For the final weekend of its regular season, Stanford men’s basketball (14-14, 6-10 Pac-12) will look to capture a much-needed conference win as the team travels to Boulder to face their equally seated Pac-12 foe, Colorado (16-13, 6-10), on Thursday night at the Coors Events Center.
The Cardinal will attempt to avenge their last 81-74 loss to the Buffaloes a month prior to Thursday’s match-up. The Buffs have won the last seven meetings between the two schools.
On Thursday, both teams will be vying for the superior seed in next week’s Pac-12 tournament, as they are part of a three-way tie with the Washington State Cougars (13-15, 6-10 Pac-12) for No. 8. Both Stanford and Colorado sit just half of a game behind the Arizona State Sun Devils (14-16, 7-10) at No. 7.
In order to get this crucial win, Stanford will need a better defensive showing than its first outing versus the Buffs. The 81-point performance Colorado put together in early February is the fourth-highest point total that the Cardinal have allowed this season.
To lock down on the Buffaloes defensively, Stanford will need to hold off Colorado’s most versatile player and its lead scorer, senior guard Derrick White. White put up 19 points last month at Maples Pavilion and was only a few assists and rebounds away from a triple-double.
Other key players for the Buffs include senior guard Xavier Johnson, who also hung 19 points on Stanford in the first meeting, and junior guard George King, Colorado’s leading rebounder.
Offensively, the Cardinal will likely turn to their leading scorers – junior forward Reid Travis and junior guard Dorian Pickens – to fuel their production. Pickens will look to match his hot shooting performance from last Saturday against Oregon, during which he hit six out of eight shots from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Travis will try to continue his consistently impressive performance in the paint, as he nearly averages a double-double per game with 17.7 points and 8.8 rebounds. Travis, when healthy for the entirety of the game, has only totaled fewer than 10 points twice this season, and his most recent showing was in the last matchup against the Buffs.
The penultimate game of the regular season for the Cardinal tips off at 6 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN2.
Contact Sam Curry at currys ‘at’ stanford.edu.