
West Virginia stretched its lead to nine points with just over nine minutes left in the second half. But the Buffaloes went on a 15-0 run to turn that deficit into a 52-46 lead with 5:15 left.
Houston is hitting on all cylinders. The Cougars’ success this season earned coach Kelvin Sampson Big 12 Coach of the Year honors.
All five starters earned postseason honors as well. LJ Cryer and J’Wan Roberts were named first-team all-conference, Milos Uzan was on the second team, Joseph Tugler was on the third team, and Emanuel Sharp was honorable mention.
The Cougars own the best defense in the country in terms of points and the fifth-best in terms of field-goal percentage defense. They held offensive powerhouses such as Auburn, Arizona and BYU to a combined 22 points below their season average.
In the first season of a 20-game Big 12 schedule, the Cougars became the first team in the conference to win 18 or 19 games in the regular season. Their only loss in conference play was a one-point setback in overtime to Texas Tech on Feb. 1.
The Cougars are in rarified air. Houston became the first team to win back-to-back titles in its first two seasons in an existing major conference since Idaho accomplished the feat in 1923.
They’re likely a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament regardless of how they do in the Big 12 event, so the Cougars have little to play for. That doesn’t mean Sampson isn’t looking forward to playing this week.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It’s a money-maker for the conference,” he said when asked if he thinks the tournament matters. “It’s in a great city, Kansas City, and both the teams and the fan bases support their schools.
“That tournament is part of the Big 12 culture. People set up the entire time of the year around that tournament.”
–David Smale, Field Level Media
