After watching what he considered a lackluster effort by Colorado, Coach Jeff Bzdelik let himself and his team have it.
"The worst feeling for a coach is when your team doesn't play with emotion, discipline or passion and appears to be disorganized," Bzdelik said after Colorado's 62-46 loss to TCU on Wednesday night. "That's on me, and that's a rotten feeling. I'm embarrassed for the university."
Zvonko Buljan and Keion Mitchem scored 15 points apiece to lead TCU (5-3) to its fourth consecutive victory Wednesday night.
It didn't help that Colorado (3-3) was without point guard Nate Tomlinson, who watched the game from the bench. Bzdelik said afterward that Tomlinson's ankle has been hurting since rolling it during the team's season-opening win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Tomlinson was slated to have an MRI scan Thursday to determine the nature of the injury.
"Worst-case scenario, it's a stress fracture and he's out six weeks, or maybe it's just a bone bruise," Bzdelik said.
Tomlinson was at the center of an offense that had converted better than 50 percent of its shots in four of the previous five games. But Bzdelik refused to blame Colorado's inept showing on the young point guard's absence.
"Excuses are for losers," he said.
Cory Higgins, whose 16 points led the Buffaloes, agreed.
"It was tough," Higgins said of playing without Tomlinson. "But if anything, that should fire us up. I don't know how that can bring somebody down and not want to play harder."
Kevin Langford added 10 points for TCU (5-3), which outscored the Buffaloes 12-0 over the first 6:07 of the game and went into the break with a 24-14 lead.
Buljan put a stamp on the win -- only TCU's third in its past 16 meetings with Big 12 Conference schools -- on his breakaway dunk with eight minutes remaining to give TCU a 46-30 lead. It was the third consecutive game in which TCU had held an opponent under 47 points.
"I'm proud of the guys because it's pretty hard to do," TCU coach Jim Christian said. "But then again, that has to be our calling card."
The Buffs, who shot at least 50 percent from the field in four of five previous games, hit only 28 percent of their first-half shots and finished with 40.5 percent for the game. TCU shot 46 percent from the field.
Colorado also had 20 turnovers, a season high.
