CHARLESTON, S.C. – Colorado doesn’t look like a football school anymore. The football program hasn’t been at the elite level it once was, but there’s a bigger reason: Tad Boyle’s work as the men’s basketball head coach. Included in that is the Buffaloes reaching the championship game at the Charleston Classic after a hard-fought 60-58 win over Baylor on Friday afternoon.
While the football team was a powerhouse for a stretch in the late 1980s into the 1990s, the Buffaloes haven’t posted double-digit wins since 2001. In fact, they’ve lost 10 games as many times as they’ve won that many since the Big 8 became the Big 12, and they haven’t had a winning season since 2005, which was Gary Barnett’s last season as head coach. As those struggles continue, the basketball program seems to have new life.
Colorado didn’t exactly have a storybook history on the hardwood before Boyle took over. The Buffaloes had a nice run in 1996-97 when hometown hero Chauncey Billups had a big year, the second time in program history they had won at least 20 games. Billups went off the NBA right after that, and while they did win 20 games in 2002-03 and again in 2005-06, they were never serious contenders in the Big 12 and it was a big trip downhill after that. They lost at least 20 games the next three seasons and had another losing season in 2009-10 before Boyle took over.
Looking over longer stretches further illustrates this. In the last 40 years before Boyle took over, the Buffaloes went to the NCAA Tournament exactly twice. And in 112 years of basketball, the program has averaged under 11 wins per season.
What has Boyle done? Only post the most wins in a single season in school history in his first year with 24 and then match it last season. After Colorado was the NIT runner-up his first year, they made it to the NCAA Tournament last season after winning the Pac-12 Tournament in their first year in the conference. Now he has them poised to contend in the Pac-12 this season despite being a relatively young team that starts a freshman and two sophomores and has just one senior.
Friday’s win was big on more than one level. In the micro, the Buffs won despite turning the ball over 17 times with just six assists, and they were also 4-18 from the free throw line. Making up for it in part was out-rebounding a Baylor team that came into the game out-rebounding opponents by nearly 11 a game. The Buffs’ difficulty at the foul line kept them from closing Baylor out better, but still, they got over the hump.
“I can’t say enough about our team and the toughness that we have,” said Boyle. “Obviously, we overcame some things – free throws, turnovers.”
“It’s a gut win,” added sophomore guard Askia Booker, who led the Buffaloes with a game-high 19 points. “You’re not really focused on the stats too much, you just have to battle every possession. Forget the turnover last possession, it’s about the next one.”
In the macro, the Buffs beat a team that they haven’t quite been able to knock off the last couple of years and got a signature win early in the season. Two seasons ago, they lost a tough one in Waco during their final go-round in the Big 12, then last season the Bears ended their season in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are still a potentially elite team this season, so this win is likely to matter come March.
How good a job has Boyle done turning this program around? The Buffaloes are so deep this year that they are redshirting two freshmen, one of whom (forward Welsey Gordon) Boyle thinks can be a first team All-Pac 12 player before his career is over. Some of that is coach-speak, no doubt, since coaches recruit players for a reason, but that speaks to this team’s depth, something that was once almost unthinkable.
As if all of that is not enough, attendance has jumped as well. Since Boyle took over, attendance is up 68 percent, with an average of just over 7,800 last season. In conference play, the average has been over 9,000.
Boyle is from the Kansas pipeline of coaches, having played there alongside, among others, Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon. Knowing that, it’s not a surprise he likes to have some depth on his teams. The Buffaloes can legitimately go about nine or ten deep with this team depending on the matchup, and that’s what Boyle hopes to do before the season is over.
Colorado could win its first in-season tournament in 10 seasons on Sunday, as they will take on Murray State. That would be just the latest accomplishment since Boyle took over, and it likely won’t be the last. At this rate, one could be excused if they started viewing Colorado as a basketball school, unthinkable though that once was.
