Colorado just finished up their non-conference portion of their 2025-26 schedule Sunday afternoon after falling to Northern Colorado in disappointing fashion.
With the loss, Colorado fell to 10-3 on the young season as they now enter the gauntlet that is Big 12 conference play.
The most important takeaways from Colorado's non-conference slate
Best start since 1949-50 season
Colorado started 8-0 after defeating California Baptist on Dec. 1, marking their best start in over 76 years.
That achievement is hard to think about considering the talented teams Tad Boyle has coached during his 16-year tenure in Boulder.
Furthermore, the Buffs went 8-1 at the CU Events Center, even with one game against Portland State played without fans as a result of bad weather.
A neutral site game against Stanford in Phoenix, Arizona, provided Colorado with a chance at a Quad 1 victory. Stanford's zone flustered Colorado in the second half as they struggled to score.
They couldn’t keep Ebuka Okorie out of the scoring column as he set a Stanford freshman single-game record of 32 points.
Acrisure Holiday Classic champions
The Acrisure Holiday Classic ended with Colorado earning some hardware after facing some pretty solid competition.
A campus-site game saw Colorado defeat UC Davis 95-79 in its first game of the tournament.
Following that, the team traveled to Palm Desert, California where they went on to defeat two solid schools in San Francisco and Washington.
Colorado beat Washington in the championship game as forward Bangot Dak was named the tournament MVP.
Those two games were good resume boosters for Colorado.
Two huge missed opportunities
Two of their three losses were to in-state teams Colorado State and Northern Colorado.
A 52% three-point shooting (18-of-35) performance by Colorado State on Dec. 6th negated the Buffs' chances at a solid Quad 1 win.
In a collegiate basketball game, giving up 91 points rarely leads to victory.
It was pretty much the same theme against Northern Colorado.
Northern Colorado guard Quinn Denker, fresh off a two-game absence due to injury, gave Colorado all they could handle as he scored a game-high 33 points while adding eight rebounds and eight assists.
Colorado has shown that it can score the basketball, but will have to find an identity on defense as the schedule will only get harder.