Thankfully, that was just an exhibition.
The Colorado men’s basketball team didn’t exactly shine during its final preseason tuneup. Tad Boyle’s Buffs allowed Nebraska to shoot for nearly 50% in an 82-67 stomping of CU on Halloween morning.
“This is exactly what our team needed right now,” Boyle said. “To get smacked in the face like we did and hopefully learn from it, and do something about it as we move forward.”
As the Cornhuskers drained three-pointers with ease, the Buffaloes were just 3-for-19 from deep. But, three sophomores that need to step up in 2021, Luke O’Brien, Nique Clifford and Tristan da Silva, impressed on Sunday. The trio made for 33 of CU’s 67 points and Clifford brought down eight rebounds.
Player of the game for CU to me has to be Nique Clifford. 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting so far, 7 rebounds. He's played pretty well today.
— Justin Guerriero (@GuerrieroCU) October 31, 2021
While it’s too early to be concerned, Evan Battey’s 0-for-10 shooting performance wasn’t great. Likewise, Jabari Walker and K.J. Simpson struggled with ball control, which contributed to Nebraska scoring 21 points off turnovers.
“We learned we’ve got a long way to go both offensively and defensively,” Boyle said.
The Buffaloes will have just over a week to correct their mistakes before Montana State opens the regular season on Nov. 9.