Colorado's basketball teams face critical stretch before Pac-12 tournament

The Buffs hit crunch time before the postseason starts in two weeks

CU Buffs

For what’s been arguably the most-anticipated season in decades, both the Colorado men’s and women’s basketball teams have some serious work to do to avoid disaster before tournament time. What’s at stake for both teams is different but equally important. 

The CU women (20-7, 10-6 Pac-12) began the season with a dominant victory over the defending champion LSU Tigers, but it’s been a struggle the last couple of weeks. After dropping a 53-45 contest to UCLA on Monday, the Buffs have now lost four games in a row, and are in danger of falling outside of the top 16 in the AP rankings.

Unlike the men’s bracket, which features neutral site games throughout the tournament, the NCAA Women’s tournament allows each region’s top four seeds to host the opening rounds.

What needs to happen for JR Payne's team: 

The Buffs wrap up their regular season with a couple of home games against Washington and Washington State. Both of these games should be decisive wins for Colorado with both of their opponents hovering around .500.  

From there, CU will compete in its final Pac-12 tournament, likely as the fifth seed. This means an opening round against the worst team in the conference, either Oregon (11-18) or Arizona State (11-18), followed by a most important showdown against a team they struggled against during the regular season. 

Whether the fourth seed ends up being Oregon State, USC, or UCLA, five of Colorado’s seven losses have come against these schools. Will the Buffs need to advance to the conference semifinals to ensure the opportunity to host the NCAA tournament? It sure looks that way.

What needs to happen for Tad Boyle's team: 

After the win over Cal, they host Stanford for a regular season finale on March 3. It's  followed by road matchups against Oregon and Oregon State. 

Realistically, the Buffs need to win at least two out of their remaining three games and then have an impressive showing in the Pac-12 tournament to make the field of 68. This is the one and only meeting with Stanford and they beat both Oregon teams by a double-digit margin last month. 

In the last update from ESPN’s Bracketology, Colorado was listed at the bottom of the “first four out” group of teams. 

It seems almost inconceivable that the team with the likely the top pick in this June’s NBA Draft could miss the tournament. But, that’s where we are and there’s very little margin of error. 

While each of these teams have the talent to compete for a National Championship, these next two weeks will be vital to determining their fate.