On Wednesday Tad Boyle and Colorado held its annual media day at the CU Events Center in which Boyle gives his thoughts on the team and reviews the assets he'll work with this season as he prepares to lead Colorado in his 10th season as head coach.
Boyle goes in-depth about the strength of Colorado's returning players, the Buffs heading to China in November to face ASU and explore Chinese cities and culture, while explaining how his team is handling preseason hype and high expectations.
Boyle's opening statement: "I said I was humbled and honored to be the coach when I got the job 10 years ago — I still feel that way today. I'm fortunate to represent this university and this basketball program."
REDSHIRT ALERT: Boyle did not explicitly us the word "redshirt" in describing freshman guard Keeshawn Barthelemy, but he did say directly that he won't play in 2019-20, all but confirming that Barthelemy is going to redshirt and preserve a year of eligibility. The move makes sense — Barthelemy is showing great promise early on and next year, when Boyle' roster is a bit less congested, he should have the appropriate room to shine.
Boyle on Colorado being the hunted not the hunter, dealing with preseason hype and keeping his players from getting sucked into the "noise:" We talk about it, it's something we've addressed with our team and we'll continue to address it. You call it hype, I call it noise. We have to not listen to that noise. I think it's important that our players understand that. My job on a day to day basis is to hold them to a standard and expectation level that we need to adhere to to get done what we need to get done.
Our first open scrimmage we had, a week or two before the ASU football game, some fans came in and our players scrimmaged, went up and down and as I took the film home end watched it — it was atrocious. I let them now that and I didn't just talk about it, I showed it to them on film and our guys understood that year, we weren't very good in certain areas...what I love about this team is that after that film session, I've seen a lot of progress in areas we talked about...the outside stuff doesn't matter. What matters is what we do between the lines. The biggest challenge we have as coaches today is to get that noise out of their head. It's coming to them on those devices (Boyle's referring to the social media culture of the day) and we have to combat that every day."
