Colorado’s young core has shined. Can Tad Boyle keep it together? | College Basketball Insider
BOULDER — Tad Boyle has had the same thought since the offseason. How can he keep his talented freshman class together?
The Colorado coach saw glimpses of it during the team’s foreign trip to Australia, but now Buffaloes fans have gotten a chance to see it for multiple months.
Isaiah Johnson has put together one of the best scoring seasons by a freshman in program history.
Denver native Josiah Sanders and Jalin Holland have made an impact in the starting lineup recently and have earned Boyle’s trust.
Israeli big man Alon Michaeli has shown flashes of being a gifted low-post scoring threat.
Sharpshooter Ian Inman has seen his role increase, and he’s provided a big boost offensively.
At 7-feet tall, Tacko Ifaola looks like he could develop into the Buffs’ next great interior defensive anchor.
Combined, that group of six freshmen has played a total of 2,679 minutes — the most by a Buffs freshman class since the 2017-18 season when the likes of McKinley Wright IV, Tyler Bey, Dallas Walton and D’Shawn Schwartz were forming the foundation for a squad that made one NCAA Tournament appearance (would’ve been two if not for the COVID-19 pandemic).
That’s what Boyle believes this freshman class can become — if they stay in Boulder.
“It’s gonna be an interesting month,” Boyle said ahead of Saturday’s regular season finale against No. 2 Arizona (9 p.m., ESPN2).
In a variety of ways, things happen fast in March. The Buffs are nowhere near the NCAA Tournament bubble, so their season could end next week in Kansas City, barring an out-of-nowhere run in the Big 12 tournament.
CU has already secured a winning record, so it could also partake in another postseason tournament like the NIT or the College Basketball Crown, and Boyle’s team was a part of the inaugural field last season in Las Vegas.
As soon as the season ends, there will inevitably be departures and they will come fast. Boyle isn’t naive to that fact, but he also knows that losing the majority of this young core and having to rebuild through the transfer portal is not sustainable.
“It may not be 100%, but it’s gotta be the majority of those guys if we want to build what we want to build here,” Boyle said.
There is good news, though. This young group doesn’t appear to have wandering eyes.
This group has grown close throughout the season and has openly talked about what it would be like if they all stick together over the next two to three seasons.
“We’ve talked about that and we know what is there for us,” Sanders told The Denver Gazette. “We’re laying the foundation this year for what could be in the future. For us, we know that we’re having flashes and showing what we can do on the court. The thing that we’ll get over time is experience, and once we get that, we’ll be able to get better and improve individually and as a group.”
Sanders also mentioned he’s been on teams where jealousy and envy have gotten in the way of team success, and he senses none of that among his peers. He is roommates with Johnson and Inman and that trio in particular spends the majority of its time away from the gym together and know how important it is for them to set an example of what a good culture looks like.
“We’re with each other all the time. Especially recently, we’ve been hanging out a lot more. We’re really all we got,” Sanders said. “We’re the people on the floor. We gotta be there for each other, but we all understand where we’re coming from. We’ve been trying to really get that chemistry down because that makes a difference on the court.”
You can even lump standout sophomore Sebastian Rancik into that group, too. The Buffs have long seen him as a player in the mold of Tristan da Silva, a European-born skilled forward who can make a big impact on both ends. Even amid some struggles this season, Rancik is still ahead of where da Silva was at this point in this career and Boyle has made a point to make sure Rancik understands that.
“He’s not behind Tristan; he’s ahead of Tristan. Now, will he continue to develop and grow and work on his game? That’s yet to be seen, but there’s no question he can get there, in my mind. He’s got the size, he’s got the skill. Tristan turned into a hell of a player and he’s gonna have a great NBA, a long NBA career.”
If Rancik is the next da Silva, Johnson is already on his way to becoming the next Wright or KJ Simpson. He’s just 15 points shy of breaking Alec Burks’ program record for single-season scoring by a freshman, a record the Los Angeles native could claim Saturday night.
Add in supplementary pieces that could blossom into something more like Sanders, Holland, Inman, Michaeli and Ifaola and you can see not just the backbone but a near-complete version of the next great Buffs team poised for a deep NCAA Tournament run a year or two from now.
There’s just one caveat these days — if they stick together.
“I want our young guys to feel like this is their program and we can still build a culture where being a Buff means something and staying here for four, five years of your career will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment,” Boyle said. “I know that’s not the norm in college basketball now, but we’re gonna try to buck that norm as much as we can.”
The list: The five teams that can win the Big 12 tournament
- Arizona
The Wildcats should show the Buffs on Saturday night why they have as good a chance as any team in the country to win the national championship. As Tad Boyle said this week, Arizona doesn’t have any weaknesses. Tommy Lloyd’s squad may not have a star capable of winning national Player of the Year awards, but his eight rotation players are more solid than anyone else’s.
- Houston
It’s quite a different team, but Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars reached the Final Four last year; who’s to say they can’t do it again this year? This year’s Houston squad arguably has more high-end talent with star freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, a potential top-five pick in the NBA draft, to go with that usual relentless collective defensive identity that all Sampson teams have.
- Iowa State
The Cyclones may have lacked consistency as of late, but T.J. Otzelberger’s team is still one of the 10 best in the nation. Iowa State’s defense sets a pretty high floor for team success, but the star trio of Tamin Lipsey, Milan Momcilovic and Joshua Jefferson will determine its ceiling.
- Kansas
When at his best, Darryn Peterson is not just the best freshman in the country, but the best player in the country, period. The only problem for the Jayhawks is that version of Peterson has not shown up often enough recently. Whether it’s injuries or a hesitancy to risk further injury.
- Texas Tech
The ceiling of this Red Raiders team has been seriously hampered by the season-ending knee injury to star forward JT Toppin, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, but Texas Tech is still going to be very dangerous in Kansas City thanks to sophomore guard Christian Anderson, who might just be the Big 12 Player of the Year this season.
Mid-Major Minute
Chaos in St. Louis! Arch Madness never disappoints, and the Missouri Valley Conference tournament delivered a stunning result on Friday as No. 1 seed Belmont — by far the best team in the conference in the regular season — was blown out by No. 9 seed Drake in the quarterfinals. It’s a rebuilding year for the Bulldogs after last year’s NCAA Tournament appearance and subsequent departure of coach Ben McCollum and star point guard Bennett Stirtz, but Drake has now managed to win a pair of games in the MVC tournament after a nine-game losing streak to end the regular season.
Upset of the Week
TCU 73, No. 10 Texas Tech 65
The Big 12’s weirdest team might just be the Horned Frogs, who can get blown out by a young Colorado squad but who can also compete with the conference’s best on the road. TCU became the latest Big 12 team to all but secure an NCAA Tournament bid with the impressive upset in Lubbock earlier this week that was fueled by Xavier Edmonds’ 20 points and 12 rebounds. Jamie Dixon’s team could easily make a run to the championship game of the Big 12 tournament, but could also get bounced in their first game.
Going Overseas
Let’s throw it back to last year’s Colorado Buffaloes and showcase one of the key players of that squad that helped earn a pair of surprise wins in the Big 12 tournament. Andrej Jakimovski only played one season in Boulder, but he was a player Tad Boyle long admired and he’s now in his first season back in Europe, where he is averaging nearly 11 points per game across regular and EuroBasket competition for Trentino in the top Italian league. Jakimovski has also recently competed for his country, North Macedonia, in FIBA competition, leading his team to two wins.