O’brien grateful for four-year run with CU
Luke O’brien managed to hold back the tears. At least during the media-accessible portion of the final postseason scene of the season.
Still, the end inevitably is bittersweet. It was no different for O’brien, whose Colorado basketball career came to an end with the Buffaloes’ 81-77 defeat against second-seeded Marquette on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The senior from Littleton was an early commitment for the Buffs out of Columbine High. He began his CU career as a little-used bench player on the Buffs’ previous NCAA Tournament team during the COVID season of 2020-21. He ended it as a dependable senior willing to tackle any role forced upon him, including a spot in the starting lineup as the Buffs surged down the stretch to land a tournament berth that seemed improbable in mid-february.
“Yeah, it’s tough. This has been my family for four of the best years of my life,” O’brien said. “So it’s always sad. But I’m feeling more prideful of the team more than just being sad, just the way we battled. After that UCLA game we easily could have just thrown in the towel and called it a night and we probably would’ve made the NIT. But we stuck together really well, strung together some great wins. The fact that we got here, I’m just so blessed to have been in this position.”
It was a frustrating finale for O’brien, who went 1-for-6 on 3-pointers against Marquette. But he also went 3-for-4 at the free throw line, matching seasonhighs with both marks, to finish with eight points and four assists. O’brien also had four assists in CU’S wild first-round win against Florida, matching a career-high he reached a total of six times.
He posted two of those six career four-assist games in his final two college games in the NCAA Tournament.
Entering the season, O’brien was pegged as a sort of supersub off the bench, a player capable of filling minutes in the backcourt, providing support on the glass, and knocking down open 3-pointers. As injuries continually shifted CU’S rotation, O’brien ended up making 19 starts. He started the final 10 games of the season, much of which coincided with CU’S run of 10 wins in 11 games that ended with the loss against Marquette.
O’brien finished his senior season averaging a career-high 6.7 points, while shooting a solid .376 from 3-point range. The late surge in assists also left O’brien with a career-high 44 on the season.
As he shed his Buffaloes jersey for the final time, O’brien offered a quick reminiscence about his career. Over the past couple years he has been open and forth
right of some of the mental struggles he overcame while admittedly putting too much pressure on himself in his early seasons at CU, and how he overcame those challenges has become a source of pride as he considers the possibilities of perhaps starting a pro career overseas.
“Personally, for myself, that I was able to battle through a lot of mental challenges that I’ve had over my four years to be able to be such a big part of this team,” O’brien said. “It goes back to just the team as a whole. We have so many great guys on this team. It was just a joy to be around them every day. You wanted to come to practice. It was just that type of team. Winning in March is so friggin’ tough, and the fact that we were able to win two games (in the tournament), we were able to go to the Pac-12 championship, I have nothing but pride for my team.”