Basketball
Rooney: NBA spotlight never brighter for CU Buffs men’s basketball
March 3: Colorado forward Tristan da Silva drives against Stanford guard Benny Gealer in Pac-12 basketball in Boulder on March 3, 2024.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
Tristan da Silva always was the consummate teammate during his time at Colorado.
His four-year run with the Buffaloes ran the gamut. Da Silva was a part-time bench contributor as a freshman on CU’s veteran-heavy 2021 NCAA Tournament team. He developed as a dependable starter the following year before collecting first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2023 and second team honors this year.
Da Silva achieved it all within the team concepts stressed within coach Tad Boyle’s program. And so, on the eve of an NBA Draft that saw da Silva (18th overall) and Cody Williams (10th overall) land in the first round, with KJ Simpson (42nd overall) going in the second round, it wasn’t surprising to hear da Silva deflect the spotlight toward his teammates.
“I’m probably more happy for them than for myself, to be honest,” da Silva said. “Because I know the work that they’ve put in. I know the dedication that they had. Especially KJ, the jump that he’s made to kind of prove everybody wrong. He’s always under-valued because of his size. But the amount of fight that he has and the amount of dedication that he has to this game is beyond anybody else that I’ve seen. Besides me and Cody, he’s the one that really deserves it.”
The Buffalo-shaped footprint in the NBA has never loomed larger, and it goes well beyond having multiple players picked in a single draft for the first time since the affair was shortened to two rounds in 1989.
Da Silva and former recruiting classmate Jabari Walker are playing for former Buffs head coaches, with da Silva set to play for Jamahl Mosley in Orlando and Walker recently completing his second season in Portland under CU legend Chauncey Billups.
When the Boston Celtics claimed the NBA title, Derrick White joined a club that includes Billups and Scott Wedman as former Buffs to win NBA championships. Having just finished his seventh season, White still has plenty of basketball ahead. The ageless Alec Burks just finished his 13th season in the league and put together several standout playoff performances for the New York Knicks. Spencer Dinwiddie averaged 12.0 points per game in his 10th NBA season.
In the aftermath of the greatest NBA June in the history of the CU men’s basketball program, it’s easy to start looking ahead.
One exercise I like to engage in when a Buff is drafted (or even three) is to look at the roster and wonder who the next CU draft pick will be. The answer rarely is obvious. But it’s there somewhere.
For instance, when CU’s previous draft pick was selected, Walker in 2022, da Silva still was putting it together and Simpson was coming off a solid freshman campaign that hardly screamed NBA-bound. Prior to Walker it was Tyler Bey in 2020. No one on the roster Bey vacated reached the draft, but Walker arrived that year.
Before Bey it was George King getting picked in 2018, when Bey was coming off a freshman year similar in scope to Simpson’s — full of promise, but hardly draft-crashing. When White was picked a year earlier, few pegged King to be a draft pick the following year.
You get the picture. CU’s current roster, including the incoming freshmen, doesn’t feature a sure-fire future draft pick. But there’s likely one there somewhere, and Boyle understands there’s an opportunity at hand for his program to revel in its unprecedented NBA spotlight.
“I just want to be able to capitalize on the momentum, capitalize on the buzz of what these kids have done,” Boyle said. “We want to capitalize on this going forward. College basketball, college football, any sport you’re talking about, it’s all about recruiting and attracting the next group of guys that you feel like can help not only to elevate your program in Boulder, but hopefully continue to have success as pros.”
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