ASU Basketball: Scouting Report, Colorado Buffaloes WBB

After playing Utah on Friday, ASU basketball will head to Boulder to face the Colorado Buffaloes. Here’s a report on Colorado on what they have done recently.

Along with Utah, the Colorado Buffaloes, under first-year head coach JR Payne, have been one of the best stories in the Pac-12.

After finishing last season 7-22 and a loss in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, Colorado has turned it around quicker than many expected and are sitting at 10-3 overall.

After beginning the season 10-0 and ranked as high as No. 15 in the AP Poll, they dropped out of the rankings this week after enduring a three game losing streak. Colorado ended their non-conference season with a loss versus Wyoming and dropping both games in Los Angeles last weekend versus USC and UCLA.

The Buffaloes suffered a stunning 25-point loss at USC last Friday. Colorado shot only 30.6 percent shooting while USC shot 47 percent from the field.

Guard Kennedy Leonard led the Buffaloes with 19 points and finished as the only player to finish in double-digits for Colorado. Forward Zoe Beard-Fails was the next highest scorer with 7 points.

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Next up for the Buffaloes was then-No. 10 UCLA with the Bruins coming out victorious 87-74. Buffaloes were more competitive versus the Bruins, but after only trailing 22-20 after the first quarter, UCLA outscored Colorado 24-13 in second quarter to pull away.

Colorado had a breakout performance from Haley Smith. The senior guard scored a season-high 31 points on 9-for-17 shooting and also had 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Leonard had a quieter game but she almost finished with a triple-double with 11 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds.

As you can see, Colorado is carried by the starting backcourt of Leonard and Smith. Buffaloes look for them two to set-up and generate offense to help their surrounding cast succeed.

The question coming into conference play for Colorado was whether they had the depth to compete with the better teams in the Pac-12.

So far they haven’t had contributions from the others to help take off some of the pressure off of Leonard and Smith.

Colorado will face Arizona Friday before welcoming in No. 19 Arizona State Sunday. The game against the Wildcats should be a chance for Colorado to get everyone involved as they are favored to win the game.

Arizona State will be another test for Colorado to see how they match up with the teams at the top of the conference.

Next: ASU Basketball: Scouting Report, Utah Utes WBB

Tip-off for Arizona State-Colorado is Sunday at 4 p.m. MST and can be seen on Pac-12 Network.