Spencer Dinwidde's Injury Makes Colorado Buffaloes Obsolete In The Pac 12

 

The Colorado Buffaloes went to the locker room at the end of the first half with a 29-26 lead. The Buffaloes entered the second half as a completely different team en route to their 71-54 loss to the Washington Huskies. Colorado is 1-7 all time on the road against the Huskies. It was not the home crowd that rattled the Buffaloes in the second half, the Buffaloes rattled themselves.

While Colorado did have a lead at the half, they lost their heart and soul, Spencer Dinwidde, to injury. Dinwiddle collapsed on the floor with a non-contact knee injury, and he would not return to action. Knee injuries similar to Dinwidde are generally of the season-ending variety. Without his battery mate Dinwidde on the floor, Askia Booker posted an underwhelming stat line. He failed to etch his name in the scoring column.

Dinwidde’s heir apparent Jaron Hopkins failed to pick up the slack in Dinwidde’s absence. The guards of Colorado mustered a combined 20 points as a whole, but it was their defense that gave way to the blowout loss. Washington’s dynamic duo of C.J. Wilcox and Andrew Andrews were unstoppable, as the two guards combined for 45 points. Wilcox lived up to his reputation as the best three point shooter in the Pac 12 Conference with seven three pointers on the day.

After a big win against Oregon a week ago, the Buffaloes have had a stroke of bad luck since. Colorado nearly lost in overtime to a hapless Washington State team. Sunday was a far worse stroke of bad luck with the Dinwidde injury. Dinwidde was not the only Buff to go down with an injury in the first half. Tre’Shaun Fletcher also sustained an injury, but would return to action despite being in apparent pain.

The Dinwidde injury, if significant, has the potential to unseat Colorado from the top portion of the Pac 12 standings.

Jack Dooley is a Big 12 Basketball writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JackDooleyOCS.