The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team (9-5, 0-3 Big 12) lost to the No. 21 West Virginia Mountaineers (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) 78-70 in a newlywed Big 12 matchup. Conference realignment in college basketball is an argued subject, but it continues to bring entertaining matchups across all sports.
At the start of the season, the Mountaineers were ranked 13th out of 16 teams in the preseason Big 12 poll, joining the Buffaloes (15th) at the bottom of the pack. Both teams were not expected to do well this season, and while the Buffs haven’t been an electrifying team, first-year head coach Darian DeVries has vaulted West Virginia into the heat of the Big 12 race.West Virginia’s offense was commanded by their shifty guard, Javon Small, who created problems for the Buffs all night. Small came into Sunday’s contest averaging 19.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. Small diced up the Colorado defense running the pick-and-roll all night en route to a 26-point, seven-assist outing.
“He represents a big challenge in our ball screen defense,” Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said about Small. “He's a first-team all-league guy, in my opinion.”
The Buffaloes were without starter Elijah Malone in the second half due to injury. But even with Malone on the floor, Javon Small ran the pick and roll well.
Colorado won the tip and found Assane Diop for a bucket to kick things off. Unfortunately for the Buffaloes, that would be their only lead in the game.
Colorado’s success has depended on how well they take care of the ball this season. The first half concluded 40-29 in favor of the Mountaineers but the game was closer than the box score showed. The Buffaloes surrendered 12 points off their own turnovers while only attempting two free throws from the charity stripe.
The turnovers were, once again, a problem for the Buffs, as they committed 14 turnovers to West Virginia’s seven.
Despite the turnover woes, the Buffs hung around and didn’t let themselves get blown out, even after Small knocked down three consecutive three-pointers–a sequence that seemed to be an early dagger to open the second half.
Quickly after, the Buffs responded by elevating their rebounding and intensity as they shifted into a full-court press defensively.
The press got the black and gold moving again as they forced the Mountaineers to commit a couple of turnovers. The momentum shifted back to the Buffaloes midway through the second half as the crowd started to get back into the game as well.
The game was within five points from the 10-minute mark until late, but the Buffs’ inability to close games is what lost them this one.
The Mountaineers finished the game by knocking down free throws off intentional fouls by Tad Boyle’s squad. For Colorado, Julian Hammond logged 23 points on 6-for-13 shooting and a perfect 100% (8/8) from the free-throw line. Andrej Jakimovski led the team in minutes and was used mainly on defense to slow down Small. The Macedonian big man was 0-for-3 from deep and had eight points.
Colorado is now 9-5 on the season and 0-4 in conference play. On Wednesday, Cincinnati comes to Boulder, another team that is also 0-4 in the Big 12. The bout will clear up some of Colorado’s worries but may expose more at the same time.
“We’ll find out what we are made of now. Cincinnati doesn't feel sorry for us,” Boyle said. “There are going to be two 0-4 teams duking it out here on Wednesday.”
The game against Cincinnati tips off at 7 p.m. MT from Boulder and will be televised on ESPN+.