( Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports)
The Colorado Buffaloes have ascended in college basketball under fourth-year head coach Tad Boyle. For the first time in school history, they will be playing in the NCAA tournament for the third straight year after being selected by the NCAA committee yesterday.
This year was rewarding for the Buffaloes of all the three straight years they have qualified for the tournament. They could have quit after losing their leading scorer in Spencer Dinwiddie, but they persevered by winning games without their best player. That’s why they earned their appearance in the tournament.
This accomplishment is a reflection of the excellent coaching job by Boyle this season. It also shows how good the rest of the players are on the Buffaloes roster. This team is more than Dinwiddie, and it showed this season by winning 23 games.
The Buffaloes could have assumed they were in good shape to make the tournament even if they did not win a game in the Pac-12 tournament. They would have assumed the committee would have been impressed that they won without Dinwiddie.
To the Buffaloes’ credit, they did not approach it that way. They wanted to win the Pac-12 tournament. They felt they were good enough to win that tournament that would have them qualified for March Madness. It’s a good thing they beat USC and California in the Pac-12 tournament or else they may have suffered the same fate as SMU when it came to missing the tournament.
SMU was ranked 25th in the AP poll and they won 23 games, but that was not good enough for the committee. SMU lost three in a row to finish the year, and they lost to Houston in the first round of the American Athletic Conference tournament. That was enough for the committee to not select them in the tournament. The Buffaloes were smart to not let the committee decide their fate based on what SMU experienced.
There’s no question the eighth-seeded Buffaloes gained learning experience this season. They showed character. They know they are good enough to beat good teams in the country. They were good enough to win on the road by winning four of their nine divisional games. This type of experience will bode well for them heading to the tournament. They are good enough to beat Pittsburgh in the first round on Thursday afternoon.
This year is the year the Buffaloes wanted to make the tourney in the worst way. This has nothing to do with making the tourney three years in a row for the first time in the progam’s history. They wanted the tournament to validate their success without Dinwiddie. They wanted to show the nation they are a program to be reckon with.
Winning without Dinwiddie not only shows the Buffaloes are better, but that program should become a powerhouse for years to come with these players that stepped up. Boyle finally built a team that can have a lasting success for the next few years. That’s what this season is about.
The Buffaloes have to wonder how good they could have really been if their star player was not out for the season. There’s a good chance they would have a better bracket to the point they could have gone to the Sweet 16 this season. No one can blame them if they said what if after the success they experienced this year.
If nothing else, one can now say this program is no longer a fluke. Anytime a program has made the tournament for three straight times, they must be doing something right. The Buffs are no longer a program that made the tournament once in a few years with everything going right. This isn’t a team that had a fluke run anymore. That’s why this tournament is special this year for the Buffaloes.
This is a program that has arrived. This is a team that should now have higher aspirations after this season. They should be good enough to get to the Sweet 16 next season.
The Buffaloes are going to talk about how they persevered without Dinwiddie when they talk to the media this week. There is no doubt there will be pride of what they accomplished. There is no question they will reflect on what they did to be in a position of playing in the NCAA tournament.
Making the tournament definitely makes the Buffaloes’ season a success.
But the season should be remembered more for the Buffaloes’ journey of getting to participate in March Madness.
The journey itself is what makes this season successful more than anything.
Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter.
Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
