Coming from two wins against conference foes University of Arizona and Arizona State University, the Buffs are set to head out west to take on the City of Angels with games against the University of Southern California (5-15, 0-7) and the University of California, Los Angeles (10-9, 3-4).
Colorado, who historically performs poorly on the road, will need to begin making serious strides to change that if they want to make a push to March Madness.
On their first road trip in the Pac-12, CU was handed two losses by the two northern California teams. The University of California, Berkeley only managed to edge out the Buffs 57-50 whereas Stanford University won decidedly with an 84-64 victory.
Colorado head coach Tad Boyle offers encouragement to his squad in the first half of Saturday's game against Arizona. Boyle coached the Buffaloes to a thrilling 64-63 win. (CU Independent/Kai Casey)
Coach Tad Boyle is aware of the Buffs’ traveling woes and hopes this season can be the start of a new tradition, one which he began last year with wins over Kansas State and Texas Tech University.
Fortunately for the Buffs, neither one of the teams they’ll be facing is playing well enough at the moment to hinder their attempts at increasing road wins. However, in the landscape of college basketball and collegiate sports in general, there is no such thing as a guaranteed win.
“The thing we have to make sure that our players do, given USC’s record, we cannot overlook them,” Boyle said to the Sports Information Department. “We can’t overlook anybody. We have to play Colorado basketball and do what we do. If we do that, we’ll be fine. But we cannot overlook anybody; we’re just not in a position to do that – not that you ever are.”
USC will be in the midst of an eight game losing streak and will most certainly be looking to end that when Colorado heads into town.
UCLA, coming from two losses of their own on the road in Oregon, could prove to be a challenge for the Buffs if they don’t play well.
The Buffaloes will go stampeding into Southern California starting Thursday, where they’ll face USC, followed by a game against UCLA on Saturday.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Shay Knolle at Shay.knolle@colorado.edu.
All statistics and quotes courtesy of the University of Colorado Sports Information Department.
