Even casual college basketball fans understand the times have changed dramatically in recent years.
Tad Boyle has tried to evolve with the changes. Yet the core beliefs remain the same.
The CU men’s basketball team opened preseason practice on Wednesday, marking the start of the 16th season under Boyle’s leadership. Already the program’s all-time wins leader with 312, Boyle is inching closer to Sox Walseth’s record of 20 seasons in charge of the CU men’s team, and he already is the program leader in total games coached. Walseth coached 506 games (261-245). Boyle has coached 516 games at CU (312-204).
Certainly Boyle has been forced to evolve as the transfer portal and NIL/revenue sharing have changed the game. Yet while the outside chatter regarding Boyle’s future might grow a little louder with each offseason, particularly if there are any more seasons that resemble last year’s 14-21 campaign, Boyle’s public message regarding his future hasn’t wavered.
Operating on what essentially has become a perpetual five-year contract, Boyle says he doesn’t plan to hang up his whistle any time soon.
“My energy level is high. My excitement level is high. My health is good,” said Boyle, who turns 63 in January. “I feel good. The minute I’m not excited about going into a season is the minute I’ll hang it up. I’m not there. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I feel good, I’m excited, I’m making decisions that are still looking forward into next year and the following year. Obviously you can’t look as far forward today as you once could, but I feel great. I’m not going to put a timetable on it. I love coming to work every day.
“I’ve really tried to balance my life more away from the office, off the court, and to make sure I do have the energy level at the end of September as we head into the grind.”
All Alon
Wednesday’s practice marked the first preseason workout for CU’s nine new players, but the bulk of that group at least went through 10 summer practices ahead of the Buffs four-game exhibition trip through Australia.
One exception is freshman Alon (pronounced like “alone”) Michaeli, a forward from Israel and a late signee who arrived in Boulder about a week ahead of the start of the semester last month.
The 19-year old Michaeli is two years removed from school, and his only previous experience in America was a family trip when he was nine.
“It’s way different than Israel, for sure, from what I’m used to,” Michaeli said. “There’s enough guys that are helping me out here with everything, on the court and off the court. Everybody’s really been amazing to me. The coaches, my teammates, are just accepting me.”
New faces
Between the nine new players — seven freshmen and two transfers — and redshirt freshman Andrew Crawford, 10 of CU’s 14 scholarship players haven’t played a minute of basketball for the Buffs.
And while the summer practices provided a much-needed kick start to the season, those practices still didn’t feature the full roster. Junior forward Bangot Dak missed the summer due to a knee injury. Freshman Isaiah Johnson missed part of the first week of workouts due to the late date of his high school graduation, while freshman forward Tacko Ifaola didn’t travel to Australia. Denver transfer Jon Mani and freshman center Leonardo Van Elswyck both were late signees.
“It’s finding a balance between saying, OK, we’ve got to play five-on-five and understand the offense and the defense. And yet still build habits with drill work and repetitions and that sort of thing,” Boyle said. “So, finding that balance is key. You can’t do too much of one and not the other, and vice versa. I can’t imagine where we’d be if we didn’t have the Australia trip.”