With the Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball season beginning soon, all eyes are on five-star freshman Cody Williams and returnees KJ Simpson and Tristan da Silva. However, Luke O’Brien is another big name to watch this winter.
CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein recently named 21 “glue guys” to monitor this season and O’Brien was on the list. Here’s what Rothstein wrote about O’Brien:
The casual college basketball fan may know about the Buffaloes’ tandem of KJ Simpson and Tristan da Silva, but only the real junkies are aware of O’Brien. That will change if the Buffaloes compete for a Pac-12 regular season title this season. A 6-8 guard, O’Brien has a tremendous nose for the ball and regularly creates extra possessions, tallying five games last season with 10 or more rebounds. If Colorado lives up to its preseason hype, O’Brien will emerge as one of the top utility players in the sport.
O’Brien averaged 6.2 points per game with 5.6 rebounds last season while playing just under 24 minutes per game, but those numbers could go up across the board this season,
As Rothstein notes, there is a lot of hype around the Buffs this season with the return of da Silva and Simpson. Plus, Williams has been pegged as an early first-round pick in the 2024 NBA draft.
But, O’Brien should also be a huge contributor to head coach Tad Boyle’s team this year.
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