STANFORD, CALIFORNIA – A little over three weeks ago, Stanford was on the cusp of picking up a signature win at Colorado which would put them comfortably inside the tournament picture. In that game, the Cardinal blew a 16-point lead, as Colorado picked up a win against the Cardinal. Nearly three weeks later, the Cardinal were in the exact same position, where they needed a win to solidify their NCAA Tournament resume.
In this affair, the Cardinal had a 13-point lead and just like that previous matchup against the Buffaloes, Stanford wasn’t closing the game out. With three minutes left the lead was 3 but Stanford turned to Bryce Wills who made a big jumper to get the lead back to 5. From there, Stanford was able to shut down the Buffaloes on the defensive side of the ball, as they pulled out a 72-64 win. Bryce Wills led the Cardinal with 19 points in this one, while Oscar Da Silva had 16 points for the Cardinal. Tyler Bey had 17 for the losing Buffaloes.
The message coming into this game was that Stanford really needed a win to solidify their NCAA Tournament resume. “We know we’re a team on the bubble,” Stanford guard Bryce Wills said. “We talked about at the end of this game we’d either be out of the tournament or still having a chance.”
The Cardinal do indeed have a really good chance at making the NCAA Tournament after this win, they will have a tough road trip where they will play at Oregon State on Thursday and at Oregon on Saturday. So long as they get one of those games they will most likely be heading to the NCAA Tournament. As for Colorado, this wraps up a bad three-game stretch where the Buffaloes went from having a share of the PAC-12 lead, to 4th place in the league. The Buffaloes will finish up regular-season play next Saturday at Utah.
Bracketology Effect: For Stanford, they move out of the Last Four In, to the 9 line. Colorado continues to take a drop as they go from a 6 seed down to a 7 seed.
Betting Effect: Stanford +3 Over 131.5