Anyone that has watched the Colorado men’s basketball team doesn’t need to be told the Buffaloes have been inconsistent.

Yet fixing those inconsistent points has been a source of frustration for head coach Tad Boyle, as the Buffs have also been inconsistent within their inconsistencies.

One night the defense is lackadaisical. On another, the rebounding might be lagging. During the recent two-game run on the road, the Buffs’ energy and intensity were missing in a loss at Arizona State.

CU turned around and put up an excellent effort in those departments at Central Florida, only to be done in by 22 turnovers.

Even the turnovers, one of CU’s most consistent problems from the start of the season through the start of Big 12 play, have occurred from various sources. One night the frontcourt and bad passing might be to blame. The next, the backcourt and too many offensive fouls.

For Boyle and his staff, improvement certainly hasn’t been a matter of ironing out a single shortcoming or two. But the Buffs will have another opportunity to finally get in the win column in Big 12 play when CU hosts what likely will be a shorthanded No. 21-ranked West Virginia on Sunday afternoon.

“We just have no consistency. That’s the thing,” Boyle said.

“Our effort was great against Iowa State, terrible against Arizona State, great against Central Florida. Whether it’s effort, whether it’s scoring production, whether it’s taking care of the ball. At Arizona State, most of our turnovers were from our frontcourt. And then our starting backcourt has 11 turnovers between them against Central Florida. Even the turnovers are inconsistent.”

Like Wednesday’s matchup at UCF, the Buffs have an opportunity to fare well defensively against a West Virginia squad that has struggled with injuries and remains situated in the lower portions of the Big 12 in several key offensive categories. Defensively, however, the Mountaineers have been elite.

West Virginia began the weekend ranked first in the Big 12 in defensive 3-point field goal percentage (.279) while ranking third in overall defensive field goal percentage (.382).

As of Friday, West Virginia also ranked third in the league in scoring defense (63.4). The Mountaineers held Kansas to 61 points in Lawrence nearly two weeks ago despite playing without two starters in Tucker DeVries and Amani Hansberry.DeVries, the son of first-year West Virginia coach Darian DeVries, is the Mountaineers’ second-leading scorer but has missed the past six games due to an upper body injury. Hansberry has come off the bench the past two games after missing the win at KU but has struggled in his return.

Prior to that absence, Hansberry was averaging 10.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. He has averaged seven points and three rebounds in his two games since. While West Virginia entered the weekend ranked 15th in the league in scoring and 13th in field goal percentage, the Buffs still will be challenged to slow Mountaineers guard Javon Small, the leading scorer in the league at 19.4 points per game.

“They’ve got good individual defenders. They’ve got a lot of different shot-blockers,” Boyle said. “Arizona State had one really good shot-blocker. Central Florida had one really good shot-blocker. These guys have like three different good shot-blockers. They can block shots. They can guard the ball. And then they’re physical. We’ve got to start playing with more physicality and handling that.”