BOULDER — Three things you never give Bill Self: A lead, a big man or an idea.
“What did you think of Bangot Dak’s dunks?” a reporter asked the venerated Kansas men’s basketball coach after Dak, CU’s springy sophomore, threw down a gazillion of them during the Buffs’ 71-64 loss late, late, late Monday night.
“They were very impressive,” Self replied. Then he smiled, wickedly, the way an asp smiles before it strikes. “That last one was big time.”
Ohhhhh, no. Oh, no, you don’t. Don’t even think it. Get away. Shoo! Shoo!
Poaching’s illegal in Boulder County, coach. Not that it ever stopped Syracuse, mind you. Or Louisville. Or Georgia Tech.
“I’ve lost our top two players (over the offseason), our top three players, our top four players,” CU Buffs men’s hoops coach Tad Boyle told me in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. “I’ve never lost our top six. So I knew this was going to be a rebuild.”
It’s been a slog. Late Monday evening was CU’s 15th league defeat, the most Boyle’s ever endured over a single season as a collegiate head coach. The Big 12 is to NCAA basketball what the Western Conference is to the NBA: Too many good teams, too many good coaches, and somebody’s gotta be 14th. If KU is the Nuggets, the Buffs are the Pelicans, the bug to Self’s windshield.
But, Lord love ’em, they’re a Tad team, so they’re feisty. For about 38 minutes and change, the worst CU squad in a decade hung in there against the worst KU bunch anyone can remember.
The Buffs won big on the rebound margin (46-31), second-chance points (16-1), dives and floor burns. Alas, KU had All-American Hunter Dickinson at center, who’s listed at 7-foot-2, 265 pounds but more closely resembles an aircraft carrier with legs. Dickinson, a transfer portal grab from Michigan, did what he wanted when he wanted, collecting a game-high 32 points and 13 boards, and did so with a wad of something stuffed up his nostril.
“I can’t speak for Tad,” Self said, “but I thought (the Buffs) were a better team (Monday) than they were two weeks ago … we made the game hard on ourselves in a lot of ways (Monday), but CU also had some missed opportunities.”
To say nothing of missed personnel. Let’s put it this way: The Jayhawks find Dickinsons in the portal. The Buffs, lately, have been losing them.
The Big 12 is so deep, there’s no guarantee a CU roster with Eddie Lampkin, Jr., J’Vonne Hadley or Luke O’Brien — glue guys who all transferred out after Boyle’s wild 2024 NCAA tournament run — would’ve been a contender. But it sure as heck wouldn’t be 11-17 right now.
“I just try to win the next game. Then when the season’s over with, then it’s about, ‘OK, in today’s world, you’ve got to retain your good, young players,’” Boyle said. “Retention is key.”
That means cash. To be blunt, Boyle needs more of it. Not for him, but for his roster.
On3.com keeps a top 100 list of Name/Image/Likeness player valuations for Division I men’s basketball players. One in every five from that club calls the Big 12 home.
Houston landed three among the top 100 nationally. Arizona has two. Texas Tech, Iowa State and BYU have one each. Kansas has a trio, led by Dickinson. The Buffs have zero.
“There’s nobody to blame but me,” Boyle said. “So I’m not going to make excuses. I’m not going to blame our players. I’m not going to blame the (CU) infrastructure.
“But I do want to have a discussion about those topics at the appropriate time.”
According to its latest NCAA financial report, CU spent $8.93 million on men’s basketball operating expenses during the ’23-24 fiscal year. KU spent $19.7 million over that same period. Iowa State spent $10.5 million. Utah spent $10.3 million. Texas Tech spent $17.1 million in ’22-23.
A smaller building means a smaller gate, we’ll grant you, but compared to their peers, the Buffs are running a Tad behind.
“I’m not going to make excuses,” Boyle said. “And I’ve said this all season long, and I said it more early than I have recently, but this season is my fault, OK? I’m the one that signed the scholarship papers. I’m the one that recruited these guys. I’m the one that said, ‘Yeah, let’s take him and if we can get him, let’s get him.’ So this roster construction is on me.”
True, but roster retention these days takes a village. The Buffs have a potential pillar in Dak, a 6-foot-11 Nebraskan who can jump out of the gym. Boyle’s got a pair of four-star prep guards coming next summer: Colorado Prep’s Josiah Sanders and Arizona native Jalin Holland, the crown jewels of a strong 2025 recruiting haul. The pieces of a Sweet 16 spoiler are coming together.
If you can just hang on to them.
“We recruited well,” Boyle said. “We signed five guys in the fall. Now we’ll be young next year. But know what? We’ll be talented. We’ll be more talented next year. And then we’ll see what we can get in the portal. And so we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
“But I’m not looking at that yet … The great thing about college basketball is, you’ve got a chance to make noise at the end. And that’s why, in keeping these guys together, it speaks to the character of the kids we have.
“I’d rather be bad than mediocre. Our first team in Northern Colorado, we were bad … this team, I don’t feel like we’re bad. I feel like we’re mediocre. And that’s the most frustrating place to be. Because it’s like, ‘We could have won that game, but we didn’t.’ And that’s where, as a coach, you look and say, ‘There’s something you’re not doing right.’ I think every person in life, you better look in the mirror first. And you better go here first. I mean, there are some things we have to overcome here.”
Financially, mostly. In March, money talks. And given the NCAA’s current hellscape, it’s the only way for Boyle’s Buffs to get Dak to where they once belonged.
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