Colorado has rolled through the early part of the schedule, but the competition is picking up this week.
The Buffaloes (4-0) swept their home games but will face a test when they open the Maui Invitational against Michigan State on Monday in Lahaina, Hawaii.
“I like the direction we’re heading, and I Iook at Maui as a mid-term exam,” coach Tad Boyle said. “It’s not a final exam. It’s not a quiz. It’s a mid-term, and mid-term means something for our final grade. We’ll see how we do on the mid-term exam with three games in three days against quality. There’s no gimmies over there.”
The Buffaloes haven’t played since beating Harvard 88-66 on Nov. 17 and have had a full week to solve their turnover issues. Colorado is averaging 17 turnovers a game despite only committing 13 against the Crimson last week. The Buffaloes have played only one close game, a 90-88 win over Northern Colorado in double overtime on Nov. 8.
The three other victories have been by an average of 24 points. They have been led by Andrej Jakimovski, who is averaging 14.3 points and 5.3 rebounds, and Elijah Malone, who has 14 and 5.8, respectively. Trevor Baskin is putting up 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds a game.
The Spartans (4-1) haven’t had an easy stretch after two comfortable wins to begin the year. They lost to No. 1 Kansas 77-69 in the Champions Classic on Nov. 12, then had to fight to beat two tough mid-major teams, Bowling Green and Samford.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo always puts together a tough non-conference schedule with the goal of making his team battle-tested for the Big Ten and the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we’ll reap the benefits quickly,” Izzo said after the 83-75 win over Samford on Tuesday. “I know Colorado, the next team we play, presses some. This game will help us.”
The Spartans expect freshman Jase Richardson to play despite suffering an ankle sprain on Tuesday night. Michigan State is a deep team that plays up to 10 players but has struggled to make its 3-pointers. The Spartans are shooting just 22.1 percent from behind the arc, a total that was boosted by a stronger second half 36.4 percent against Samford.
Leading scorer Jaden Akins is averaging 14.6 points a game but is making just 21.7 percent of his 3-point attempts.
The winner of Monday’s earlier game between Memphis and No. 2 UConn will play the winner of the Colorado-Michigan State contest on Tuesday. The losers also will face each other.
