Tag: colorado buffaloes basketball

Colorado receives votes in preseason USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll

Colorado was just outside the top 25 in the preseason USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Poll

The preseason USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll was released on Monday and Colorado was outside the top 25 but still received 21 votes.

Only TCU, Maryland, Wisconsin and Illinois had more votes than the Buffs among unranked teams. UCLA sat No. 25 with 52 votes.

No. 22 USC and No. 11 Arizona were the only other Pac-12 teams in the top 25. Washington and Oregon also received five and three votes, respectively.

Fortunately for the Buffs, the Pac-12 certainly appears open for the taking without a single top-10 team. In the Pac-12 preseason media poll, the Buffs were predicted to finish fifth in their final year in the conference.

Colorado’s nonconference schedule features just one opponent in the preseason top 25: No. 13 Miami, which reached the Final Four last season.

Kansas was the No. 1 overall vote-getter in the preseason coaches poll.

The Buffaloes’ 2023-24 season gets underway at home on Nov. 6 against Towson.

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Colorado men’s basketball: Black and Gold scrimmage takeaways

Colorado men’s basketball held an open scrimmage on Friday evening. Here’s what we learned:

We saw some good and some bad on Friday evening as the Colorado men’s basketball team held its annual Black and Gold scrimmage. That’s all to be expected, though, with the Buffs only about two full weeks into preseason practices.

Head coach Tad Boyle gave his freshmen, including five-star recruit Cody Williams, plenty of play in the 24-minute scrimmage, and they appeared to be blending well with Colorado’s veterans.

The Buffs host Metro State in an exhibition scrimmage on Oct. 28 before welcoming Towson to Boulder for their season opener on Nov. 6.

Below are my five takeaways from Colorado’s annual Black and Gold scrimmage:

CU men’s basketball picked to finish fifth in preseason Pac-12 media poll

Colorado was picked to finish fifth in the preseason Pac-12 men’s basketball media poll

The 2023-24 preseason Pac-12 men’s basketball media poll was released on Wednesday and Colorado, surprisingly, was picked to finish fifth.

The Buffs finished eighth in the conference last year at 8-12 (18-17 overall), but are vastly improved on paper with five-star true freshman Cody Williams and TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin Jr. joining an already strong core of returning starters.

Here’s a complete look at the preseason poll:

  1. Arizona (303 total points)
  2. USC (264)
  3. UCLA (249)
  4. Oregon (228)
  5. Colorado (210)
  6. Arizona State (148)
  7. Utah (139)
  8. Stanford (131)
  9. Washington (108)
  10. Washington State (94)
  11. Cal (67)
  12. Oregon State (42)

Per BuffZone’s Pat Rooney, Colorado head coach Tad Boyle’s reaction to the poll was, “If we’re the fifth-best team in the Pac-12, the Pac-12’s pretty good this year.”

Senior forward Tristan da Silva and junior guard KJ Simpson were both named first-team preseason All-Pac-12 while Williams earned an honorable mention nod.

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Where Colorado ranks among Big 12 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings

See where Colorado ranks among Big 12 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 college rankings

Colorado’s final football season in the Pac-12 is about halfway through and we’re already looking ahead to what next year will present in the Big 12 Conference.

CU, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12 after this academic year.

Although the Big 12 isn’t as academically impressive as the current Pac-12 is with Stanford and Cal, Colorado’s decision to leave was needed from an athletics perspective.

Colorado, in fact, will soon become one of the Big 12’s best universities, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 college rankings. Here’s where CU ranks among its 2024 Big 12 counterparts:

Colorado men’s basketball to host open scrimmage Friday evening

The Buffs men’s basketball team will host an open scrimmage on Friday evening prior to CU football’s 8 p.m. home game against Stanford

Prior to Colorado’s Friday night home football game against Stanford, the Buffaloes men’s basketball team will host its annual Black and Gold intrasquad scrimmage at the CU Events Center earlier that evening.

Doors to the Events Center will open at 4:30 p.m. on Friday and admission is free to the public. The scrimmage is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and should last about one hour, giving fans with football tickets plenty of time to make their way to Folsom Field for the 8 p.m. MT kickoff.

Per CU, “All campus lots will be set up for football parking, so fans must either have a permit or use the game day paid parking options.”

Expectations for the Colorado men’s basketball team are high with five-star freshman Cody Williams and TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin Jr. joining forces with a slew of returning starters, including Tristan da Silva, KJ Simpson and Luke O’Brien.

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Analyst tabs Tristan da Silva as the top small forward in men’s college basketball

College basketball analyst Andy Katz believes Colorado has the best small forward in the country

It won’t be easy for the Colorado men’s basketball team to step out from behind the shadow that head coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes football team have cast over Boulder, but having a star such as Tristan da Silva will certainly help matters.

Da Silva averaged nearly 16 points and five rebounds per game in 2022-23 and the senior from Germany is set to be one of the top players in the entire country this upcoming season.

As the start of the college basketball season creeps closer and closer, college hoops analyst Andy Katz is releasing his top players from all five positions.

Take a look at Katz’s ranking of the top 10 small forwards:

CU men’s basketball below full strength early in preseason camp

Tad Boyle’s squad began preseason camp on Monday with a few key players looking to get healthy

With as much attention as the Colorado football team is currently drawing, the Buffs men’s basketball team should draw plenty of eyeballs as well in their upcoming 2023-2024 season.

Top prospect and projected NBA lottery pick Cody Williams is a huge reason why, and head coach Tad Boyle is trying to do whatever it takes to make the NCAA Tournament.

The Buffs, however, held their first preseason practice on Monday without a few prominent names, per Nikki Edwards of CU Sports Report.

J’Vonne Hadley is dealing with an illness but should be back later in the week. KJ Simpson, who should be one of the Pac-12’s top point guards this season, has an ankle injury and Eddie Lampkin Jr., a center who transferred in from TCU, has a back injury that is going to keep him out for some time.

None of that is good news, although the situations with Hadley and Simpson are temporary and Lampkin is expected to be ready when the season begins.

As training camp continues, it will be interesting to see if the Buffs can stay healthy heading into the season, especially with high expectations.

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Breaking down Colorado men’s basketball’s 2023-24 nonconference schedule

Which nonconference games are you most looking forward to this season for CU men’s hoops?

With five-star incoming freshman Cody Williams and TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin Jr. joining an already strong core, this upcoming season is expected to be fruitful for the Colorado men’s basketball program.

The Buffs are landing on various preseason top 25 rankings and if they can stay healthy, head coach Tad Boyle’s squad should make some noise in their final Pac-12 season. An NCAA Tournament run would also be welcomed ahead of Colorado’s return to the Big 12.

On Monday, CU men’s basketball announced its finalized 2023-24 nonconference schedule, which includes trips to Daytona Beach, Brooklyn and Fort Collins.

Take a deeper look at who the Buffs will be facing in nonconference play:

How far Colorado has to travel to play each team in the Big 12

Up for a road trip next year?

Besides the more obvious financial reasons, Colorado’s move to the Big 12 makes sense from a travel perspective. Athletic director Rick George argued that point when discussing the university’s Pac-12 departure and he’s likely right.

Come 2024, gone are the trips to the Pacific Northwest and in comes an era of reasonable commutes to the Big 12’s more centrally located campuses. Yes, UCF is somewhat of an outlier here, but who doesn’t want a reason to visit Orlando?

Below are the estimated drive and flight times from Boulder (or from the Denver International Airport for fans who’d like to fly out) to each Big 12 city/town:

A Colorado fan’s guide to reacquainting with the new-look Big 12

This easy guide should help you get reacquainted with the Big 12

Colorado is officially heading back to a conference it once called home for over 60 years.

On Thursday, the CU board of regents unanimously approved the university’s decision to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 academic year. The move means that the Buffs will have regular meetings again with rivals such as Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State while forging new relationships with schools that joined the Big 12 after Colorado initially left in 2011.

The Buffs still have another year in the Pac-12, but it’s time to start learning more about the Big 12’s landscape. Here’s a quick guide that should help you reacquaint with the new-look Big 12 Conference: