In February, teams are looking for a signature win for their NCAA tournament. The Colorado buffalo is simply looking for all winnings.
Colorado has lost 11 straight and has not yet won a league match in its return to the BIG 12 conference, and it will not be easy to avoid a 12th loss in a row. Buffaloes is worth # 5 Houston on Saturday afternoon in Boulder, Colo.
The losing row is Colorado the longest to start a conference schedule since it went 0-14 in BIG 8 1985-86. The last setback came on Utah on Wednesday evening 72-59 after Colorado was down 12 points half time and fell shortly after a second half.
The buffalo (9-13, 0-11 Big 12) has dropped five of their last six with double digits and the schedule is not released. After hosting Hpouston, Colorado has upcoming trips to No. 16 Kansas and No. 8 Iowa State. The buffalo meets three more ranked teams in their last six matches, which will make climbing out of the basement even harder.
“It is safe to become more challenging because we are playing many good teams now,” Colorado said forward Andrej Jakimovski. “We know our record; we don’t deserve that record. We are better than that. We just want to win. Our chemistry, our consensus, it will not change throughout the season no matter what.”
Jakimovski (10.0 points per match) is one of only two buffs on average double -digit numbers in points. Julian Hammond III leads the team at 13.3 and Trevor Baskin is third with 8.8 per match.
Baskin is also the team’s leading rebounder but pulls down only 5.6 a game.
Houston (18-4, 10-1) is not a dominant rebounding team, but it is the toughest team to score against. Cougars holds teams to 56.9 points per match, which leads Division I, and has had seven of 11 conference opponents below 60 points.
Houston is an average of 76.0 points on crime, led by LJ Cryers 14.3 per match. Emanuel Sharp (12.5) and J’wan Roberts (11.4) are the only other cougars pointing in double numbers while Milos Uzan is close to 9.9 per match.
Houston absorbed his only Big 12 loss to Texas Tech on February 1, a return of 82-81 home in overtime. Cougars bounced back to beat Oklahoma State 72-63 on Tuesday and now plays three of her next four on the road.
After Colorado, they host Baylor before visiting No. 20 Arizona and then Arizona State to meet six matches in 18 days.
“Everyone in the league comes to it, I do not complain, I just make sure people are aware of what the Big 12’s go through when they decided to go to a 20-player schedule,” coach Kelvin Sampson said. “The difference between a 20-player schedule and an 18-game schedule is a village week. There is no village week.
“You have 10 astonishing weeks with two matches a week. And your two matches a week is not the same for everyone, it depends on where you play.”
-Field level media
