Mark Knudson’s Three Strikes Blog: Strike Three
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Can Tad’s Buffs emerge from this College Basketball Wasteland?
STRIKE THREE: Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Colorado isn’t a great stage for college hoops.
We all know this is football country…well, it’s Denver Broncos country to be exact. It’s not like most of you give a rip about our local college football teams, either. But college basketball? It’s a nice little niche sport around here, nothing more.
Perhaps. Just maybe. If we had a team to get behind? Maybe we’d care a bit more? Maybe?
Tad Boyle and the Colorado Buffaloes are trying. In the midst of an up and down season that had way more downs than ups until recently, the Buffs have gotten hot – five Pac 12 wins in a row before a narrow road loss this week at Washington State. Colorado is .500 in the Pac 12, not really a threat to win the regular season conference title, but the post season tournament? Why not? Someone has to.
The Pac 12 is bad this season. Perhaps historically bad, considering the history of the conference. UCLA has already fired their coach after a disastrous start. Oregon was looking good early, then they faded (including a loss in Boulder) and Arizona is three games under .500 in league play. The mighty have fallen.
Colorado is and even 7-7 in conference play, sitting within striking distance of second place. Washington is running away with the regular season title, and the Buffs play at Washington on Saturday. But after that they’ll be strong favorites in their three remaining home games. A high seed in the conference tourney is well within reach.
Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has just two Pac 12 teams in his field of 68 – and he has Arizona State in a first round play-in game. No respect? He has the Huskies as a number seven seed, presumably as the conference champion. Wow.
So this could be the year for someone like Tad’s Buffs to sneak in the back door and go dancing. Colorado won the Pac 12 tournament in 2012 and won their first game in the NCAA tournament. They’ve been back three times since but have come home without a victory. After failing to play in the post season last year, they have played themselves into some post season event this season – perhaps a return to the NIT?
Would any of this be enough to get the CU faithful fired up about basketball again? Who knows. When Tad first arrived in 2010, the place was rocking nightly. It’s been a slow decline, fervor-wise, over the last few years. There are upticks, but nothing sustained to this point. You wonder what it would take.
Boyle said when he was hired away from UNC that Colorado was his “dream job…a destination.” He’s arguably one of the top – if not THE top – Men’s basketball coach in school history. CU has won 20 or more games nine times in their history. Five of those nine are teams coached by Boyle. Would be ever be tempted to take another job? There have and will be offers.
This might be Tad’s best coaching job yet – especially if he can get this year’s team off the deck and into the NCAA tournament. That would be a “Wow.”
Wanna argue? Hit me up on Twitter @MarkKnudson41.
