Today at 1:40 p.m. ET, No. 9 Pittsburgh (25-9, 11-7 AAC) and No. 8 Colorado (23-11, 10-8 Pac-12) tipoff live from the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. for Round 2 of the NCAA March Madness tournament. The game can be live streamed for free here and can also be seen on TBS Network. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the action on 94.5 3WS Radio while Colorado fans can do the same on 105.5 ESPN Radio.
Pittsburgh and Colorado each have dealt with injuries to key players throughout the season but have been able to make the necessary adjustments to make the tournament and head into this meeting against each other this afternoon.
Colorado lost point guard Spencer DinWddie to a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 12, forcing shooting guard Askia Booker to take more responsibilities. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, lost sophomore Durand Johnson for the year as well. Johnson averaged 8.8 points at the time of his injury.
"It changed a lot of things and what we wanted to do. He was one of our best five players. We weren't starting him, but he was our third-leading scorer. He was our best perimeter defender," Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said Wednesday, according to ESPN.
It took some time for Colorado to adjust from the 6-foot-6 DinWiddie to the 6-foot-2 Booker, but coach Tad Boyle said that Booker was up to the challenge of filling a more important role for the team.
"Ski loves big opportunities. He loves challenges. He loves playing when the spotlight is the biggest," Boyle told ESPN. "He's got a competitive streak about him and a confidence about him, I think, that allows him to play well against the best competition."
Colorado enters at the highest seed its ever been in the tournament and is looking to avenge a quick exit in 2013.
"For this program to get national respect, we have to play well on a national stage, and the stage doesn't get any bigger in basketball than the one we're on right now, the NCAA tournament," Boyle said per ESPN.
Pittsburgh moved from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference this season and after a hot 18-2 start, the team faltered down the stretch by finishing 7-7 and losing to Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.
"The biggest difference to me is the name of the conference," leading scorer Lamar Patterson said via ESPN.
Colorado has dropped four of seven games since Feb. 19, and leading scorer Josh Scott will hope to get the team going today.
March Madness continues with a matchup between Colorado and Pittsburgh when the lights come up at the Amway Center today in Orlando.
© 2023 Sportsworldnews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
