Colorado basketball dominated by Arizona in first home loss: ‘Defense isn’t good enough’

BOULDER — Colorado men’s basketball has bullied opponents inside the CU Events Center this season. The Buffaloes began the 2023-24 campaign 13-0 at home, their best start to a season in program history, averaging 85.6 points and winning by a margin of nearly 20 per game.

On Saturday night, however, the No. 8 Arizona Wildcats were the bullies.

“Somebody shoots 53% from the field and scores 99 points in your building, your defense isn’t good enough,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said after the Buffs’ 99-79 loss to Arizona.

Colorado (16-8, 7-6 Pac-12) squandered an opportunity for a signature win in front of 10,548 fans due in large part to its inability to get stops. The Wildcats made 36 of their 68 field goal attempts (53%) and shot 45.5% (10-for-22) from 3-point range as the Buffs’ defense offered little resistance.

Self-inflicted mistakes resulted in Colorado leading for just 2:29 of game action. Arizona had 23 points off CU turnovers and another 23 on second-chance opportunities.

“That’s 46 of their 99 (points) that were a result of us not taking care of the basketball and not limiting them to one shot,” Boyle said postgame. “You’re playing catch-up from there and that’s a hard team to play catch-up with when you can’t stop them.”

Tristan da Silva reached 20 points for the first time in exactly a month and KJ Simpson also scored 20 to go along with a season-high nine assists. J’Vonne Hadley notched 13 points but the rest of the Buffs’ rotation struggled, including star freshman Cody Williams, who shot just 3-for-7 from the floor (eight points) and turned the ball over five times.

Both da Silva and Williams were sidelined last month when these two teams met in Tucson. Arizona dominated that matchup, 97-50, and Saturday night wasn’t much different despite the return of da Silva, Williams and Luke O’Brien (five points in 14 minutes), who missed the previous two games.

The Wildcats have scored an average of 98 points in two games against Colorado this season, beating the Buffs by a combined 67 points.

Arizona is the No. 8-ranked team in the country for a reason, and proved on Saturday night that Colorado is in a tier below it.

“They just never got rattled,” Simpson said postgame. “That’s why they have the success they have for a reason. Good teams like that, they play poised, they play under control, no matter how many points the other team scores, no matter what the run is, and that’s what really happened.

“Every time we scored, they never hung their heads or got frustrated with one another, they just stuck to the game plan and just kept on playing.”

Saturday’s loss firmly places Colorado outside of the NCAA Tournament field with seven regular-season games to play (three at home, four on the road). The Buffs will travel to California next week to match up with UCLA (Thursday), who has won five consecutive games, and USC (Saturday).

Follow Colorado Buffaloes sports reporter Scott Procter on Twitter.