BOULDER — As a father, Colorado men's basketball coach Tad Boyle knows all too well the frustration of dealing with youth. You tell them to clean their room and they do it. Bravo. Then you turn around and they're shaving the cat.

You must be a good father to coach what is considered one of the most talented teams in CU basketball history. The caveat is that the Buffaloes have six freshmen and two sophomores, and two freshmen are among the top-six players.

That produces these maddening results: blowing a 16-point lead with 12:40 left in a 92-83 overtime loss at third-ranked Arizona last Thursday and blowing a 17-4 lead in a 65-56 loss Sunday at Arizona State.

Boyle, in his third season with the Buffs, has another problem.

"I'm not doing a real good job of being patient," he said.

So last year's Pac-12 surprise team, one that encored this season by shooting from a preseason No. 6 pick in the conference to a No. 4 RPI nationally, is 0-2 in the Pac-12 (10-4 overall) entering Thursday's 8 p.m. game at the Coors Events Center against Southern California (6-9, 1-1).

Young talent is a tease. Not holding the lead at Arizona may have spilled over to not finishing off Arizona State.

The Buffs are teasingly close to being 12-2 overall, 2-0 on the road in league play and having a comfy spot in the top 25.

What's the biggest challenge?

"Consistency," Boyle said. "Without a doubt. You look at our trip to Arizona. Against Arizona, we hold them to one layup in the first half. We really guarded them. They scored 27 points.

"But we come out in the second half and they shoot 60 percent and we give up 10 layups. Part of that's Arizona. They're a good team. They're going to make a run. They're at home. I get that. But from one layup to 10 layups, from the percentage they shot in the first half to 60 percent in the second half, that's consistency."

In particular, the Buffs lack consistency on the road. They are 6-0 at the Coors Events Center and 1-4 on enemy courts. Traveling isn't difficult for youth just because of those tricky hotel card keys.

The problem is, when they were building their reputations on summer AAU teams, their crowds consisted of 60 percent stone-faced college scouts.

Freshman center Josh Scott never heard anything like Arizona's screaming mob when playing at Brighton High School last season.

"We haven't handled it well," Boyle said. "We didn't handle it well at Wyoming in the second half. We didn't handle it well at Arizona in the second half. Obviously, we didn't handle it well at KU from the get-go.

"That's what you have to figure out as a basketball player: when the other team's making a run and things aren't going your way. What we talk about from our Navy SEALs experience this fall, when it's not 75 degrees and sunny out, you'd better figure out a way."

Unlike many coaches, though, Boyle hasn't had problems with his highly talented young players accepting their roles. He didn't have a change in his starting lineup until freshman guard Xavier Johnson replaced Sabatino Chen at Arizona. Johnson scored 13 points and Chen nearly won it with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of regulation. (Officials looked at replay and overturned the call.) Now it's just a matter of doing their jobs over and over.

"Consistency, that's probably the big thing," said Chen, the only senior on CU's roster. "Like defensive rotations, boxing out every time. Guys don't do it on purpose but it seems like they take plays off. It's like a mental focus."

John Henderson: 303-954-1299, or