They won a little. They lost a little. And, perhaps most importantly, they actually got to know one another.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Colorado men\u2019s basketball team completed an exhibition tour through Australia, providing a springboard for a 2025-26 squad whose official preseason practices don\u2019t begin for more than a month.<\/p>\n
The Buffaloes didn\u2019t wear \u201cHello, my name is\u2026\u201d stickers on their apparel during the journey. But it would\u2019ve been understandable if they had.<\/p>\n
This season, the Buffs are welcoming nine newcomers, the newest of whom \u2014 Israeli forward Alon Michaeli \u2014 arrived in Boulder just last week. Including Michaeli, CU boasts seven true freshmen, plus a pair of transfers. Two of those players, freshman center Leonardo Van Elswyk and Denver transfer Jon Mani, joined CU\u2019s workouts just weeks before the club departed for Australia.<\/p>\n
The competition against older, more experienced international pros provided an early test. Yet the team bonding was equally critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to the Great Barrier Reef and spent some time on a boat together, and did some team activities,\u201d CU head coach Tad Boyle said. \u201cI know on the Gold Coast they went jet skiing together. It was a great, great opportunity, and that\u2019s what those trips are about. They\u2019re about the ability to connect off the floor as much as play. For a team like this, with so many new guys, it also gives our veterans a chance to get to know the new guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
It certainly wasn\u2019t all fun and games, as Buffs went 2-2 during the four-game trip. The run included a tightly-contested defeat against the Australian Boomers, the country\u2019s national team. The Boomers used the matchup as a tune-up for the FIBA Asia Cup, which Australia won for the third consecutive time on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Boyle said the area of greatest concern that emerged from the competition was the Buffs\u2019 transition defense and offensive rebounding. Those two traits are related \u2014 typically, if a team is good at either offensive rebounding or transition defense, it might lag somewhat in the other. Yet Boyle said the Buffs weren\u2019t proficient at either.<\/p>\n
However, those are just two of many young-club shortcomings certain to be addressed when preseason practices begin. What Boyle found far more encouraging was how his team of rookies and returnees looking to embrace bigger roles didn\u2019t back down against older players willing to mix it up in the more physical brand of international basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing I learned is our young guys aren\u2019t afraid of anybody,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cThey compete at a high level. Obviously we\u2019ve got a lot of room for growth and room for improvement. Any young team will. But they really compete. They\u2019re trying to do everything you ask them to do. I was really encouraged by that because we were playing against older, pro men. And the FIBA game is much, much more physical than the American game. But our guys handled it well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Individually, Boyle cited the physicality of freshman guard Josiah Sanders and the strong offensive trip by sophomore forward Sebastian Rancik. Other bright spots included the efficient offense from sophomore guard Felix Kossaras and a more comfortable presence in the middle with Elijah Malone. But some of the highest praise was reserved for a pair of freshman guards, Jalin Holland and Isaiah Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Jalin Holland did some really, really good things,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cAnd Isaiah Johnson is much, much further along than I thought he might be when we first recruited him. You don\u2019t know what to expect from freshmen. And every one of those freshmen have things they have to work on, there\u2019s no doubt about it. But they showed some really good things. A lot of things we can build on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They won a little. They lost a little. And, perhaps most importantly, they actually got to know one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,4437,4438,1369,4439,4440,1370,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-167403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boulder","10":"tag-boulder-county","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-front-range","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-basketball","17":"tag-ncaabasketball","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115074411349943672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}