The season-long goal of hosting games in the NCAA Tournament was seemingly jeopardized when the Colorado women’s basketball team lost to Oregon State in the Pac-12 quarterfinals on March 7.
Nothing is official until the 68-team bracket is revealed on Sunday, but the 18th-ranked Buffaloes haven’t given up hope of hosting games at the CU Events Center. In fact, CU is much more likely to host than it seemed when it left Las Vegas because numerous dominoes have fallen their way.
“A lot,” CU center Aaronette Vonleh said when asked how much scoreboard watching she’s been doing over the past several days. “Just trying to see like (which teams) losing would help us get in a better position to host.
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“Despite the challenges we’ve had recently, still being able to be in a position to host is a blessing. So I hope that we can get that opportunity.”
The top four seeds in each of the four regions (16 teams overall) earn the right to host. All year, CU (22-9), which last hosted NCAA tourney games in 2013, had been projected as top-four seed by ESPN bracket expert Charlie Creme.
After the loss to OSU, however, the Buffs were projected as a No. 5. With no more games to play to boost their own resume, the Buffs had to depend on a lot of other teams losing.
“It’s just weird cheering for another team right now,” Vonleh said. “It is kind of stressful just not knowing where we’re going to be.”
Since the Buffs’ loss to OSU, No. 15 Indiana lost to unranked Michigan on Friday and No. 17 Oklahoma lost to unranked Iowa State on Monday. The Hoosiers and Sooners were both projected as No. 4 seeds. Several other teams in the No. 5-No. 6 range that had opportunities to pass the Buffs – Baylor, Creighton, Duke, Kansas State, Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia – all lost, too.
By Tuesday morning, Creme had CU back up to a No. 4. And, that position was likely solidified even more when projected No. 4 seed Gonzaga was stunned by Portland on Tuesday. No. 102 in the NET, Portland wasn’t going to make it to the tournament without that win and it dented the Gonzaga resume. (Although, Creme still projects Gonzaga and Indiana as No. 4 seeds).
There was also a report in The Oklahoman on Tuesday that Oklahoma can’t host anyway, because the Big 12 gymnastics championships will be taking place in their arena.
As of Wednesday, ESPN had CU, Gonzaga, Indiana and Virginia Tech as the No. 4 seeds, with Oklahoma as a No. 5.
While there are no more games around the country to be played that could impact CU, head coach JR Payne knows better than to bank on the Buffs playing in Boulder next week.
“I did look at it, of course,” Payne said of the other scores around the country. “But in the end, whatever we get, we’ve earned. It’s like playing time. If you play 40 minutes, you’ve earned that. If you played zero minutes, you’ve also earned that. I believe that it’s the same thing with this. If we didn’t (get to a top four seed), we didn’t.”
Despite going 2-6 down the stretch, the Buffs have been a top team all year with one of the toughest schedules. CU is one of only six teams in the country that hasn’t lost to anyone outside of the top 30 in the NET rankings. The others are all ranked in top 10 of the AP poll: No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Iowa, No. 5 Texas, No. 6 UCLA and No. 10 Connecticut.
Payne, however, said she’s ready to accept whatever spot the Buffs get on Sunday.
“The good thing about our confidence is that we know we can go on the road and win,” she said. “We’ve done it all year. We did it last year in the NCAA Tournament in the toughest of environments (at Duke). And so, certainly, we want to host. Certainly we’d love to play here, but it’s also not going to be the end of the world if we don’t.”
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