Colorado coach Tad Boyle gambled with his starting lineup the past two games, yielding mixed results.
Starting smaller players and four freshmen, the Buffaloes (13-10, 3-7 Big 12) beat TCU 87-61 on Sunday. Boyle rolled the dice with the smaller lineup again Wednesday against a larger Baylor team but it failed miserably in an 86-67 loss to the Bears in Waco, Texas.
Boyle hasn’t said what he will try Saturday when the Buffaloes host Arizona State (12-11, 3-7) in a Big 12 game in Boulder, Colo.
“I thought in the first half, our youth really showed in terms of letting our frustrations on offense bleed over into defense and that can’t happen, not on the road,” Boyle told CUBuffs.com of the Baylor game. “We’re going to struggle at times on offense, and we did (Wednesday). We miss shots at the rim that we normally finish. Missed some free throws, just little things like that that we just didn’t quite have it.”
No Colorado starters had more than three rebounds and the four starting freshmen — Jalin Holland (12), Isaiah Johnson (10), Josiah Sanders (seven), Fawaz Ifaola (zero) — combined for 29 points.
The other starter, Barrington Hargress, had 11 points.
Center Elijah Malone did not play due to a coach’s decision and regular starting forwards Bangot Dak and Sebastian Rancik combined for just 10 points.
The Sun Devils, on the other hand, are coming off a 71-63 road win over Utah on Wednesday.
Arizona State only had seven healthy players, so coach Bobby Hurley went to something he had only used twice all season — zone defense — so his players could stay fresh.
“They would not think we would use zone when we have never really used it all year,” Hurley said. “Our guys did a great job of executing it. Their guards were not able to get touches in the paint like they normally do and they were just not in a great rhythm.”
The defense helped the Sun Devils jump out to a 29-14 advantage thanks to a 12-0 run and a 41-25 halftime lead. Allen Mukeba had two early steals to help spark the run.
“We really worked on turning our defense into offense,” Mukeba said. “We knew if we did that, we would not have to run around as much. We wanted to get out to a big lead to make it easier.”
Massamba Diop led Arizona State with 15 points; he is the team’s No. 2 scorer (13.6 points per game) and top rebounder (5.8). Maurice Odum averages 17.0 points and 6.2 assists. He scored 13 against the Utes.
