Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Alissa Noe at alissa.noe@colorado.edu and follow her on Twitter @crazysportgirl1.
There’s no question that last year turned out to be a rough one for the University of Colorado’s men’s basketball. At the end of the season, after losing then-junior power forward Josh Scott for eight games due to back spasms among a number of other problems, the Buffs finished 16-18.
You could say the Buffs faltered after losing their best player to injury, or you could say it all started with Spencer Dinwiddie’s season-ending injury and subsequent early departure to the NBA the year before. But regardless of what is to blame, head coach Tad Boyle isn’t having any of it.
“Look, here’s the reality: We will not use [excuses],” Boyle said. “You will not hear excuses come out of us. The reality is when you’re a program like Colorado and you lose three players in four years early to the NBA, and your best player gets hurt two years in a row, and you expect it not to catch up with you, you’re on drugs.”
In Boyle’s first four years at Colorado, his team saw unprecedented success as it rose to the national conversation of college basketball. In his first year with the program in 2010-11, Boyle took the team to the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) after his team won a school-record 24 games.
The year after, Boyle added to his achievements when he led the Buffaloes to a Pac-12 championship and a second-round appearance in the NCAA tournament after upsetting sixth-seeded UNLV in the first round. In his third and fourth years, he led the Buffaloes to two more consecutive appearances in the Big Dance.
So what happened last year? If Boyle’s legacy at Colorado up to that point had been amassing success every year, what made 2014-15 different?
“Last year was an aberration,” Boyle said. “That’s what I think, that’s what I want to think, and we’ll see how that plays out.”
Throughout last season, Boyle would mention here and there that the work ethic of that team had not been up to par with his previous Colorado teams. Perhaps this was because it lacked the guidance of NBA-caliber players like Dinwiddie and Andre Roberson, or perhaps it was the utter lack of NBA-worthy talent on the roster altogether.
Whatever the case may be, Boyle is desperate to reverse the curse that plagued his young team last year.
“Absolutely we have to prove that last year was an aberration,” Boyle said. “A lot of it falls on your players. I remember our first year in the league, that center circle at the end of practice four or five days a week, I’d say, ‘Guys, they picked us eleventh. They picked us eleventh in this league.’ You have to use whatever is at your fingertips, at your disposal to help motivate them.”
This season, the Buffs were picked to finish seventh in the Pac-12 according to a preseason poll. Whether that prediction will hold true remains to be seen. Either way, Boyle has decided to use that fact to light a fire in his team.
“Last year they picked us third, the first year they picked us eleventh,” Boyle said. “Being picked seventh, it’s like there’s nothing worse than mediocrity. It’s no fun. But look, they picked us third last year and we didn’t handle it very well.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. What matters is where we finish and how we get there. I’m going to use whatever I can use to help motivate this team,” Boyle said.
Though the gray area that Boyle’s squad sits in right now is no doubt a stain on his career at Colorado, it’s a position he’s familiar with given his previous coaching experience at the University of Northern Colorado.
“The one thing I think I bring is my experience at Northern Colorado, that first year we were 4-24,” Boyle said. “I’ve coached the worst team in Division I basketball. I’ve got that on my resume. But we’ve also won a Pac-12 championship, so I understand what it takes to win and I understand what it takes to lose.”
Despite all the negative talk in the media concerning the direction CU basketball seems to be headed after last season, Boyle remains optimistic about the direction his team is taking this year.
“There’s a lot of work to do between now and then but I like this team, I like the makeup,” Boyle said. “I love the chemistry and the camaraderie and I think we have a chance to do some damage in the Pac-12.”
After losing an offensive machine in guard Askia Booker last year, who ended his senior season averaging 17.2 points a game, the Buffs will look to the new additions and some of their bigs to provide on offense this year. More specifically, Boyle said he’ll look to sophomore forward Tory Miller, junior forward Wes Gordon and, of course, Scott to put up major points for the Buffaloes this year.
Additionally, the Buffaloes will receive scoring support from the Europeans that Boyle and his staff signed in the offseason, Belgian freshman guard Thomas Akyazili and Bosnian sophomore forward Kenan Guzonjic.
“I am really pleased with where he is relative to all of the things that are being thrown at him,” Boyle said of Akyazili. “Everything is new to him, being in a new country, a new campus, a new university. He’s in the gym all the time and he wants to be good.
“Thomas, over the course of the season and his career is going to get better and better. The character and makeup and workup he’s got [is great],” Boyle said.
Though Boyle said it’s too early to tell whether Akyazili could be an impact player for the Buffs this year, he did say he liked his mindset.
Guzonjic, on the other hand, will serve Colorado as another viable 6’8” forward this season once he becomes acclimated enough to a style of play he’s not yet used to.
“And then Kenan Guzonjic, who’s one of our new players as well gives a stretch four, a pick and pop type guy,” Boyle said. “Again, he’s another work in progress. He’s probably had the most difficulty in acclimating to the new style much like Thomas has but he’s going to be a good player.”
Regardless of how last season turned out and regardless of the negative media commentary surrounding the team, Boyle and his squad are looking forward to a better year.
“It’s year six for our staff and we couldn’t be more excited about where our team is, and I think we’re 12 practices in right now,” Boyle said. “We’ve learned a lot and we have a long ways to go as well. I feel a bit of a sense of urgency just because of how our schedule unfolds. We start with Iowa State on the 13th of November so we have to be ready to go.”
You can catch the Buffs in action during that first Iowa State game at 3:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 2 from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
