BOULDER — Tad Boyle‘s Colorado Buffaloes were awarded a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday and will open play Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. (MT) against No. 10 Boise State in the “First Four” round in Dayton, Ohio.
The winner will advance to a South Regional matchup with No. 7 Florida on Friday in Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m. (MT), with the winner of that game facing the winner of No. 2 Marquette and No. 15 Western Kentucky on Sunday.
The opener vs. Boise State will be televised by truTV with the game against Florida to be televised by TBS. All CU games will also be carried by KOA radio.
The NCAA berth is the 16th in CU history and the sixth in the 14-year Boyle era in Boulder, with a seventh erased in 2020 when the postseason was canceled because of the Covid pandemic.
CU takes a 24-10 record into the tournament after finishing third in the Pac-12 regular season standings, then reaching the conference tournament championship game before falling to Oregon in the title tilt.
Boyle admits there were some nervous moments Sunday as the Buffs waited to hear their name called.
“We’re excited,” Boyle said. “It’s a new life, like being reborn. We put ourselves in a position where our fate is in someone else’s hands and that’s always a dicey situation.”
Just a month ago, CU was on the outside looking in when it came to an NCAA berth. But the Buffs have been playing their best ball of the season since then, winning eight in a row before losing to Oregon, 75-68, in the Pac-12 final.
“(Saturday) was a crushing defeat for us because we went to Las Vegas to win a championship,” Boyle said. “We came up short but now we have new life. That’s what March is all about, it’s March Madness. It’s just nice to be a part of it.”
CU is one of four Pac-12 teams to earn a bid, joining Oregon, regular season champ Arizona and Washington State.
Boise State (22-10) finished third in the Mountain West regular season standings but lost in the conference tournament quarterfinals to eventual tourney champ New Mexico.
The Broncos are coached by Leon Rice, who took the reins of the Broncos in 2010 — the same year that Boyle took over in Boulder. The Broncos have won two regular season Mountain West titles and one conference tourney championship under Rice, who has a 290-165 record at BSU.
Rice and Boyle are also good friends. When Boyle was named as the head coach of the USA Basketball U19 World Cup team last summer, he named Rice as an assistant.
The Broncos are led by 6-foot-8 forward Troy Degenhart, who averages 17.0 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Chibuzo Agbo, a 6-7 guard, averages 13.6 points per game and had a team-leading 75 3-pointers. O’Mar Stanley, a 6-8, 240-pound forward, averages 13 points and 6.4 rebounds.
“I’ve watched them a lot this year,” Boyle said. “They’re very talented, very well coached.”
Boise State’s biggest wins include one over WCC champ St. Mary’s, two victories over San Diego State and a split with Colorado State.
In a coincidental twist, Colorado State will also play in Dayton as a No. 10 seed, opening on Tuesday vs. No. 10 Virginia.
Since the men’s tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011, 12 teams have advanced from the First Four to at least the Round of 32. Five of those teams advanced to the Sweet 16 — Virginia Commonwealth in 2011, La Salle and Tennessee in 2016, Syracuse in 2018 and UCLA in 2021 — and VCU and UCLA advanced all the way to the Final Four.
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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.