NCAA BK

Colorado Getting Inside

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Updated Dec 4, 2009 10:01 AM ET
     
 
Playing in the Maui Invitational seemed like an undeserved upgrade for a Colorado program that finished last in the Big 12 each of the past three seasons and was coming off a nine-win season.

Sure enough, the Hawaii trip resulted in a 1-2 finish for the Buffaloes, with that one victory coming against Chaminade in the seventh-place game.

But Colorado competed well. It led eventual champion Gonzaga by 15 points before tumbling 76-72, then rallied from an eight-point deficit in the last 50 seconds to force overtime against Arizona before falling 91-87.

The Buffs left with considerably more confidence than a trip to the islands the year before when they competed in the Rainbow Classic and went 1-2 with losses to Buffalo and Vermont.

"Last year I was more of a tourist than a basketball player," sophomore forward Austin Dufault told the Boulder Daily Camera. "I didn't want that to happen again this year."

The Buffs certainly don't want to finish last again in the Big 12 either, and the possibility exists that they could win some of the close games that haunted them in tight league defeats a year ago.

The performance at Maui was even more impressive given that third-year coach Jeff Bzdelik missed the trip to be with his ailing mother in Chicago.

Tagged: Colorado

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