KANSAS CITY, Mo. - If the Buffs took three steps forward at the end of the regular season then they were called for traveling at the Big 12 tournament.

Colorado's dreams of an NIT berth and another crack at No. 1 Kansas turned into a nightmarish 82-67 loss to Texas Tech on Wednesday at the Sprint Center.

Long after the final horn sounded on a 15-16 season, the players were still sitting in stunned silence with their uniforms on thinking about the dramatic turnaround from Saturday's 101-90 thrashing of the same Red Raiders at the Coors Events Center.

"I never even considered losing this game," forward Marcus Relphorde said. "It hurts. All we can do is try and get better this summer and get ready for next year."

CU made some strides during Jeff Bzdelik's third season as head coach - a 13-3 home record, five more wins in the Big 12, a No. 8 seed after three consecutive last-place conference finishes - but the program still endured a losing record for the fourth consecutive season.

"It's hard right now," Bzdelik said. "But we need to keep things in perspective."

The post-season possibilities didn't just crash and burn here.

The Buffs suffered single-digit losses to Gonzaga, Arizona, Oregon State, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Iowa State and Kansas before the ides of March were upon them.

"It hasn't even really set in yet," forward Casey Crawford said. "This is really frustrating knowing that we've beaten Tech and we would have had a good matchup against Kansas and had a shot at payback for what happened in our place.

"For whatever reason, this is how it ended."

Some of the reasons included the Buffs' 19 turnovers, a 10-rebound deficit, allowing Pat Knight's team to shoot 55.6 percent in the second half, and scoring 34 fewer points than they had in Boulder.

"We didn't really change anything," said Knight, whose team snapped CU's three-game win streak and ended its seven-game skid. "The players just actually followed the game plan. ... We win every time we give up 70 or less and we get beat almost every time we give up 80 or more. So it's right there for you in writing."

The Buffs were 9-0 this season when at least four players scored in double figures. Alec Burks (24 points), Cory Higgins (18) and Relphorde (10) were ready to shoot, but the rest of the tentative team only chipped in 15 points.

CU's bench was outscored 30-9 by Texas Tech's reserves. The Buffs had a 19-18 edge in that department during the first meeting.

"They were a step quicker than us today," Bzdelik said. "They stayed in the possessions longer in a more disciplined way than we did. They seemed to come up with more loose balls than we did. They had an edge to their game that we lost after we started out in such a good way."

This was the fifth time teams that played in the Big 12 regular-season finale have faced off again in the opening round of the conference tournament. All five times the losing team from the first matchup came back to win the second game.

It appeared early that the Buffs were going to buck that trend.

Relphorde scored eight quick points to give his team an 11-5 lead in the first five minutes. A driving hoop by Higgins, CU's fifth layup of the game, made the score 18-8 with 11:37 left in the first half.

And then the Red Raiders (17-14) - who clearly wanted the NIT berth and another shot at the Jayhawks even more than the Buffs did - answered with a 24-6 run and grabbed a 32-24 lead.

"We got off to a pretty good start and then we just gave up some easy baskets. Once they hit a couple shots they gained their confidence," said Relphorde, who had just two points over the final 34 minutes. "We never recovered from it."

Burks finally stopped the bleeding with a steal and slam to get the deficit back down to six points. The Big 12's freshman of the year added a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws as part of a personal 7-0 spurt to bring CU within 32-31.

But as time expired on the first half, John Roberson made his fourth 3-pointer to give Texas Tech a 35-31 cushion at the intermission.

The momentum carried over as CU missed its first four shots of the second half and turned the ball over four times to help Texas Tech build a 43-31 lead with 16:02 remaining.

"We were down by 10 points early and there wasn't a sense of panic at all," Roberson said. "I think we played more like a family today and just stuck together."

Texas Tech, the No. 9 seed, led by as many as 18 points (65-47) before the Buffs' last gasp. Burks cut the deficit to 71-63 with 3:22 left but that was as close as the No. 8 seed would get.

"They didn't do anything that we weren't ready for. I think they just played well," Higgins said. "You have to give them credit."

Teams with losing records have participated in the College Basketball Invitational before, but it's highly unlikely CU would be willing to pay the $60,000 to host a game in the 16-team tournament.

It was NIT or bust. And the Buffs were a bust at the Big 12 Tournament.