Amid difficult seasons, both Colorado and Utah will aim to get back in the win column when they face each other Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
The visiting Buffaloes (9-12, 0-10 Big 12) hope to earn their first conference win against their old Pac-12 rival, while the Utes (12-9, 4-6) want to bounce back after recent struggles.
Utah enters having lost three of four, including an 81-72 setback at Oklahoma State on Saturday.
“It wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing game,” Utah coach Craig Smith said in his postgame interview on 700 AM. “But it’s a game, quite frankly, (we) anticipated with it just being physical and hard-nosed.”
While Utah struggled offensively, only shooting 40 percent (22 of 55), the Cowboys converted on 23 of 47 field goals (48.9 percent) and went 27-for-36 from the free-throw line. Smith believes the Utes need to be stingier defensively in order to start climbing up the Big 12 standings again.
“We’ve got to get more stops,” he said. “Every game we’ve won in league play, we’ve held the opponent under a point per possession, and (Saturday), they’re at 1.2 points per possession.”
Offensively, Utah got a boost from Ezra Ausar, who made 6 of 10 shots for 18 points. But Gabe Madsen only made 5 of 15 field-goal attempts for 15 points. Mike Sharavjamts was the only other Ute in double figures after hitting all eight free-throw attempts and scoring 11.
The Buffaloes didn’t have much success at Utah in their previous conference history, going 3-10 on the road. They’re hoping to avoid their longest winless streak to begin league play, which happened in 1985 when they started 0-14 in the Big Eight.
Colorado’s 10th straight loss came Sunday at TCU, a 68-57 result despite 13 points from Andrej Jakimovski and nine points and 12 rebounds from Bangot Dak. The Buffaloes’ last win came Dec. 21 against Bellarmine to cap a 9-2 nonconference schedule.
“All of our players, if they just play at the level of their potential, we’ll be fine,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “But we’re not — as a group, or individual.”
