Da Silva hoping final home game is Sunday
Standout senior hoping Sunday is final home game
It is a day Tristan da Silva has tried to ignore.
He hasn’t wanted to think about it. He hasn’t wanted to glance at the calendar. And, when pressed, da Silva has expressed disbelief that the end of the ride at the University of Colorado is even on the horizon.
But time inevitably marches on. And that distant horizon is now on the doorstep for da Silva.
The decorated senior forward from the CU Buffs men’s basketball team will hit the Events Center floor for what he hopes will be the final time as the Buffaloes look to continue a late-season surge on Sunday against Stanford in the regular-season home finale (7 p.m., FS1).
“I’m not really thinking about it. I don’t want to, either,” da Silva said of his Events Center finale. “It’s surreal. It doesn’t feel like four years have already gone by. I’ve been with a lot of teams here at CU. I’ve been through a lot of stuff. Just looking back, I’m just grateful for everything that I’ve had here.”
Da Silva was a role player as a freshman for CU’S last NCAA Tournament team in 2021. If the Buffs and da Silva play at the Events Center again, it will be in an NIT game. It’s a fate da Silva prefers to avoid at the tail end of an impressive CU career.
A native of Munich, Germany, da Silva decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, former Stanford standout Oscar da Silva, by pursuing NCAA basketball. But due in large part to the onset of the COVID pandemic, da Silva didn’t visit CU (or any other campus) before packing his bags for America. Prior to arriving in Boulder in the summer of 2020, the bulk of da Silva’s visuals about the CU campus were from shots of the Events Center on Feb. 8, 2020, when his brother was injured in a collision with Tristan’s eventual teammate, Evan Battey.
Da Silva played in 24 games off the bench for the 2020-21
tournament team but has been a fixture in the starting lineup in the three seasons since. Da Silva has missed only five games in the past three seasons, missing two during the 2021-22 season due to a bout with COVID before missing three earlier this season with a sprained ankle. Da Silva’s home finale will be his 116th game at CU, which will move him into a tie for 26th all-time,