Tag: Luke O’Brien

UCLA reportedly reached out to Colorado transfer Luke O’Brien

UCLA reached out to Luke O’Brien.

The UCLA Bruins basketball program has expressed interest in a large number of players. So far, they have landed three in Kobe Johnson, Skyy Clark, and Eric Dailey Jr. 

Another big name they kicked the tires on is former Colorado star Luke O’Brien, per a report from 24/7 High School Hoops. 

O’Brien heard from a lot of programs, including but not limited to Colorado State, Nevada, Minnesota, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame.

O’Brien averaged 6.7 PPG with 3.8 rebounds and shot over 37 percent from three-point land for a BUffs team that made the NCAA Tournament and defeated Florida in a thrilling Round of 64 game.

But, the latest update states that O’Brien is visiting Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, per Jon Rothstein.

Still, UCLA has left no questions about trying to improve the roster and they have done so already by adding some big pieces. O’Brien is another name to keep an eye on in the portal.

Luke O’Brien becomes third CU Buff to enter transfer portal on Wednesday

Colorado native Luke O’Brien became the latest Buff to enter the transfer portal

While Luke O’Brien had already made it clear that 2023-24 would be his final season at CU, reports emerged on Wednesday that the senior hopes to continue his college basketball career elsewhere.

In a tweet, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports disclosed that O’Brien plans on entering the ever-busy transfer portal. The Littleton, Colorado native became the third Buffs player to infiltrate the portal on Wednesday, joining Eddie Lampkin Jr. and J’Vonne Hadley.

Throughout his four seasons playing for head coach Tad Boyle, the durable O’Brien played in 111 games while averaging 4.8 points and 3.7 rebounds. He finished his senior season with career-bests in points per game (6.7) and field goal shooting (45.6%).

Boyle’s primary rotation will look vastly different next season as the Buffs rejoin the Big 12 Conference. O’Brien, Lampkin and Hadley are all entering the portal with one season of eligibility remaining while Tristan da Silva, Cody Williams and KJ Simpson are expected to test the NBA draft waters.

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PHOTOS: Homegrown CU Buffs senior Luke O’Brien through the years

Take a look back at Colorado native Luke O’Brien’s college career

Luke O’Brien has represented his home state of Colorado well throughout his four years in a CU Buffs men’s basketball uniform.

A native of Littleton, O’Brien played his prep career at Columbine High School, where he was named the Class 5A State Player of the Year as a senior. He then played his first season with the Buffs in 2020-21 and saw action in 10 games, including both of Colorado’s NCAA Tournament games.

O’Brien’s college career is now coming to a close with his final regular season home game set for Sunday against Stanford. Entering Sunday, the versatile 6-foot-8 O’Brien is closing in on 500 career points and 400 rebounds throughout his time in Boulder.

Take a photographic look back at O’Brien’s Colorado men’s basketball career:

Luke O’Brien earns huge praise from college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein

College basketball analyst Jon Rothstein gave some huge praise to Luke O’Brien

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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CU men’s basketball dishes out 2022-23 team awards

Five different Buffs received team awards for their efforts during the 2022-23 season

The Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team missed the NCAA Tournament but wound up in the NIT for the second straight season. The Buffs topped Seton Hall but then lost to Utah Valley in the second round by 12 points.

With the college basketball season officially over, the Buffs handed out team awards for the 2022-23 season. The Buffs finished 18-17 but have a ton of promise for next season with Cody Williams being the talk of the town and Colorado landing in ESPN’s way-too-early top 25 rankings.

Here is a quick rundown of the players who received team awards for their efforts this season:

CU Buffs men’s basketball 2022-23 season in review

We put the 22-23 CU men’s basketball season under the microscope

The 2022-23 season was a rare downturn for Colorado in the Tad Boyle era. But with another year of experience and a big recruiting class, the Buffaloes have the weapons to make a big turnaround in 2023-24. As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to look back in order to move forward. So what can we learn from this past season?

The closest comp has to be the 2014-15 season. CU had a nearly identical overall record, Pac-12 record, points per game and points against that season. The Buffs had just lost an all-time great to the NBA in Spencer Dinwiddie and relied on a young group, much like CU did this year. CU would rattle off 20-win campaigns in five of the next eight seasons with a 19-win season in that stretch as well.

Check out our season in review for the 2022-23 Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team:

Colorado men’s basketball recap: Buffs fall short of upsetting No. 4 UCLA

CU’s upset attempt came up just short

Sunday’s Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball game against No. 4 UCLA was eerily similar to the women’s upset bid against No. 2 Stanford. Colorado jumped out to an early double-digit lead in the first half, but the Bruins fought their way back to secure the four-point victory, 60-56.

The Buffs held the duo of Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez Jr. in check, only allowing UCLA to shoot 40.7% overall from the field while also limiting the Bruins to only one 3-point make in 14 attempts. Shot-making was the killer for the Buffs tonight, as they themselves only hit 33.3% from the field, plus they missed 10 free-throws (13-for-23) in a four-point game.

Luke O’Brien was a bright spot for the Buffaloes as he achieved his first career double-double, scoring 13 points and hauling in 10 rebounds. The duo of Tristian da Silva and KJ Simpson were the other double-digit scorers for the Buffaloes, adding 13 and 14 points, respectively. There was a scary moment in the waning minutes when da Silva went down with an apparent ankle injury and hobbled back to the locker room under his own power.

Colorado will close out the regular season on Saturday against the Utah Utes on senior day in the Buffs’ final tune-up before the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

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Buffs Player of the Game at Oregon State: Luke O’Brien

Luke O’Brien went off from 3-point land

The Colorado Buffaloes marched right into Corvallis and defeated Oregon easily, 90-64.

The Buffs got some more much-needed momentum, and five players scored in double figures on Tuesday evening.

Jabari Walker led the way again with 24 points and 15 rebounds. However, he isn’t our player of the game.

That award instead is going to Luke O’Brien. The sophomore had the best game of his season with a career-high 14 points on 5-of-6 from the field, including 3-for-4 from deep.

After the game, head coach Tad Boyle spoke highly of O’Brien, and the entire team was ecstatic for his massive performance. Here’s what Boyle had to say about O’Brien:

For some perspective, O’Brien combined for 16 points over the past six games, so 14 points on Tuesday is quite something.

Coming into the game, O’Brien was averaging just 2.4 points per game but shattered those numbers on Tuesday.

With what has been a thinning bench, it is refreshing to see O’Brien have such a strong performance, and perhaps Boyle gives him more minutes going forward. If O’Brien can play like this more often, the Buffs will be excited as March approaches.

Next up for the Buffs is a road game against California, and we will keep an eye on O’Brien’s minutes in that one.

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The best stats from Colorado’s 90-46 win over Maine

Colorado blew out the Maine Black Bears 90-46

Now that was fun. In one of the most lopsided wins of the Tad Boyle era, the Colorado Buffaloes thoroughly beat the Maine Black Bears, 90-46. Yes, Maine isn’t exactly a powerhouse, but who says confidence building isn’t important?

We all love gaudy numbers and here are a few of them from the Buffs’ third consecutive win to start the season.

Total rebounds: Colorado 45, Maine 23

We learned that Colorado could rebound against New Mexico and the Buffs showed their fight on the boards once again vs. Maine. I’m probably most proud of Lawson Lovering’s seven boards. The 7-footer has gotten better each game and he delivered against an albeit undersized Maine team. Evan Battey also had seven and Jabari Walker brought down six.

Colorado turnovers: 10

Basically, the only reason Colorado’s previous two games were close was because of turnovers. The Buffs had a combined 34 against Montana State and New Mexico but they only had 10 total vs. Maine. Plus, the starting unit of Keeshawn Barthelemy, Jabari Walker, Evan Battey, Tristan da Silva and Eli Parquet —all of whom played at least 20 minutes — committed just three total. None of them had more than one as well.

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Luke O’Brien and Julian Hammond III combined points: 12

The debut of Julian Hammond III was as advertised. In 16 minutes, he shot 2-of-4 from the field, including a three pointer, and hauled in four rebounds. His three personal fouls, however, was not a good sign. With Barthelemy’s career-high 22 (an honorable mention on this list) and Simpson impressing again, the emergence of Hammond made for a scary group of guards.

After struggling in CU’s first two games, O’Brien was given more minutes in a blowout game and looked better. He made a three pointer in the second half and excelled defensively. Maine wasn’t a particularly clean team, but O’Brien snuck in four steals in just 14 minutes — an impressive number for a bigger guy.