2020 Colorado Buffaloes

RPI:

3. UCLA
13. Southern California
17. Washington
21. Arizona State
24. Arizona
42. Colorado (#14 last week)
57. Washington State
69. Oregon
85. California
104. Stanford (really)
148. Oregon State
195. Utah

and

32. Denver
182. Northern Colorado
302. Weber State

Only 48 teams make the playoffs.

We host the Arizonas this weekend. Then Utah, who significantly outplayed us in Salt Lake City.


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In all seriousness, the RPI is meaningless this year. The thing to focus on is the conference standings (which the Pac 12 now is calculating on a points per game basis). Teams 1 to 3 in the Pac 12 standings should be seeded in the tournament. Teams 4 and 5 are likely to get at large selections, though not assured. Teams 6 and 7 are going to be long shots, needing some very good wins to get in and even that may not be enough. After that, forget it.

It is important to remember that the bracket will have 29 conference champions. There will be only 19 at large teams.

 

Buffs 0, Arizona 0

I didn't watch, but sounds like we played rather well, better than we have the last few games.. Dani was her usual awesome self with eleven saves, we need her to be her awesome self since we've only scored one goal in the last four games. Two more home games left to give ourselves a shot at being one of the 19 at-large teams in the playoffs, but I think we need to win both.

The round trip Denver to Charlotte is still low, $69 on Frontier and $96 on American. But rental cars are outrageous, the companies sold many of their cars when nobody was traveling and now charge close to $500 for a week.. This is nationwide, not just in North Carolina.

 

Buffs 2, #17 Arizona State 0

Is this an end-of-the-season run to get into the shrunken playoffs? We'll know soon. This weekend should be an RPI boost if that's worth anything (and if CP Thomas says the RPI is meaningless this year, it very likely is). Also a win that might impress The Committee a bit.

Stats suggest an evenly played game. Shots 15-14 Sun Devils, on goal 5-5, corner kicks 4-3 Buffs. Another shutout from Dani and the Defenders (THREE IN A ROW!!).

First goal was by defender Alyssa Duke, assist from Shanade Hopcroft. Alyssa played VERY little as a freshman, I did get to see her for a couple of minutes and was very impressed, I was hoping she would not be discouraged by her lack of playing time. She wasn't. Alyssa is tall and runs like an antelope outrunning a herd of cheetahs.

Shyra James provided the insurance goal a couple of minutes into the second half, with the assist from Kayleigh Webb.

I am saving every penny for a hoped for three months in Europe next year, health and $$ permitting, so travel this year is really not an option. Although I moved away from Boulder two years ago, when it comes to this team, out of sight is NOT out of mind. And Santa Clara, my alma mater (Go Broncos!!), has already won the West Coast Conference including a win at Pepperdine for the first time since 1991 and at BYU, so if I have two teams in the playoffs ....

 

Why not save your money until 2023 and visit Australia? (Of course, others may be involved in that decision.)

I terms of the NCAA Tournament, I think finishing place in the Pac 12 will be the key. Finish in the top 3 (average points per game) and you highly likely are in. Finish in the next two and fairly likely but not certain. Finish in the next two after that and you are a long shot. I have not done a tally yet for where the Pac 12 teams stand after this weekend, and we still have UW v OSU to go. It well could go down to the last games of the season.

 

Tall enough to score on a header off a corner kick. Reminds me of somebody who did that a few times the past four seasons.

 

How many times is a player in the right place at the right time but the ball doesn't show up? Shyra must have been invisible to the Sun Devils but Kayleigh saw her.

 

I would love to visit Australia and New Zealand. I've been single since 1978 so no decisions by others. But I just have a passion for Europe, especially Vienna and Budapest and it's time to add Prague to the group. I speak German not very well, and the happiest month of my life was the Women's World Cup in Germany in 2011. I missed the final, scalping a ticket would have cost me the Gross Domestic Product of Belgium. so I sat outside the stadium with four GI's who had just been transferred from Afghanistan to Germany, they had two huge ice chests full of ice and Budweiser and needed help to consume the Bud. Second best drunk I've ever had in Germany.

Not to change the subject ... the Buffs just have a home game Friday with Utah. We have never done particularly well against them. We did win 1-0 there in a non-conference game last month, but they very much outplayed us. I just looked at the standings and I do not understand. Isn't it three points for a win and one for a tie?

Arizona State is 4-3-2, 18 points from nine games, PPG is 2.0 Checks out. Washington State is 2-2-2, 8 points from six games should be 1.33, but the standings say 1.0. Colorado is 4-4-2, 18 points from ten games looks like 1.8 PPG, but the standings say 1.25. I am a confused young man.

 

I just looked at the Pac 12 website and they currently show WSU at 1.3. Colorado has 14 points (4*3=12 plus 2*1=2) and they correcrtly show the Buffs at 1.4. I am thinking that the Buffs now are in the long-shot range.

 

I confused myself. Saw 4-4-2 and multiplied 4 x 4, not 4 x 3. So yes, 14 points is correct. A long shot even with a win over Utah.

I have REALLY been enjoying Division 2 sports at Colorado Mesa University. There are no volleyball playoffs. CMU would have been a well-seeded at-large team, we were unbeaten and #2 in the country but got blown off our own court in the semi-final of the conference tournament. Oops. Baseball is #1, and men's soccer, softball (23-1) and both genders of lacrosse are ranked. Women's wrestling came in fourth at the nationals. Beach volleyball just got two wins over a Pac-12 team (Utah). But assuming attendance is allowed, I'll definitely be in Boulder for soccer a couple of weekends in the fall.

 

70% chance of Snow in the forecast tomorrow for Utah @ CU

I think the Buffs have to win PLUS two of these three happening.

Stanford Loss or Tie
WSU Loss or Tie
ASU Loss or Tie

UCLA IN, USC IN, WU IN, then one from above plus CU for a total of 5 PAC 12

The Buffs tie against AZ hurt, but so did WSU loss and OSU loss. If any one of those were a win their chance at postseason would be far easier.

 

Buffs 2, Utah 1

Utah scored first at 22:34. Libby Geraghty got it back less than two minutes later, with an assist from Shanade Hopcroft. Shanade then gave us the game winner with eight minutes left.

Statistics paint the picture of an evenly played game. Shots on goal were 4-4, while Utah had the edge in shots 12-11, corner kicks 5-4, and fouls 12-11.

So now we wait. I agree with CPThomas that we are a long shot for the reduced playoffs, but that’s better than a no shot.

There was a lot of snow piled around the field. Looked strange, I live now where water does not fall out of the sky.