LAS VEGAS — Cry tonight, forget about it tomorrow.

That was Colorado coach Tad Boyle’s message to his players after the Buffaloes’ 75-68 loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Saturday. The loss ends an eight-game winning streak for the Buffaloes, who beat Washington State in the semifinals on Friday.

But Boyle said there’s no time for them to mope.

“Things don’t go your way and you’re disappointed. … It’s part of life,” Boyle said. “You have to deal with it and move on. The sun will come up tomorrow”

Senior N’Faly Dante was the difference-maker for Oregon.

The 6-foot-11 center logged a game-high 25 points. He went 12-of-12 from the field and also collected eight rebounds.

Knowing Dante’s versatility, Boyle tried to institute a double team on the senior. That didn’t work either.

“Dante’s a beast,” Boyle said. “He scored out of double teams. He played extremely well.”

As star junior guard KJ Simpson walked off the court, tears streamed down his face. Simpson said the emotions stemmed from his team coming so far in the Pac-12 Tournament just to lose in the title game.

But his mentality is similar to his coach’s.

“It’s a disappointed locker room, especially with how far we’ve come and what we’ve been through,” Simpson said. “It stings, but we believe we have more basketball left. We can’t dwell and we can’t sit around and mope about this one loss.”

With the win, Oregon (23-11) clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Colorado (24-10) entered Saturday ranked No. 24 in the NET rankings, which are used to determine selection and seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Saturday’s loss will go as Colorado’s fifth “quad-two” loss of the season. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Colorado listed in the “last four in” of his latest bracketology.

Boyle has coached at Colorado since 2010 and has reached the NCAA Tournament five times.

During his tenure, Boyle said he’s coached teams that weren’t selected for the tournament that should have been. He also said that other squads of his that did reach the tournament shouldn’t have been picked.

This time, Boyle doesn’t have a doubt: The Buffaloes should be in.

“This team, to me, is worthy,” the coach said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is an NCAA Tournament team. I’ve known that since Day 1. We’ll see if that happens tomorrow.

“If it does, it does. If it doesn’t, we’ll move on as well.”

That said, Boyle won’t breathe easily until he sees Colorado listed on the bracket during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think, quite frankly,” Boyle said. “It matters what the committee thinks.”