Colorado got an assist on Monday night.

At 12-4 in the Pac-12, the CU women’s basketball team has done plenty on its own to earn a high seed in the conference tournament, but the Buffs secured a top-four spot and first-round bye after Stanford held off UCLA on Monday night.

The Pac-12 tournament will be played March 1-5 at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. For the first time since 2013, the Buffs will rest on the first day.

“It’s incredible,” CU head coach JR Payne sad. “We’re really excited. We’ve worked incredibly hard all season long, starting in July, when our team was here for summer school, to earn this type of opportunity. So, very excited about that. We just want to keep winning. We want to win Thursday, want to win Saturday, and then go into the conference tournament feeling great.”

The 21st-ranked Buffs (21-6 overall) are scheduled to host No. 3 Stanford (26-3, 14-2) on Thursday and California (13-14, 4-12) on Saturday.

Where the Buffs actually finish in the standings is still to be determined as the Pac-12 heads into the final week of the regular season.

CU could finish in a first-place tie with Stanford and Utah (23-3, 13-3). That would require CU to sweep this weekend at home and Utah to beat Stanford, but lose to Cal, which sits in 10th place. Should all of that happen, all three would finish at 14-4 in the conference.

In that case, Stanford would land the No. 1 seed by virtue of its 2-0 record against Arizona; CU and Utah both went 1-1 against the Wildcats. The tie-breaker for second between CU and Utah would then slip all the way down to results against USC. Utah beat the Trojans and CU lost, so Utah would land in second and CU third.

With the No. 1 seed out of the question, CU could land anywhere from second to fourth.

There are numerous scenarios for all three spots, but here are a few possibilities …

1) If CU sweeps Stanford and Cal and Utah loses to Stanford, the Buffs will land the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament.

2) Beating Stanford would secure a top-three finish for CU, regardless of how the game against Cal turns out on Saturday.

3) Should the Buffs lose to Stanford but beat Cal, an Arizona loss (at Oregon or at Oregon State) would land the Buffs in third place.

4) CU could get swept this week and still finish third, but that would require Arizona to get swept in Oregon.

5) Arizona sweeping this weekend in Oregon and CU going 1-1 could create two- or three-team tiebreakers, many of which could result in the Buffs dropping to fourth.

Bottom line for CU: Play good basketball and let the chips fall where they may. CU can’t control anything that happens outside of Boulder this week, so its focus will be squarely on Stanford. And then Cal.

“We, of course, have a great scouting report prepared for Stanford and we know who they are, what their players do, what they’re looking for,” Payne said. “But our focus is completely on ourselves. … (Watching film of Sunday’s loss to Arizona) tells us that we need to prioritize us being better at what we do.”

CU wasn’t sharp in a 70-62 win at last-place Arizona State on Friday and then got routed, 61-42, at No. 14 Arizona on Sunday. This week offers the Buffs a chance to get on track and build some momentum going into Las Vegas.

“I’m very excited,” point guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “I think coming off last game, just having a sense of urgency and getting back to winning ways. I don’t think we’ve lost two games in a row this year, so I think we’re just really focused on the next game and what we can be better at.

“We just learn from (losses) and keep pushing. We’ve got a team that everybody cares and everybody recognizes that we messed up or we didn’t play our best. But it’s always next game you’ve got to move on because in the Pac-12, you’re getting everybody’s best every night. So, it’s no time to sulk about a loss.”