Colorado was voted at the top of the Pac-12 Basketball preseason media poll. Was that a deserved distinction for the Buffs?
After a down season for Pac-12 Basketball, collective hopes and expectations are raised for the 2019-20 campaign. A mixture of strong recruiting classes, incoming transfers and returning talent have established several programs as viable contenders for not only the league but potentially the NCAA Tournament. One of those teams is Colorado, who come into this year with arguably their most talented team in the decade since joining the Pac-12.
The Buffaloes return basically everyone from last season’s 23-win team, while also adding talented JUCO transfer Maddox Daniels and bring back starting big man Dallas Walton, who missed last year with an injury. They have six players who averaged over 8.0 ppg coming back, including leading scorers Tyler Bey and McKinley Wright. There’s no question that Colorado is a threat in the Pac-12 this season… but where do they stand compared to the others?
According to the media voters – very well. In the recent preseason presented at the Pac-12 Media Day, Colorado tied with Oregon with nine 1st place votes apiece, with the Ducks getting the slight edge overall by a few total votes. Washington, Arizona, and USC also received votes at the top and rounded out the top five overall. Besides the Buffaloes, the other four teams are led by top-11 recruiting classes and quality transfers to boot. But chemistry is always an issue to be aware of, combined with possibly over-relying on freshmen to carry the way.
So it must have been the continuity factor that pushed Colorado so close to the top. And had Oregon not landed the top-tier recruits late in the summer, the Buffaloes probably would’ve gotten the No. 1 spot by themselves. The team may not have All-American candidates at the moment but the pollsters are high on the leading duo Bey and Wright, both selected as preseason First-Team in the polls.
It’s understandable that Colorado gets a good amount of preseason support, as there’s no question that their floor is the highest of any Pac-12 Basketball team. They’re filled with upperclassmen and have maybe the best overall player in Wright. But how high is their ceiling? Bringing everyone back is good to an extent – how many more wins are expected for a 23-win team who missed out on the Big Dance?
An argument can be made that Arizona, USC and even Oregon all got better this offseason as well. And with them being loaded with five-star incoming freshmen, their respective ceilings are definitely higher than Colorado’s. The chemistry issues (particularly at USC) are an unknown factor to consider, which ultimately can go both ways.
Although the talent is better overall for Pac-12 Basketball this year, plenty of questions remain. Not only involving the usual heavyweights such as Oregon and Arizona but also a Colorado team who return the same group that lost three times to Washington and only had two wins against NCAA Tournament teams in Oregon and Arizona State. Are they good enough to overcome an even better conference slate? Time will only tell. But considering that the Buffaloes haven’t won more than 11 Pac-12 games since arriving, this is as good a time as ever for the basketball program to take the next step.