Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle couldn’t point to any major negatives from his team’s performance in its nonconference schedule that resulted in an 11-2 record.
Boyle said the Buffaloes gained an understanding how to win close games and confidence to compete with any team on their schedule.
“We didn’t do anything in the nonconference games that will hurt later on,” Boyle said of his team that opened Pac-12 play late Friday night at California. “On the other hand, we picked up some quality victories.”
The Buffaloes’ only losses were to 11th-ranked Iowa State and No. 17 Southern Methodist.
Air Force (9-4), Denver (8-5), Colorado State (8-5) and Wyoming (7-6) joined the Buffaloes with winning nonconference records.
Northern Colorado was the only one of the NCAA Division I men’s teams on the Front Range to finish nonconference play below .500. The Bears were 3-9, but coach B.J. Hill noted that his team played short-handed most of the time. Junior guard Cameron Michael is sidelined with a concussion, and junior guard Jon’te Dotson with a strained PCL.
“It was tough to get a gauge on our team because of the injuries, but we showed we are capable of doing some good things,” said Hill, pointing to the Bears’ 73-64 victory over CSU. “If we have everybody, we could be playing our best basketball in March.”
The Bears opened Big Sky Conference play Thursday with a 96-90 win over Eastern Washington and host Idaho on Saturday.
Denver coach Joe Scott sees much tougher play by his Pioneers this season.
“We’re starting three freshmen,” Scott said. “We have a lot of room for growth, but our nonconference schedule went well.”
The Pioneers played their last seven games without freshman forward C.J. Bobbitt, who was idled with mononucleosis.
“We’re going to be challenged right away,” Scott said before DU opened Summit League play Friday with a 68-59 loss at South Dakota State. The Pioneers play at North Dakota State on Sunday.
Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt added some excitement even before the beginning of play in the Mountain West, receiving a reprimand from conference headquarters over his critical comments concerning a decision to limit participation in the league tournament starting in 2017.
“All in all, I liked the way our guys worked in our nonconference schedule,” Shyatt said. “We played nine or 10 players in every half of every game.”
Shyatt’s team has only one senior, 6-foot-2 guard Josh Davis.
The Cowboys lost their conference opener Wednesday, falling 67-55 at San Diego State.
CSU lost five of six at one point, but the Rams enter Mountain West play Saturday at Boise State with a two-game winning streak.
Air Force also starts Mountain West play Saturday, hosting San Jose State. Coach Dave Pilipovich believes the Falcons got what he wanted out of the nonconference games.
“We were able to play a lot of different people,” Pilipovich said. “We have the opportunity to win some games. We saw a little more excitement from our players today in practice because they know our conference schedule is starting.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or @irvmoss
