Colorado men’s basketball guard Javon Ruffin will miss the entire 2023-24 season while dealing with an ongoing knee issue, according to a report Thursday from Pat Rooney of the Boulder Daily Camera.

Last season, Ruffin was a key piece off the bench for the Buffs, averaging six points and 2.4 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game while making 35.8% of his 3-pointers, the second-highest mark on a team that regularly struggled to hit outside shots.

Injuries, though, have come to define Ruffin’s brief college career.

The 6-foot-5 guard came to Boulder with relatively high expectations, as part of a 2021 recruiting class that was ranked ninth nationally, ahead of the likes of Kansas and Louisville. Ruffin, a three-star recruit coming out of Phoenix Prep in Arizona, suffered a dislocated knee cap before he even got to Colorado, a setback that forced him to redshirt what would have been his freshman season in 2021-22.

Even once he was able to make his long-awaited college debut, he wasn’t fully healthy. He missed 11 of the Buffs’ 35 games, including their final seven. In what would be his last game of the season, he scored 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting in a road loss against then-No. 8 Arizona. It was one of six times last season that he scored in double figures.

In April, Ruffin underwent his third knee procedure in fewer than two years.

His absence will come during what will be one of the most anticipated seasons in recent memory for the program, with the return of the top five scorers from 2021-22 and the arrival of a top-25 recruiting class.

While the loss of Ruffin will be felt, Colorado has depth at guard and on the wing that should mitigate the impact of his injury. KJ Simpson is back after leading the Buffs in scoring (15.9 points per game) and assists (3.8 per game) last season. J’Vonne Hadley, Luke O’Brien and Julian Hammond all provided positive contributions while being able to move between multiple positions, though Hadley’s season was cut short by injuries. RJ Smith, a three-star recruit in the 2022 class, will look to make an impact after redshirting last season. Then there are the incoming freshmen, from a more traditional guard in Courtney Anderson Jr. to five-star phenom Cody Williams who, despite being 6-foot-8, possesses positional versatility.