Bracketology 2020: Duke, Texas Tech and Utah State among biggest losers

Colorado (21-9, 10-7 Pac-12)

Before the Buffaloes’ fateful trip to Pauley Pavilion to take on UCLA on January 30, the team had lost just four games on the season. But in the month following that game, Colorado has dropped five games including two losses to the Bruins. Luckily for Tad Boyle, the defeats to UCLA and Oregon all fell within the top two NET Quadrants.

The same cannot be said, unfortunately, for their untimely loss to Cal on Thursday. The Bears are currently #136 in the NET, which gives Colorado their only Quadrant 3 loss. One of the most attractive pieces of the Buffaloes’ resume was that they did not have any glaring losses in the bottom two Quadrants. The black eye from the loss to Cal is likely not going anywhere.

Colorado needed a win over Stanford on Sunday to get back on track and to stay alive in the hunt for a share of the Pac-12 title. A road win over the Cardinal, who reside in the NET Top 30, would have been a very valuable victory, the Buffaloes’ eighth Quadrant 1 victory.

All of those wins mean that Colorado is easily locked into the NCAA Tournament field at this point. But their recent skid has seen them fall all the way from a potential #3 seed down to falling out of protected seeding. Instead, the Buffs might end up on the other side of that potential second round matchup, as their profile is trending more toward a #6 seed.

Though their handful of recent losses may not have cost Colorado a ticket to the Big Dance, the Buffaloes may have to travel much farther than they’d like during the tournament, thanks to a rough February that has already started bleeding into March. Perhaps even more disappointing is that this team squandered an opportunity to seize on the struggles of other top teams in their league and now see the Pac-12 trophy out of reach.

With all of the Quadrant 1 victories they collected in the first few months of the season, the Buffaloes do still have a ceiling of jumping back into a #4 seed, but they will probably need to win the Pac-12 Tournament in order to reach those heights.