Despite the club’s plentiful struggles, the Colorado men’s basketball team has an opportunity to make history.

An upset win against Houston would be among the most unlikely victories in program history. But even in defeat, the Buffaloes will make history, even if it’s the sort they would prefer to avoid.

Still winless in Big 12 Conference play, the Buffs begin an extended run against some of the top programs in the league when the fifth-ranked Cougars visit on Saturday afternoon.

A loss would give the CU program its first 12-game losing streak since losing the final 12 games of the 2008-09 season. The Buffs also are sitting on their first five-game home losing streak since that same ‘08-09 season, and a loss against the Cougars would give the program its first six-game slide at home since 1985-86, when the Buffs finished 0-14 in Big Eight play.

That latter mark won’t be in jeopardy until next week, but given the Buffs visit No. 16 Kansas following Saturday’s battle against Houston, more milestones for program futility are well within reach. “Our challenge is to compete,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “Compete every possession. Compete every day. Compete at practice and let the chips fall where they may. I want to show improvement in how we’re taking care of the basketball, how we’re executing, how we’re rebounding.

“If we can outrebound Houston, and we can reach our turnover goal — which is 11 or fewer — we’ve got a chance to win. If we don’t get our turnover goal and we don’t rebound … that’s why Houston is the gold standard when it comes to playing elite defense. The energy, effort, toughness, rebounding the basketball — they’re elite in all those categories, and that’s why they’re a top-five team in the country.”

Expected to be at least a decent 3-point team, the Buffs’ struggling shooters will face a tall task in trying to get on track against Houston’s marquee defense.

Only Javon Ruffin, who has gone 10-for-20 from the arc over the past five games, has been able to cool the pervasive chill that has engulfed the Buffs from long range. Guard Julian Hammond III has been fairly steady, but a 1-for-10 spell has dropped his 3-point percentage in Big 12 games to .333. RJ Smith is 4-for-23 in conference play and just 1-for-17 since going 3-for-6 in the league opener against Iowa State.

Andrej Jakimovski was a career .343 shooter from 3-point range in four seasons at Washington State, but his 1-for-6 night on Wednesday dropped his 3-point mark to .303 overall and .293 in the Big 12. Freshman Sebastian Rancik hasn’t been a high-volume long-range shooter but he has gone cold, too, owning a 5-for-19 mark (.263) in Big 12 play after posting a .471 mark (8-for-17) during the nonconference schedule.

The Buffs will be challenged to reverse those trends against the Cougars. In Big 12 games, Houston ranks first in points allowed (58.5) and third in defensive field goal percentage (.460). The Cougars are a more modest seventh in defensive 3-point percentage (.325), but after going 7-for-27 at Utah and 16-for-60 in the past three games (.267), CU has dropped to 12th in conference games in 3-point percentage.

“Their rotations, they’re always there,” Jakimovski said. “We’ve got to make extra passes and be strong with the ball, because their help defense is one of the best in the country, if not the best. We just have to take care of the ball on offense.”