Newcomers arrive for Buffs
‘We're ready to go,’ head coach Boyle said
Tristan da Silva is back. Most of the remainder of the roster for the Colorado men’s basketball team is in Boulder as well.
And this week, the first real steps toward the 2023-24 season begin.
Monday marks a small calendar milestone for the Buffaloes, as summer classes begin alongside summer workouts. With da Silva making his return to CU official this past week after going through the NBA pre-draft process, the Buffs can start looking forward to a season they hope will end with an NCAA Tournament berth following two straight seasons that ended with NIT bids.
Incoming freshman Courtney Anderson is expected to be a slightly late arrival after his high school held its commencement ceremony on Saturday. But head coach Tad Boyle said the rest of the roster is ready to roll.
“We’re ready to go,” Boyle said. “The summer’s here.”
The summer will offer the first opportunity for the Buffs’ holdovers to mesh with an intriguing mix of newcomers. Da Silva, a first team All-pac-12 selection last season, returns alongside guards KJ Simpson and Julian Hammond III, wing Luke O’brien, and forward J’vonne Hadley, who was CU’S leading rebounder until a broken finger suffered on Feb. 2 ended his season.
Among the newcomers, the two players CU hopes will get acclimated quickly are TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin Jr., who is expected to take over the starting post spot, and highly-touted recruit Cody Williams. Freshman Assane Diop, the 6-foot-10 forward from Senegal who prepped in Denver, is the other new arrival on campus.
Of course, Boyle still has a scholarship at his disposal following the transfer portal departures of Nique Clifford, Lawson Lovering and Quincy Allen. A team that struggled from 3-point range last season and faces uncertainty at the two-guard spot following the loss of Clifford and Javon Ruffin’s offseason knee surgery — plus the inexperience of RJ Smith, coming off a redshirt year as a true freshman — might still be in the market for reinforcements.
“We may fill it, we may not fill it,” Boyle said. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
The Boulder portion of the summer will be short for Boyle and Williams, as later this week that duo will head to Colorado
Springs for the U19 US World Cup team tryout camp. After leading the US U18 team to a gold medal last year at the FIBA Americas Championship, Boyle is set to lead a group likely to include Williams, ranked as the No. 4 recruit in the 2023 class by 247Sports.com.
“I think it’s a combination of getting a feel for the FIBA rules at the camp,” Boyle said. “The 24-second shot clock certainly. You’ll think, ‘What’s the difference between 30 and 24?’ But there’s a significant difference. And the players have never done it, even the ones coming from Texas or California with a shot clock. A lot of kids are coming in from high school without a shot clock. There’s a FIBA aspect of it that’s different.
“Going through the camp, the practices, you don’t know what you don’t know and experience is the best teacher. The fact I’ve been through it once is very, very helpful in terms of what to expect.”