The formula hasn’t changed.
In recruiting, itap about building relationships. Itap about finding tough-minded young men who are ready and willing to work, and who are the sort of players Tad Boyle and his staff can develop over multiple years.
That basic recruiting foundation is the same now, at the start of Boyle’s 14th season at Colorado, as it was when he and lead assistant Mike Rohn arrived in 2010. Nevertheless, that familiar recruiting recipe continues to reap more impressive rewards.
The Buffaloes got back to work on Wednesday following Monday’s season-opening win against Towson with an eye on the future, celebrating national signing day by inking four new recruits to national letters of intent.
Set to join the Buffs next season are guards Felix Kossaras and ThunderRidge star Andrew Crawford; plus forwards Sebastian Rancik and Doryan Onwuchekwa. Per 247Sports, Crawford is ranked as a four-star recruit, with the others labeled as three-stars.
“Our assistant coaches do an incredible job of evaluation, identifying the guys that we can get so we’re not chasing our tail,” Boyle said. “Early on you’ve got to identify, ‘Do we have a shot at this kid? Is he a good fit?’ We’ve really talked a lot in the last few years about our values system, what this program’s about. The fact that we want to stay out of the transfer portal. That resonates with a lot of kids out of high school.”
Although the team rankings will fluctuate in the coming weeks and even months, on Wednesday afternoon 247Sports had CU’s 2024 class ranked at No. 12 in the nation. Boyle and his staff, with Rohn serving as recruiting coordinator, have collected three top 25 classes in the past four years. The 2021 class, featuring current Buffs KJ Simpson, Julian Hammond III and Javon Ruffin, was ranked 13th by 247Sports. This year’s freshman class, led by one of the top prospects in the nation in Cody Williams, was ranked 25th.
“Coach Boyle has a lot of juice. He works hard at it for us,” Rohn said. “The (program) stability is so important when you can talk about the head coach. He’s involved in the process in building relationships with those guys. It makes my job easier. He continues to recruit at a high level from the head coach position. Thatap key, and thatap consistent.
“We identify them as early as we can as maybe the right fit, and then just keep going and going.”
Kossaras, a 6-foot-5 Canadian, and the 6-foot-6 Crawford fit the mold of the bigger combo guards favored by Boyle during his tenure. Rancik is a 6-foot-9 native of Slovakia who is playing prep basketball in Southern California, and Onwuchekwa is a 6-foot-10 forward out of Dallas.
Crawford is ranked as the No. 87 recruit in the nation by 247Sports.
After never over-signing once through his first 12 seasons, Boyle for the second year in a row has over-signed. Only two current players, Tristan da Silva and Luke O’Brien, are certainties to leave following the season, with seniors Eddie Lampkin and J’Vonne Hadley still able to use their extra seasons of eligibility from the 2020-21 pandemic season.
In the age of the transfer portal, however, Boyle has grown to expect spring defections. The Buffs signed three players a year ago — Williams, Assane Diop and Courtney Anderson — with only two seniors (former graduate transfers Jalen Gabbidon and Ethan Wright) as certain departures. As it turned out, three Buffs ultimately left via the transfer portal (Lawson Lovering, Nique Clifford and Quincy Allen), allowing CU to add Lampkin, a transfer from TCU, and freshman forward Bangot Dak.
“Thatap just part of the deal now,” Boyle said. “You don’t know whatap going to happen in the spring. You have to have Plan B and Plan C.”
