In the Pac-12’s sendoff season, Colorado was picked to fifth in the conference's preseason media poll.
Colorado is coming off a just-above .500 season (.514) with an 18-17 record. The Buffs grappled with their inconsistencies a year ago, and once the season ended, Nique Clifford (CSU), Lawson Lovering (Utah) and Quincy Allen (James Madison) hit the transfer portal.
This 2023-24 season begins with a retooled roster with some notable additions in 6-foot-11 TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin, five-star freshman Cody Williams and other young talent while Tristan da Silva and KJ Simpson provide a veteran presence.
The composition of Colorado’s roster is very intriguing with the nuance and the depth, and the outside expectations are only further motivation for the squad.
“Picking us fifth is great because the pressure is off, right?,” head coach Tad Boyle said at Pac-12 Media Day in Las Vegas on Wednesday. “But the internal standards and goals we have for this program are much higher than fifth in the league.”
In addition to the new guys and the veterans, Luke O’Brien was CU’s reliable rebounder a year ago as he averaged 5.6 rebounds per game and flashed throughout the season on offense with seven double-digit games.
Along with O’Brien, the Buffs have experienced returners in J’Vonne Hadley (8.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG) and Julian Hammond (6.9 PPG).
“I feel like this year with the people we have coming back and the people we added, were a really, really scary team,” Simpson said. “We're not really worried about the ranking stuff.”
Given the talent across the league and where Colorado finished last season, the preseason poll results aren't a surprise, but they also don't have any influence on what happens once the games begin.
“We got a lot of people playing multiple positions, guarding multiple positions,” da Silva said. “We got [our] top five scorers from last year back. We got a really good rebounders. Defensively, we're one of the top teams in the Pac-12.
“So we keep that up and improve offensively, we have the talent for it -- that's the recipe right there.”
Back in Boulder, Boyle is liking what he’s seeing in practice.
“We've had some really good practices,” Boyle said. “I think we're 12 practices in, and this is a competitive group. We don't even have our big guy Eddie Lampkin practicing with us yet. When we throw him in, it's going to be a lot of fun.”
Football coach Deion Sanders and his Buffs were predicted to finish 11th in Pac-12 and now they sit 8th while having a chance to chase a bowl game. A little doubt thrown at the right collection of talent and coaching, and anything is possible.
“We have all the pieces,” Simpson said. “There's no excuses to why we shouldn't be good. Obviously, everyone's gonna have their opinion of how good or where they’ll place us, but we know where we hold ourselves to. Those standards don't change for anybody else who comes into [the] Colorado program.
“I feel like we're just ready to take on the challenge.”
