It\u2019s a new-look bunch that was able to take advantage of a summer sojourn through Australia.<\/p>\n
Yet even since then, the cast of characters has changed a little.<\/p>\n
Last month, just ahead of the start of the semester, the Buffs added Alon Michaeli, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Israel expected to immediately add brawn and scoring punch to the CU frontcourt.<\/p>\n
In order to escape the Big 12 basement, CU will need Sebastian Rancik to blossom in his second season of college basketball. The Buffs will need sixth-year center Elijah Malone to be more consistent in his second season at the Division I level, and UC Riverside transfer Barrington Hargress has to provide improved play at point guard.<\/p>\n
Yet the Buffs also will have to rely on youth, and quick introductions. CU will open preseason practice on Wednesday morning with nine new players \u2014 seven true freshmen, plus Hargress and Denver transfer Jon Mani.<\/p>\n
Michaeli wasn\u2019t in the mix yet when CU traveled Down Under for a four-game tour. But the rest of the newcomers were, allowing the Buffs to essentially get a jump-start on the preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a clean slate, if you will,\u201d said head coach Tad Boyle, who enters his 16th season at CU. \u201cNow, there\u2019s a lot of question marks. That\u2019s why going to Australia this summer was so important for this team. When I came back from Australia I was really, really \u2026 I don\u2019t want to say pleasantly surprised, but I was really encouraged with the competitiveness, the toughness, the things that we\u2019re going to need to win in the Big 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly we\u2019ve got to get better in a lot of areas, there\u2019s no doubt about that. But this team will not back down from anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Boyle noted, there will be question marks aplenty to sort through and possibly answer ahead of the Nov. 3 opener against Montana State. Here is a look at three of the top preseason priorities.<\/p>\n
Find the range<\/p>\n
The Buffs shot just .321 last season on 3-pointers, the next-to-last mark in the Big 12 and the second-lowest of Boyle\u2019s CU tenure. CU shot .290 from the arc in Big 12 play, lower than everyone except TCU, and there is no readily apparent answer on the roster.<\/p>\n
The four players who took the most long-range attempts last year are gone (Andrej Jakimovski, Julian Hammond III, RJ Smith, Javon Ruffin). None of the returnees were high-volume shooters from the arc, but Bangot Dak (.280), Rancik (.258) and Malone (.250) all finished under 30%. Hargress led the Big West Conference at 20.2 points per game, but he shot only .329 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
If one of those players don\u2019t come around from long range, it will be up to freshmen wings Jalin Holland, Ian Inman, Isaiah Johnson and Josiah Sanders to fill the void.<\/p>\n
Attack the glass<\/p>\n
Rebounding wasn\u2019t a team strength last year either, and like the candidates from 3-point range, there isn\u2019t an obvious leader on the roster. Dak (3.9 rebounds per game), Malone (3.2) and Rancik (2.8) are the top returning rebounders, but it will take a significant leap for any of them to become one of the Buffs\u2019 premier rebounders.<\/p>\n
The Buffs should boast improved frontcourt depth, however. For the first time in program history the Buffs will have three 7-footers on the roster in Dak, freshman Tacko Ifaola, and 7-foot-1 freshman Leonardo Van Elswyk. In addition to the 6-foot-11 Rancik and the 6-9 Michaeli, CU also could feature some decent size along the wing in the 6-foot-6 Kossaras, the 6-foot-5 Holland and the 6-foot-6 Inman.<\/p>\n
A needed come-Dak<\/p>\n
While Boyle\u2019s Buffs endured significant roster overhaul, they are welcoming back the two most important pieces from last year\u2019s team, in terms of the underclassmen, in Dak and Rancik.<\/p>\n
Dak, though, didn\u2019t play during the exhibition trip through Australia due to an offseason injury. One of the few bright spots in last year\u2019s 21-loss campaign, the Buffs need the versatile Dak to continue the developmental ascension he began last season by averaging 8.2 points and 3.9 rebounds while playing all 35 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis rehab has gone well. He\u2019s been very diligent. He\u2019s worked hard,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to go from zero to 100. He\u2019s been ramping it up, but he\u2019s also got some ground to make up. It\u2019s one thing to be working out with a trainer, working out with a strength trainer, than going five-on-five. We\u2019ll take it day by day and monitor his knee. I\u2019m cautiously optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a new-look bunch that was able to take advantage of a summer sojourn through Australia. Yet even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,18881,18882,2662,3832,9045,4142,2558,983,398,400,401,3,99],"class_list":["post-177307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-boulder","tag-boulder-county","tag-college-sports","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-news","tag-front-range","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}