where the Buffs won a pair of games<\/a>. For the four returnees who all played key roles in that late flicker of life \u2014 Sebastian Rancik, Bangot Dak, Elijah Malone and Felix Kossaras \u2014 it at least provided a sign the \u201925-26 core might be able to compete.<\/p>\n\u201cSometimes you make decisions and they work. Sometimes you make decisions and they don\u2019t work,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cAs I look at last year\u2019s season, certainly you look at the record and you go from 26 wins to 14 wins. What went wrong? I didn\u2019t think we were a 14-win team. You look at the early Big 12 games. You win or you lose, that\u2019s an absolute. There\u2019s certain years the record looks good and you came out on top in those close games. Last year was a year we came up on the bottom of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and our staff certainly didn\u2019t forget how to coach. We probably made some mistakes in building the roster for last year\u2019s team. There\u2019s reasons for that. Some of those reasons I have control over. Some I don\u2019t. For me, I have to look in the mirror and say what could\u2019ve you done differently? What should\u2019ve you done differently? And probably more important, what are you going to do differently next year?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Dak, Malone and Rancik, still just a sophomore, all will be counted upon to provide leadership and increased production, any near future in which the Buffs are a factor in the Big 12 race will require Boyle and his staff to double down on the developmental approach, particularly with this year\u2019s seven-player freshman class.<\/p>\n
In years past, CU\u2019s coaching staff and fans alike might have been willing to endure a few lumps with a young core high on promise. The 17-15 team of 2017-18, with a freshman class featuring McKinley Wright IV, Tyler Bey, D\u2019Shawn Schwartz and a redshirting Evan Battey, is a prime example.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s game, though, there is little guarantee players will stay in a program long enough to reap collective dividends, as those 2017 freshmen did. Boyle admits retaining all seven freshmen might be a na\u00efve thought, but the Buffs plan to retain as many as possible. After over-signing with recent recruiting classes, Boyle said he has no plans to over-sign this year.<\/p>\n
Granted, it\u2019s an easy year to take that approach, as Malone is the only player whose eligibility is set to expire. But Boyle, whose club received a verbal commitment from Phoenix-area wing Rider Portela earlier this week, said the approach also is meant to be a show of faith for a freshman class critical to returning the program to the standards set during the bulk of his tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt like we addressed some of the issues that we needed to have in recruiting,\u201d said Mike Rohn, CU\u2019s associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of where it all starts. This spring, we retained the most important pieces to the puzzle, we felt like. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing year-to-year anymore. Every year now is potentially much different than what you forecast it to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been that program that keeps churning out development and year after year, guys get better. I don\u2019t know if that model is quite as sustainable from a complete roster. You hope it is as much as possible. Because where we\u2019re at and what our philosophies are, it\u2019s still about the development piece and your team getting better from one year to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life was simpler when Tad Boyle began his collegiate coaching career in 1994, trading his leading role as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,4437,4438,1369,4439,9577,4440,1370,728,1317,1337,1338,50,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-242277","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-colorado-news","14":"tag-front-range","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-basketball","19":"tag-ncaabasketball","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115238571296274288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242277","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=242277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242277\/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=242277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}