KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Injuries piled high for the Colorado Buffaloes as the regular season wound down.
A team already subdued by a sweeping roster overhaul during the prior offseason would be without several key contributors as games increased in importance. Senior guard Frida Formann, preparing to take the reigns as a top offensive option in her final college season, sat and watched with a foot injury for both the regular season’s first four and final nine contests until Friday.
Johanna Teder was the only player who appeared in all 31 regular season and Big 12 Championship games, a senior guard who missed the entirety of her campaign before joining CU.
The Buffs still lacked Formann and quality wing Nyamer Diew during their Big 12 tourney run which ended in the quarterfinals to the No. 1-seeded TCU Horned Frogs, but they wouldn’t go down quietly. While many shorthanded programs may choose to lie down against superior competition, especially when tasked with overcoming double-digit deficits, Colorado isn’t that type of team.
CU blitzed back in both halves to beat the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday and rallied from a 13-point margin in the fourth quarter to nearly topple the country’s eighth-best squad in AP polls on Friday, displaying a fight unique to head coach JR Payne’s philosophy.
“At any of those points, we could have easily just thrown in the towel, or hung our heads, or said this is too hard without Frida,” said Payne, referring to the setbacks CU has faced this season. “This group just doesn’t do that.”
A team-centric brand of basketball carried Colorado to back-to-back NCAA Tournament runs to the Sweet Sixteen round in 2023 and 2024, and while this year may end in the Basketball Invitation Tournament (BIT) rather than the Big Dance, the standard hasn’t changed.
Junior forward Jade Masogayo emerged as a centerpiece when the Buffs faced dire straits. On Friday, the All-Big 12 honorable mention scored a career-high 22 points, often guarded by one of the nation’s best interior defenders in Sedona Prince.
The former Missouri State Bear’s stellar play blended with reliable veterans (Kindyll Wetta, Lior Garzon) and sparking freshmen (Kennedy Sanders, Tabitha Betson) culminated in a secret sauce that found a way to beat Arizona and pushed the Horned Frogs to the brink.
After Selection Sunday on Mar. 16, the Colorado will dance fully healthy. Formann and Diew will return to compete in what could be a testament to the resiliency Payne has arranged.
“[It] would be the first time we’ve been at full strength in two months,” Payne said. “We’ve shown that we’re a program that knows how to make a deep run in March.”
While its time in Kansas City was not without flaw (33 turnovers against the Houston Cougars, 48% on free throws against Arizona and TCU), the Buffaloes lived up to their reputation of punching up and proved that no matter the stakes, they’ll battle in the postseason.
Comments