The 2024-25 season won’t be hanging in the CU Events Center rafters anytime soon.
Colorado’s men’s basketball team limped to a 14-21 finish, including an ugly 1-17 stretch in Big 12 play. At one point, dropping 13 straight (I know, you haven't forgotten). And while they surprised us in the Big 12 tournament, beating TCU and West Virginia, the Buffs were outgunned, undersized, and overwhelmed most nights in a brutal league.
So now the question becomes: how do we bounce back from that?
Well, we might’ve just gotten a clue.
On Wednesday, CU released its full nonconference schedule for the 2025-26 season. And if there’s one word that comes to mind when you look it over, it’s this: opportunity.
A front-loaded slate
Colorado will play 10 of its first 14 games at home, including the first five at the CU Events Center — the most to start a season since 1997. That alone is a win for a team that needs to get its feet under them before jumping back into the fire that is Big 12 play.
The Buffs open with Montana State (Nov. 3), followed by Eastern Washington (Nov. 8), and then welcome former assistant Kim English and his Providence Friars on Nov. 14 — a sneaky-good early season test that’ll show us a lot about where this group is.
From there, Alabama State (Nov. 17) and UC Davis (Nov. 21) round out the opening homestand before CU heads to Palm Desert, Calif., for the Acrisure Series. The matchups haven’t been announced yet, but the field includes schools like Utah, Ole Miss, Loyola Chicago, and Iowa. These won’t be cupcakes.
But that’s exactly what you want if you're Tad Boyle.
CSU and Stanford
Of course, the game most of us already have circled in red comes on Dec. 6, when CU travels to Fort Collins to face Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. No matter the sport or the record, this game always delivers fireworks. Last year, CU handled the Mountain West champion Rams in Boulder, but Moby Arena is a different animal. CSU made the NCAA Tournament last season — and they’ll be out for revenge.
And then there’s Stanford.
CU meets its old Pac-12 rival in Phoenix on Dec. 20 as part of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Series. This one’s about pride. It's about sending a message that even though Colorado left the Pac-12 behind, these games are still important. And they mean a lot to us.
No excuses this time
The bar for this team isn’t NCAA Tournament or bust. But after last year’s strong finish, this schedule sets the Buffs up to continue to take steps forward.
You’ve got stability now. Elijah Malone is back in the middle. Sebastian Rancik is healthy. Bangot Dak has another year under his belt. And freshman guard Barrington Hargress has already drawn praise this offseason.
Tack on an exhibition tour of Australia this summer, and for the first time in a while, this feels like a team that might hit the ground running.
But we’ve said that before.
So here’s the challenge: prove it.
Prove you can win at home. Prove you can finish close games. Prove the Big 12 didn’t break you. Because if the Buffs can stack wins early — and build the kind of confidence we saw in the Big 12 tourney — there’s no reason they can’t be a middle-of-the-pack team by March.
That might not sound sexy. But after last year? That would be real, tangible progress.
And that’s exactly what this program needs.
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