CU Buffs men's basketball notes: Nonconference schedule reportedly set
Jun. 10—Fans of the Colorado men's basketball team can start planning their own game coverage for the first two months of the 2022-23 season.
National college basketball reporter Rocco Miller reported via a Twitter post on Thursday the Buffaloes' 2022-23 nonconference schedule is complete. BuffZone confirmed with a CU source the reported list of foes is accurate, though a few of the dates published were slightly off the mark.
Much of the early slate already had been confirmed, highlighted by a trip to the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Nov. 17-20 that will include three games against a demanding field featuring Boise State, Texas A&M, Murray State, Loyola Chicago, UMass, Tulsa and Charlotte. Specific matchups will be released at a later date.
The Buffs also are set to resume a long-delayed series against Colorado State on Dec. 8 at home, and also will face Tennessee in Nashville and visit Grambling in the season's second game on Nov. 10 or 11 in the inaugural year of the Pac-12 Conference's scheduling agreement with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
CU will open the 2022-23 season at home in the program's first matchup against UC-Riverside, with the second home game expected to be against North Alabama. The remainder of the Buffs' home slate will be intriguing. In addition to the CSU date, the Buffs will host Yale, the former team of recent CU newcomer Jalen Gabbidon; Northern Colorado and former Buffs guard Daylen Kountz, who has developed into a prolific scorer in the Big Sky Conference; and Southern Utah, which CU faced just once previously on Jan. 16, 1996.
The early-season ledger also includes the first two standalone matchups on the Pac-12 schedule. CU hosts Arizona State on Dec. 1 and visits Washington on Dec. 4.
On hold
Once again Team Colorado, the alumni squad that has made a routine of competing at the annual winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament, will not participate in the 2022 tournament.
The former CU basketball players very nearly won the jackpot in 2016 after jumping to a big lead in the title game, but ultimately fell short of the prize. With some of the older players who had become fixtures on the Team Colorado roster no longer playing professionally, and younger alums like McKinley Wright IV, Tyler Bey and George King locked into either NBA or G-League contracts, CU Director of Player Development Zach Ruebesam explained that team organizers did not want to field a team just for the sake of having one, and instead are eyeing a return to the TBT in 2023 with an improved chance of competing.
Former CU players who just completed their eligibility, like Evan Battey, Dallas Walton and D'Shawn Schwartz, also might be better options after another year. Team Colorado last competed in the TBT in 2019.
"We didn't want to take donors' money if we didn't have a chance to compete and win," said Ruebesam, who was set to coach the team. "We want to do it. It's great for the program. But we want everything to be in order so we can have a chance to win."
Notable
Former CU guard Derrick White, starring in the NBA Finals with the Boston Celtics, is attempting to become the third former Buffs player to win an NBA championship ring. Chauncey Billups earned one with the Detroit Pistons, and Scott Wedman won a pair with the Celtics in the early 1980s...CU head coach Tad Boyle was named to the 2022 class for the Northern Colorado athletics Hall of Fame. Boyle led the Bears for four seasons and posted a 25-8 record during his final season at UNC in 2009-10.
