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Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Vegas has been very kind to the Buffs this season
The Colorado Buffaloes have become well aquatinted with Las Vegas during the 2023-24 women’s hoops season. The Buffs took to The Strip in October to state their lofty ambitions during Pac-12 Media Day and backed it up by smothering the #1 ranked LSU Tigers at the T-Mobile Arena to open their season. Vegas has been kind to CU so far this season, and they’ll return to desert to try to win their first and final conference championship in the Pac-12 era.
Colorado left the state of Nevada on top of the world in November, but now it feels like they’ve reached rock-bottom. The Buffs have lost five of their last six games, falling all the way to fifth in the Pac-12 and 18th in the AP Poll. Granted, four of those five games were against ranked opponents (three of which were on the road), but the point still stands.
The Buffs need to bounce back in a big way in Vegas to put themselves back into title-contender conversations, and they’ll get their shot in against an absolutely stacked tournament field. Six of the conference's twelve members enter Vegas ranked in the AP Poll, three of which are within the top 10. This year’s conference tournament is perhaps the most loaded we’ve ever seen it since Colorado’s admission in 2011.
It wouldn’t be a Vegas trip if the stakes weren’t high, and the same goes for the Buffs this week. Colorado is desperately clinging onto a top four seed in the NCAA Tournament, meaning they’d get to host their tournament grouping at the CU Event Center in Boulder. If the Buffs win 2 or 3 games in Vegas, they’ll lock up those tournament home games. However, they’ll likely be forced to hit the road for March Madness if they only go 1-1.
The Buffs’ route to the conference title is particularly brutal too. Colorado is the highest ranked team to not get a first-round bye, so they’ll have to face off against the conference bottom-feeder Oregon Ducks on Wednesday afternoon. After that, things get significantly harder.
With a win over the Ducks, CU would have to face off against the 13th ranked Oregon State Beavers on Thursday afternoon. If they can beat the Beavs, Colorado will more than likely have to play the second ranked Stanford in the semi-finals. Even if Colorado beats the Cardinal, they’ll probably have to play either #7 UCLA or #5 USC in the title game.
TL;DR: the Buffs are about to run an unspeakably cruel gauntlet this week on their route to a conference championship.
If the Buffs can beat the Beavers and advance to the semi-finals, I’d consider this trip a success for Colorado. A win over a ranked team like OSU would prove that the Buffs are still one of the nation’s top-dogs, and would also secure those precious tournament home games.
Colorado’s fate is in their own hands and they need to do well in Vegas to put themselves in a position to be successful in the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs’ Pac-12 tournament journey kicks off on Wednesday afternoon, when they face Oregon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena at 1:00 pm local time.
Also, we’ll be there in-person to cover the Buffs! Be sure to check out our twitter and the blog all week for updates!
by RylandScholes
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