By February, teams are aiming for a big win to boost their NCAA Tournament chances. The Colorado Buffaloes, however, are just looking for a win.
Colorado has lost 11 games in a row and hasn’t won a conference game since returning to the Big 12. Their next challenge is hosting No. 5 Houston on Saturday afternoon in Boulder, Colo.
This losing streak is the longest for Colorado to begin a conference season since they went 0-14 in the Big 8 in 1985-86. The latest loss was at Utah on Wednesday night, where they fell 72-59 after trailing by 12 points at halftime and coming up short in their second-half comeback attempt.
The Buffaloes (9-13, 0-11 Big 12) have lost five of their last six games by more than 10 points, and the schedule remains tough. After facing Houston, Colorado will travel to No. 16 Kansas and No. 8 Iowa State. They have three more ranked teams to play in their last six games, making it harder to escape the bottom of the standings.
“It’s for sure getting more challenging because we’re playing a lot of good teams now,” said Colorado forward Andrej Jakimovski. “We know our record; we don’t deserve that record. We are better than that. We just all want to win. Our chemistry, our togetherness, it’s not going to change throughout the season no matter what.”
Jakimovski (10.0 points per game) is one of only two Buffaloes averaging double figures in scoring. Julian Hammond III leads the team with 13.3 points per game, and Trevor Baskin is third with 8.8 per game.
Baskin is also the team’s leading rebounder with 5.6 rebounds per game.
Houston (18-4, 10-1) is not a strong rebounding team but is the toughest team to score against. The Cougars allow just 56.9 points per game, leading Division I, and have held seven of their 11 conference opponents under 60 points.
On offense, Houston averages 76.0 points per game, led by L.J. Cryer’s 14.3 points per game. Emanuel Sharp (12.5) and J’Wan Roberts (11.4) are the other Cougars in double digits, with Milos Uzan close at 9.9 points per game.
Houston’s only Big 12 loss came against Texas Tech on February 1, an 82-81 overtime defeat at home. The Cougars bounced back with a 72-63 win over Oklahoma State on Tuesday and will play three of their next four games on the road.
After facing Colorado, Houston will host Baylor before traveling to No. 20 Arizona and Arizona State, finishing six games in 18 days.
“Everybody in the league gets to it, I’m not complaining, I’m just making sure that people are aware of what the Big 12’s going through when they decided to go to a 20-game schedule,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “The difference between a 20-game schedule and an 18-game schedule is a bye week. There is no bye week.
“You’ve got 10 grueling weeks with two games a week. And your two games a week is not the same for everybody, it depends on where you’re playing.”
