Skidding Colorado faces rising Arizona

Field Level Media|published: Fri 24th January, 18:33 2025

Jan 15, 2025; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Julian Hammond III (3) controls the ball in the second half against the Cincinnati Bearcats at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Colorado will look to end its longest losing streak since the 2016-17 season and earn its first Big 12 victory when the Buffaloes play at former Pac-12 foe Arizona on Saturday in Tucson.

The Buffaloes (9-9 overall) have lost seven straight games, marking a 0-7 conference start in their first season back in the Big 12 since 2010-11.

"This doesn't fall on one guy for the Buffaloes," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "I mean, if it did, I'd fix that. It falls on our entire group."

Colorado lost KJ Simpson and Cody Williams as early entrants into the NBA as well as six of its top players overall from last season.

The Buffaloes returned the fewest minutes played in Boyle's 15-year tenure at Colorado. Entering the season, they had the Big 12's least amount of total Division I minutes played with only 5,779 minutes.

Only two players are averaging double figures in scoring -- Julian Hammond III (13.7 points per game) and Andrej Jakimovski (10.2) -- and the leading rebounder, Trevor Baskin, is averaging just 5.9 boards per game.

Arizona (12-6, 6-1) is coming off a road split against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.

The Wildcats' 92-78 win over the Cowboys on Tuesday earned Tommy Lloyd his 100th win in only 126 games to start his coaching career.

Lloyd and his former mentor at Gonzaga, Mark Few, are tied for the fastest to 100 wins among active college basketball head coaches at their current school.

"I felt like we were in a good place," Lloyd said about Arizona winning eight of its last nine games. "We didn't play great against a tough Texas Tech team. We needed to respond. And I thought our guys did it.

"It was beautiful that it didn't come easy. We had to hang in there. Really proud of these guys."

Arizona pulled away after leading 43-39 at halftime behind Caleb Love's consecutive 3-pointers that helped the Wildcats extend to a double-digit lead almost four minutes into the second half.

Love finished with 27 points while making 10 of 17 shots from the field, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range, to surpass 2,400 career points.

--Field Level Media