LAS VEGAS -- By beating Washington State 80-56 on Wednesday, Colorado may have found the perfect mix of warming up and resting for Thursday's game with Arizona.
None of the Buffs' starters played more than 26 minutes against the Cougars, with Josh Scott playing just 22 and 246-pound Tory Miller playing 23 off the bench. Starting power forward Wesley Gordon played 26 while dealing with foul trouble.
"That was nice, especially (with) our bigs," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "Tory and Josh and Wes, when we can spread their minutes out like we did tonight, it makes it easier on all of them."
While watching the WSU-CU game along with assistant operations director Ben Tucker, UA assistant coach Book Richardson wondered if that could have been the Wildcats out there in the first round. If UA had lost to Cal and Colorado hung on to beat Utah, the Wildcats would have been No. 5.
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And partly for that reason, he said, Colorado won't be afraid of UA on Thursday.
"They're not saying, `Hey, we can't beat these guys,' " Richardson said. "We could have easily been the five (seed). They had Utah beaten."
While Richardson and Tucker scouted the game in person, the rest of the Wildcats did not arrive in Las Vegas until later Wednesday night and they did not go to the arena.
Cal players, however, showed up for the ASU-OSU game, having to face the winner late Thursday.
The full podium transcripts from Boyle, Tory Miller and George King are here.
The box score and play-by-play of the Colorado-WSU game are attached as a PDF.
After a 95-71 loss to USC that pretty much put an end to the misery that became UCLA's season, Bruins coach Steve Alford took the blame.
"It's been a really difficult two and a half months. And it falls on me," Alford said. "This is where the buck stops and starts. I've just done a really poor job of getting to these guys over the last two and a half months."
Alford's full podium remarks can be found here.Â
After Oregon State beat ASU 75-66, Beavers guard Gary Payton II was asked if he thought OSU was in the NCAA tournament field or if it needed to beat Cal, too.
He looked a bit puzzled over that one.
"I don't see any reason why we can't keep winning," Payton said. "It doesn't hurt us if we keep winning, so we're just going to leave no doubt and go out there and play and of course try to win."
The Beavers will face Cal in Thursday's late game and the late start could help OSU coach Wayne Tinkle get some extra rest, after he coached Wednesday's game while fighting severe flu-like symptoms. He didn't even take the team bus over to the MGM Grand.
"He's really sick and I'm really proud of the fact that he even came out," OSU assistant coach Stephen Thompson said. "It just shows to the character and the toughness that he has. Our guys needed him, and he knew it, and he just was determined to get out there and do it.
"He's going to get some rest tonight, and I know he'll be ready to go again tomorrow night."
Here's the e-edition of our 18-page Pac-12 Tournament section if you're outside of Tucson. If you're in Tucson and didn't see it, it should be available for free at Walmarts, Fry's, Safeways, Albertsons and Bashas, and at select Circle Ks.
Our full coverage from Wednesday: A main story on how the Buffaloes are bracing for a McKale-like atmosphere Thursday at the MGM Grand Garden, a scouting report, a photo gallery, and seen-and-heard notes from the tournament's first day.
Thursday's Pac-12 Tournament lineup:
No. 8 Washington vs. No. 1 Oregon, 1:10 p.m. (Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Washington, Pac-12 Oregon).
No. 5 Colorado vs. No. 4 Arizona, 3:40 p.m. (Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Arizona, Pac-12 Mountain).
No. 7 USC vs. No. 2 Utah, 7:15 p.m. (Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Los Angeles, Pac-12 Mountain).
No. 6 OSU vs. No. 3 Cal, 9:45 p.m. (Fox Sports 1)
NOTE to Cox Arizona subscribers: Cox will make all games available on Channel 70 (SD) and 1070 (HD) in addition to the Colorado-Arizona game being carried on Pac-12 Arizona. Cox normally carries just Pac-12 Arizona in Arizona.
