The Colorado Buffaloes have had the feeling of a 16-18 season sitting in the pit of their stomachs like a gas station burrito for the last eight months. A fresh roster, a solid offseason and preseason scrimmages can serve as minor cleanses, but there’s only one thing that can truly clear that bad taste, a new season and a clean slate.
“I think we’re pretty ready,” said sophomore guard Dom Collier. “We’ve had our two scrimmages and I think we played really well in those so I think we’re just ready to get to the first game.”
Unlike many other teams, the Collier and Buffs won’t get to erase last season’s bitterness with some sweet, sweet cupcakes on their home floor. Instead, they’ll travel to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to take on a seventh-ranked Iowa State team with a smorgasbord of talent. Even Tad Boyle admits it’s not his ideal way to start a season, but, on the other hand, it’s one heck of a chance to show the world that the Buffs are back.
“It’s a great opportunity for our players,” explained Boyle. “I know our players love it and college basketball is about the players, not the coaches. I know they’re looking forward to this challenge and this opportunity.”
While Collier acknowledges the chance to prove themselves, he and the team aren’t getting over-hyped.
“It’s a huge opportunity, but we’re just looking at it as another game,” told the Denver product. “That’s how we’re approaching it, we’re not doing anything differently, just approaching it as any other game.”
When the volume-shooting Askia Booker graduated, the overarching feeling was that the keys to the Buffs would be handed down to the once heralded recruit in Collier, but, with just three days until tip-off, when asked if he expects to start the season opener, Collier was still unsure.
“I don’t know, I don’t know, I mean, I don’t know,” he said with a smile. “I’m just expecting to win Friday.”
So what do they have to do to reach that expectation?
“If we can just really lock in on defense, get to our shooters and then execute on offense I think we have a really good chance of winning,” Collier told.
Dom’s defensive assignment will be junior guard Monte Morris, a second-team All-Big 12 performer last season and two-time nation leader in assist-to-turnover ratio.
“I have to be smart, move my feet and not make silly fouls because I tend to do that a lot,” he explained. “I have to be smart on defense and keep [Morris] in front of me.”
Regardless of if he starts, Collier will be asked to do much more on the offensive side of the ball this season and he believes his greatest improvement in this offseason will directly affect that.
“I think I’m just being more aggressive and just being more decisive with what I’m doing on the court rather than being hesitant and passive,” he told.
The Buffs are going to need that aggressiveness from the guy who Tad Boyle is pushing to become the ‘quarterback’ of the offense and they’ll really need it from everybody who sets foot on the floor for them this season. One of the reasons the team struggled so much last year was because nobody wanted to be the aggressor outside of Askia Booker.
An aggressive and efficient Collier could be the key to the Buffs having a much sweeter taste in their mouths at the end of this season and we’ll get our first chance to see if that changed mindset combined with a heap of added strength can translate to just that this Friday (3 PM MT, ESPN 2).
