As the NCAA Tournament comes to a close, GMS likes to review some of the power conference or power program teams that made it to the Big Dance and ask whether or not they’ve got a shot to return to the show next season. We kick things off with teams eliminated in the first round.
Key Losses: Josh Scott, Sr.
Key Returners: George King, Dominique Collier, Wesley Gordon, Josh Fortune
Key Newcomers: Bryce Peters, Xavier Johnson, Derrick White
Breakdown: The Colorado Buffaloes surprised many this season with a run to the NCAA Tournament behind the production of Scott, whose career ended as one of the conference’s best bigs in recent memory. While the Buffs lose him, Tad Boyle returns perhaps the conference’s deepest group of wings.
George King won the conference’s award for Most Improved Player, Fortune was inconsistent but showed plenty of flashes, Tre’shaun Fletcher really hit his stride as the year concluded, and they’ll have a junior point guard in Collier who will be on his third season in the starting line up. Plus, the Buffs return Johnson who redshirted due to an achilles injury and get White as a transfer, two potential all-conference players.
The question around this group will be whether or not Collier and sophomore-to-be Thomas Akyazili can make big enough jumps to erase the memories of CU’s patented second-half collapses this season.
This is as talented of a group as Boyle has had at Colorado and the Buffs should be back in the NCAA Tournament next season, with potentially their best seed in program history.
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