Colorado's 70-58 win over Washington State, a win that kicked off a five-game home stretch for the Buffaloes, featured far from a jovial atmosphere during the postgame press conferences.
Despite being conducted on Zoom, the disappointment of Tad Boyle, McKinley Wright and Evan Battey could be felt through one's laptop, Twitter feed or whatever you used to watch the team's head coach and two veterans react to the win.
Suffice to say, in the eyes of coaches and players alike, that had to be one of the most unsatisfying double-digit wins in recent memory.
"Me and Ev’s facial expressions ain’t too good right now because we’re a lot better than what we showcased tonight," Wright IV said. "We’ve just got to be better. If we want to contend for a Pac-12 championship and make a deep run in the (NCAA) Tournament, we can’t have performances like tonight."
Before the first half was even near to being complete, the Buffaloes looked to have been a thread away from crushing the spirits of the visiting Cougars. After all, that's usually what a 20-0 run will do to those on the bad end of it.
Colorado took leads of 18 and then 19 as the first half winded down, but WSU enjoyed a little run to send both teams into their respective locker rooms, trailing by 15 at halftime.
D'Shawn Schwartz drained a three-pointer early into the second half, upping CU's lead back to 18 points, but that would be about all that went right for the Buffs until the under-16 media timeout.
By that time, a 10-1 Cougs run had gotten them within 10, and Boyle used a timeout with his guys still up, albeit in far less comfortable fashion, 43-34.
The Buffaloes made just six field goals for the entirety of the second half, shooting 31% (6-of-19) during that span, while committing eight turnovers and 11 of the team's personal fouls.
Battey, who had 14 points, five boards and was a perfect 6-of-6 in the win appeared far from pleased with the win, echoing Wright IV's sentiments.
“We had a casualness about us that we don’t usually play with," he said. "We struggled to get stops, we struggled to shoot the ball and score the ball, we shot (31)% in the second half, so, we’ve just got to play to our standards and how we’re expected to play. We didn’t do that.”
With 9:01 to play in the game, WSU had crawled to within six points, and that invisible phenomenon some like to call "momentum" seemed to be ominously shifting towards the visiting team.
Luckily for the Buffs, they kept up their reputation as the nation's best free throw-shooting team, sinking 16 out of 19 attempts in the final half, something that very likely saved CU's collective bacon.
Washington State never got close enough to warrant a shift in the DefCon levels — despite a bad second half of shooting, a more-wiggle-room basket always seemed to be in the cards for the Buffs when it was needed badly — but the performance had Boyle bluntly reflecting on his team at this point in the season.
“There’s two kinds of teams — there’s not three kinds of teams — there’s two: teams that are getting better, enjoying the process and having fun, and there’s teams that are getting worse and can’t wait for the season to end and are trying to figure out what they can do for spring break given COVID," he said.
It should go without saying that Boyle intentionally did not go as far as saying which of those two teams he described fits Colorado at the moment.
But the Buffs, with a bad loss against league cellar dweller Washington last week, a miraculous salvaged win on the road at WSU and now this game, a 12-point win that was far from comfortable or pleasing to the naked eye, don't appear to be playing their best basketball of late.
On paper, the Buffaloes handled their business and chalked up a win tonight. One down, four to go before an unforgiving four-game road swing against Stanford, Cal, Oregon and Oregon State begins on Feb. 11.
Until then, the Buffs will take the next few days to recalibrate with the intention of taking down Utah, the team's next opponent, this Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
“I mean, a win is a win," Wright IV said. "But we’re not satisfied. We’re competing for a Pac-12 Championship and tonight’s effort isn’t going to cut it. We’re going to watch film tomorrow, get better in practice tomorrow and prepare for Utah on Saturday."
Despite being conducted on Zoom, the disappointment of Tad Boyle, McKinley Wright and Evan Battey could be felt through one's laptop, Twitter feed or whatever you used to watch the team's head coach and two veterans react to the win.
Suffice to say, in the eyes of coaches and players alike, that had to be one of the most unsatisfying double-digit wins in recent memory.
"Me and Ev’s facial expressions ain’t too good right now because we’re a lot better than what we showcased tonight," Wright IV said. "We’ve just got to be better. If we want to contend for a Pac-12 championship and make a deep run in the (NCAA) Tournament, we can’t have performances like tonight."
Before the first half was even near to being complete, the Buffaloes looked to have been a thread away from crushing the spirits of the visiting Cougars. After all, that's usually what a 20-0 run will do to those on the bad end of it.
Colorado took leads of 18 and then 19 as the first half winded down, but WSU enjoyed a little run to send both teams into their respective locker rooms, trailing by 15 at halftime.
D'Shawn Schwartz drained a three-pointer early into the second half, upping CU's lead back to 18 points, but that would be about all that went right for the Buffs until the under-16 media timeout.
By that time, a 10-1 Cougs run had gotten them within 10, and Boyle used a timeout with his guys still up, albeit in far less comfortable fashion, 43-34.
The Buffaloes made just six field goals for the entirety of the second half, shooting 31% (6-of-19) during that span, while committing eight turnovers and 11 of the team's personal fouls.
Battey, who had 14 points, five boards and was a perfect 6-of-6 in the win appeared far from pleased with the win, echoing Wright IV's sentiments.
“We had a casualness about us that we don’t usually play with," he said. "We struggled to get stops, we struggled to shoot the ball and score the ball, we shot (31)% in the second half, so, we’ve just got to play to our standards and how we’re expected to play. We didn’t do that.”
With 9:01 to play in the game, WSU had crawled to within six points, and that invisible phenomenon some like to call "momentum" seemed to be ominously shifting towards the visiting team.
Luckily for the Buffs, they kept up their reputation as the nation's best free throw-shooting team, sinking 16 out of 19 attempts in the final half, something that very likely saved CU's collective bacon.
Washington State never got close enough to warrant a shift in the DefCon levels — despite a bad second half of shooting, a more-wiggle-room basket always seemed to be in the cards for the Buffs when it was needed badly — but the performance had Boyle bluntly reflecting on his team at this point in the season.
“There’s two kinds of teams — there’s not three kinds of teams — there’s two: teams that are getting better, enjoying the process and having fun, and there’s teams that are getting worse and can’t wait for the season to end and are trying to figure out what they can do for spring break given COVID," he said.
It should go without saying that Boyle intentionally did not go as far as saying which of those two teams he described fits Colorado at the moment.
But the Buffs, with a bad loss against league cellar dweller Washington last week, a miraculous salvaged win on the road at WSU and now this game, a 12-point win that was far from comfortable or pleasing to the naked eye, don't appear to be playing their best basketball of late.
On paper, the Buffaloes handled their business and chalked up a win tonight. One down, four to go before an unforgiving four-game road swing against Stanford, Cal, Oregon and Oregon State begins on Feb. 11.
Until then, the Buffs will take the next few days to recalibrate with the intention of taking down Utah, the team's next opponent, this Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
“I mean, a win is a win," Wright IV said. "But we’re not satisfied. We’re competing for a Pac-12 Championship and tonight’s effort isn’t going to cut it. We’re going to watch film tomorrow, get better in practice tomorrow and prepare for Utah on Saturday."
