Washington State got just about the best opening matchup it could have hoped for. The Cougars will face the Colorado Buffaloes at 2:30 p.m. in Las Vegas.

We have known for a few weeks now that the Cougars would be the No. 12 seed in the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament, and would play the No. 5 seed at 2:30 p.m. at the MGM Grand in a game televised on the Pac-12 Network. But we didn't know until Saturday afternoon that the Buffaloes would be their opponent.

The Buffaloes nearly upset No. 13 Utah on the road, but fell 57-55 after the Utes put together a 19-0 run to win their Senior Night.

Initially, this would appear to be the most favorable matchup possible for the Cougars. Although the Buffaloes swept the Cougars in the regular season, both games were tightly contested. WSU likely would have beaten the Buffaloes in Pullman had it hit its free throws, and the Cougars only lost in Boulder because of a fade-away buzzer-beating 3-pointer that sent the game to double overtime (granted, Josh Scott, CU's best player, missed that game).

Scott played in today's game but scored jus 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting.

There's also the old adage that it is "hard to beat a team three times," although the numbers do not necessarily support that claim.

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