'You’ve got to go for it': Cats know what's in store in Boulder against Bufflaoes

BOULDER, Colo. — After playing the longest Arizona men’s basketball game in nine years Thursday, the Wildcats made a three-hour bus-and-plane commute over the Rocky Mountains and scooted into their new hotel about 1 a.m. Friday morning.

From there, they had about 44 hours to put a triple-overtime win over Utah behind them and somehow find the energy to play Colorado in a building where they have lost five straight times.

At a mile-high altitude, no less.

Oh well.

That’s the way it goes on Pac-12 travel weekends sometimes, that’s the way it goes in two-game NCAA Tournament weekends, and for many of them, that’s also the way it will go when they reach the NBA.

Maybe they’ll be just fine. 

“Arizona has guys who are great athletes and are well conditioned, so I don’t know,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said Friday, after the Buffaloes practiced. “Fatigue I don't think is gonna be a factor. I hope altitude is because I do think altitude is a factor here. But again, Arizona is a team that has been playing fast all year. They're used to it.

“It’s gonna take a hell of an effort on our part to beat these guys. Both offensively and defensively.”

The No. 8-ranked Wildcats, who held off host Utah 105-99 in triple overtime Thursday, also have the promise of good nights (or days) of sleep ahead. After Saturday, they won’t face anyone until they host ASU on Feb. 17 at McKale Center.

“You know what, you’ve got a week off — go for it,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said after Thursday's game. “That’s the message. You’ve got to go for it. You’ve got a week off after. Go for it.”

There is no recent precedent in Arizona basketball history to suggest whether a triple-overtime win is a recipe for momentum, or fatigue, heading into a game two days later.

Arizona beat Cal in triple overtime in 2010-11 and lost at USC in 2015-16 but had five days off after both of those games. The Wildcats are 2-2 when playing two days or less after a single overtime loss since 2017-18, including their Pac-12 Tournament win in 2022 over USC after beating UCLA in overtime.

UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who has been through countless two-game road trips as a longtime UA aide and as NAU’s head coach on Big Sky trips, has a theory on what can happen.

“It goes whichever way you want it to go,” Murphy said. “You can use it as an excuse or you can use it as a tool. And based on my experience with our group of guys, they're not into excuses.”

The Wildcats played four of their starters 42 or more minutes Thursday, all except point guard Kylan Boswell, who played just 29 while injuring his left shoulder in the second half.

But all four of those guys who did play 42 or more are seniors, guys who have been through it. So one of them, forward Keshad Johnson, was nearly out of Utah’s Huntsman Center before he actually left the building.

“It’s already behind us right now,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to get our rest, get our treatment over at the hotels and everything and lock in on film. pick back up, Colorado's tendencies and lock into what the coaches got for us.”

The Wildcats had a chance for all that during the day Friday, then headed over to Colorado’s practice gym for a lighter afternoon workout. Saturday is expected to bring more of the same leading up to the 8 p.m. tipoff.

The Wildcats were expected to be told, basically, that Colorado is not nearly the same team that the Wildcats destroyed 97-50 on Jan. 4 at McKale. In that game, the Buffs were without two of their top three leading scorers, senior forward Tristan da Silva and freshman wing Cody Williams; both have since returned, though Williams is wearing a face mask because of another injury.

“They’re a team that's been battling injuries and it sounds like they're getting everybody back and close to 100% health,” Lloyd said. “As I’ve said, I've had no doubt in my mind that Utah and Colorado have played like NCAA Tournament teams all year. So we know it's going to be hard. We went there a couple years ago, and it was a tough environment.”

So tough that UA lost one of its only three losses in Boulder during Lloyd’s first season with them in 2021-22, with Arizona kicking away a five-point halftime lead to lose 79-63.

“I remember it was senior night,” Lloyd said. “I just remember they played really well, and the place was a great atmosphere.”

The same could happen Saturday. It won’t be Senior Night, but a crowd approaching 10,000 is expected on hand in a building where Colorado is 13-0 this season and 5-0 against Arizona since 2016.

They're different. Maybe enough to beat Arizona. Maybe not. But different.

“We're doing everything better now than we did that night (at McKale) because we were awful in every aspect of that game,” Boyle said. “We didn’t guard. Our transition defense was bad. Our ball-screen defense was bad. On offense, we turned the ball over 25 times.

“So we're doing everything better. But that's a pretty low bar to judge yourself by.”