Following the Buffs' disappointing 2021-22 finale on Tuesday night, a 76-68 loss at the hands of St. Bonaventure in the opening round of the NIT, Tad Boyle and his team are now officially in the offseason.

While Boyle would almost certainly assert that every offseason is important, looking down the barrel to this current lead-in to the summer and fall before the 2022-23 season gets underway, he has a number of to-do items on his list before starting year 13 at the helm in Boulder.

Roster management is key on that said list.

Seniors Evan Battey and Elijah Parquet have played their last games in a CU uniform and vacate scholarships soon to be taken by incoming true freshman Joe Hurlburt, a four-star big man from North Dakota, and R.J. Smith, a shooting guard from the greater Los Angeles (La Verne) area.

Presuming the Buffs don't lose any players to the transfer portal, Boyle will have one more scholarship to work with for this upcoming season, one he will likely use to bring in reinforcements from the transfer portal.

“I’ve got to sit down and talk to our staff about every returning player, the message that I need to give to them," Boyle said. "I want to know what they’re thinking and I’m going to meet with every returning player on Thursday or Friday."

I’m going to meet with these guys immediately and then I’ll meet with them again when they come back from spring break, because they’ll have gone home, talked to their families, and then we’ll kind of get a gameplan as we move forward."

However, in terms of potential changes to Colorado's current roster, two possibilities stick out.

The first is that star forward Jabari Walker opts to declare for the NBA Draft, foregoing his junior and senior seasons at CU.

After leading Colorado in both points (14.6) and rebounds (9.4) on the year, in addition to posting a Pac-12-best 17 double-doubles, Walker earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors for the season.

Walker's return to Boulder this upcoming fall would set up the Buffs as legitimate Pac-12 Conference title contenders, considering the group of players around Walker that include soon-to-be juniors Nique Clifford, Luke O'Brien and Tristan da Silva plus sophomores K.J. Simpson and Julian Hammond III.

Keeshawn Barthelemy is the other CU player to watch in the coming days and weeks.

After redshirting in 2019-20, Barthelemy served as CU's No. 2 point guard last season as McKinley Wright IV concluded his Colorado career.

In 2021-22, Barthelemy naturally assumed starting point guard duties, but he ultimately was relegated to an off-the-bench role for the final five games of the season, including Colorado's two Pac-12 Tournament games and Tuesday's NIT draw against the Bonnies.

Barthelemy started every game for the Buffs until Feb. 26, when Boyle inserted Hammond III in his place against No. 2 Arizona.

After CU's win over the Wildcats, Boyle said he told Barthelemy that the move was "nothing more than to try to rattle some cages and see if we can get a little different mojo going."

For the remainder of the season, Hammond III would go on to start at point guard.

That said, Barthelemy responded well over those five final games, scoring in the double digits in three of them, averaging 11.8 points per game, pretty in line with his seasonal average of 11.1.

Barthelemy never publicly complained about coming off the bench, but it should go without saying that heading into the 2022-23 season, he'll be challenged increasingly for the No. 1 point guard spot by Simpson, who earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team this year.

It's no secret that the Buffs were plagued by injury this past season.

True freshman forward Quincy Allen, a four-star forward from Washington, D.C., saw his year ended before it even began due to preseason hip surgery.

He, along with guard Javon Ruffin (knee), were forced to redshirt, with neither player seeing a lone minute on the court.

For Allen, he appears to be in the vicinity of being able to resume full basketball activities.

"No contact, but he's able to shoot, get out there, dribble a little bit and work on his ballhandling and shooting, so it's good to see him back in that capacity," Boyle said earlier in April. "In terms of (playing) live, I don't know when he'll be ready to go. He's getting closer."

When Ruffin will also be able to get back into the swing of things remains unknown.

And then there is 7-footer Lawson Lovering, who was averaging about 11 minutes off the bench for the Buffs on the year before suffering a season-ending MCL injury at the end of January.

Before he went down, Lovering seemed to struggle in his first year of college basketball. Once he heals, a dedicated offseason in the weight room will be key.

After he meets with players initially, the Buffs will likely disperse for spring break. Upon their return, the team will hit the ground running with its offseason regimen.

"They’ll go home for spring break or whatever they do for spring break — when you have a spring break as a college basketball player, it’s a disappointing year," Boyle said. "You want to be playing during your spring break.”

...Then we’ll start our offseason lifting, skill work and development."