Almost immediately after Colorado, now ranked No. 23 by the Associated Press, defeated San Diego on Saturday night, head coach Tad Boyle gave a few remarks about the next opponent CU will face: the UC Irvine Anteaters (3-1).

Last year, UC Irvine went 31-6 and made the NCAA Tournament. The Anteaters, who return four seniors and the top eight leading scorers from last season, rival Colorado's "quality depth" as Boyle likes to put it, and went 13-2 on the road in 2018-19.

Needless to say, Boyle expects a tough game Monday night at 7 p.m. MST, when Colorado hosts the Anteaters at the CU Events Center.

Cover photo courtesy of Nigel Amstock and the CU Independent

For Colorado, UC Irvine is yet another tough cookie on an all-around difficult non-conference schedule. The Anteaters most recently beat Boise State on the road, 69-60.

"Irvine has got out attention, let’s put it that way," Boyle said. "It’s going to be a high-level game — and NCAA Tournament-caliber game, in my opinion to play. We’ve got to be ready to play. Irvine will not beat themselves.”

As Boyle has alluded to, the soon-to-be three teams CU has faced thus far in 2019 have been very much different animals. But from a size perspective, and pun intended, UC Irvine will be Colorado's tallest task(s) to date this season.

“Irvine is probably the (best team) in terms of having quality interior players," Boyle said. "ASU’s two starting bigs didn’t play, so they played small ball. San Diego had one true big man. These guys have four true bigs that are all really good players. They’ve got good guards — they’re an inside out team...they’re not going to come in here afraid, I can tell you that much.”

"This is a good team — we just have to go out and play," junior D'Shawn Schwartz added.

The Anteaters are led by a crew of seniors: guards Eyassu Worku and Evan Leonard, plus forwards Tommy Rutherford, who's 6-foot-9 John Edgar, Jr.

Worku leads the boards for UC Irvine with 15 averaged points per game while Leonard is averaging 13. Rutherford's average of 6.8 rebounds per game is a team-high.

Boyle said after practice Sunday that on an individual level, getting sophomore Daylen Kountz out of his early season slump (five points through two starts at 46 minutes on the court so far this year) will be key.

Against San Diego, Kountz was the only Buffalo to register a negative in terms of +/-, as CU was outscored by six when he was on the court. It was an uneventful night for Kountz, who had two turnovers and was neutralized a few times by multiple defenders as he drove to the net.

"He’s got to understand when to pass it," Boyle said. "Daylen’s going through that typical thing as a sophomore in that teams that are playing us early right now are looking at last year’s tape — they see that he is a dynamic driver and slasher. They’re trying to take that away, so Daylen now has to make the adjustment (of) ‘when that’s taken away, what do I do?’ That’s what he’s in the process of figuring out."

Another player whom Boyle singled out, this time positively, was sophomore Eli Parquet. Parquet has yet to score this season but saw his minutes double vs. San Diego as compared to the time he saw against ASU.

Parquet's insertion into the lineup is largely merited by his defense — Boyle often refers to him as the team's best perimeter defender.

"Eli is a guy that we can plug in — I thought his minutes (Saturday) were really good," Boyle said. "You look at his stat line and you think ‘eh, he didn’t do much’ but the most important stat line to me was that we were plus-11 when he was on the floor...Eli’s not a guy who’s out there hunting shots, but he’s effective when he guards, he makes pays, he cuts — he’s a good player."

"Sometimes statistics don’t tell the whole story. I thought Eli’s 12 minutes last night were key for us, especially in the second half when we broke the game open.”

For Boyle, additional keys to a win Monday night will be consistent shooting and a better overall 40 minutes of basketball.

"The game Monday night is going to be a battle extraordinaire," he said. "We're playing a well-coached, well-disciplined team...we (have) to put two halves of basketball together and play with great toughness on Monday because it's going to be a battle."

Colorado and UC Irvine tip-off at 7 p.m. tonight from the CU Events Center.