Pac-12 Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade
By Joey Loose
Colorado
March 20, 2014 (Pittsburgh 77, Colorado 48) (GS: 3)
The Buffaloes present another case where I wish I could focus on two games, so I’ll spend some time talking about the disaster that didn’t make the cut. Early in the 2014-15 season, Colorado faced a trip to Wyoming, an okay Mountain West program that would in fact make the NCAA Tournament later that season. They trailed 26-24 at the half (not horrible), and lost 56-33 (horrible), scoring only 9 measly points after the half. The Game Score for this game was also 3, and as you’d expect Colorado shot very poorly.
What gives the Pitt game an edge is the fact that it came in the NCAA Tournament, an 8 vs. 9 first round game that wasn’t as close as the seeding indicated. Clearly these were both solid teams, they were in the Tournament after all, and the expectation was for a close hard-fought game to see who got to face 1-seed Florida in the next round.
No such thing happened. Pittsburgh scored the first 13 and ran the lead all the way up to 28 at the half, a paltry 46-18 halftime score. Colorado at least played at the same level, but clearly the game was over long before that point. Colorado committed 17 turnovers compared to Pitt’s 3 turnovers, and as so often happens, their shooting left something to be desired. Pitt also made 50% of their shots and defended well in the first half, limiting Colorado’s chances while also racking up 18 assists.
Two days later, Pitt fell to Florida by 16, and we could only imagine how badly Colorado would have done had they done this against the 1-seed Gators. I do have to reiterate that this Colorado team wasn’t bad, heck they made the Tournament as an 8-seed, they just had a really bad performance when it mattered most. The Buffaloes would be back as an 8-seed two years later, but suffered another uninspiring loss. Colorado’s not a bad program, but there’s plenty of progress left to be made in Boulder.