Basketball
Men’s basketball notes: Turning NBA boon into recruiting gold a challenge for CU Buffs
Orlando Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman, left, Tristan da Silva, and head coach/former Colorado Buffalo Jamahl Mosley pose for photos as the Magic introduce their first-round pick during an NBA basketball press conference, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Tad Boyle’s program has rarely, if ever, enjoyed the sort of next-level spotlight shining upon Boulder right now.
For the first time since the NBA Draft was shortened to two rounds in 1989, the Buffaloes had multiple players selected, with Cody Williams and Tristan da Silva going in the first round and KJ Simpson landing in the second round.
Derrick White is an NBA champion (and has reportedly agreed to terms for a lucrative contract extension). Da Silva is about to play for a former Buffs player-turned coach in Orlando’s Jamahl Mosley. Jabari Walker is playing for Chauncey Billups in Portland.
It will inevitably pique expanded interest in Boyle’s program. Yet as Boyle and his staff start zeroing in on the 2025 recruiting class, little has changed in terms of the balance of talent and character in the prospects they seek. Specifically, as NIL deals take over the recruiting landscape and NIL-challenged CU draws closer to its return to the Big 12, Boyle says the recruiting targets will be similar in profile to the three graduate transfers the Buffs landed this spring in Elijah Malone, Trevor Baskin and Andrej Jakimovski — players more intent on following a path of development to the next level as opposed to free agents looking for the highest bidder.
“How does that momentum, how does that interest level, counteract with NIL?” Boyle said. “Is it really going to matter? Or is it still just going to come down to a dollar decision for a kid and his family? It’s something we’re really, really trying to figure out early in the process as best as we can. Because we don’t want it to be about money.
“None of these (draft) kids made their decisions (to come to CU) based on money. And here they are. They made decisions based on development, based on the college experience they wanted to have, based on academics. We still want to attract kids that have a value system that aligns with ours. And it’s not just a transactional decision. We’re going to try to work through that between now and November with the kids and the families that we’re already recruiting.”
Schedule update
Last week, the Big 12 announced its first round of league pairings for the 16-team conference. CU will play five home-and-home sets against Arizona State, Central Florida, Iowa State, Kansas and TCU. The Buffs will play five Big 12 foes only once at home (Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, West Virginia) and five others only once on the road (Arizona, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Utah).
Only three games are confirmed for the nonconference schedule — the Buffs will play three games at the Maui Invitational — but Boyle said they were close to completing the schedule.
“At first blush (the conference schedule) seems pretty balanced,” Boyle said. “There’s not a lot of easy games on there. We’re pretty close (on the nonconference schedule). We’re not too far away.”
When asked if renewing the rivalry with Colorado State was part of that picture, Boyle replied: “We’re certainly talking to them. I don’t know if it will come to fruition or not, but we’ve been in discussions.”
Unofficial fourth pick
Boyle noted the Buffs sort of had a fourth recruit selected in the NBA Draft when Bobi Klintman. A Buffs signee in the spring of 2022, Klintman was a four-star recruit whose admission at CU ultimately was denied because of some of his academic credits out of his native Sweden. He was picked by Minnesota (and soon traded to Detroit) at No. 37 overall in the second round.
Klintman spent the 2022-23 season at Wake Forest and spent this past year competing in Australia’s “Next Stars” program. Klintman’s vacated roster spot essentially turned into J’Vonne Hadley.
“Actually, we had four guys drafted in my mind,” Boyle said. “We had (Klintman) signed.”
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