Buffs Notes: XJ Returning, Scheduling, Summer Plans

BOULDER — Colorado basketball coach Tad Boyle said Tuesday is still in the process of finishing up one-on-one meetings with every player on the team.

“This is the time of year where you do reflect back on the season, but now it's about each individual player, what they need to get better at, what they need to work on as we go into next year, along with how I can help our seniors as they go out,” Boyle said. “And having those frank, honest discussions with every member of our team in terms of where they stand as we go forward.”

Boyle didn't rule out the possibility of some attrition in the offseason in terms of a player or two deciding to transfer.

“There very well could be,” Boyle said. “That's why the discussions I'm having with our players are frank, honest, and I'm not holding back any punches. It's about what is best for that young man. They all came here, because they felt like this is a place for them to further their education and play college basketball. When it comes to playing time and where they fit in the program, I'm honest with them. They have to make the decisions that are best for them. I'm going to support them in those decisions and I'm going to help them with those decisions. The ultimate decision will be the young man. If a player ever leaves Colorado, he's going to leave on his terms not on my terms. It's very important that everybody knows that.”

XJ RETURNING: Boyle said his meeting with Xavier Johnson was a “great conversation.” Johnson missed the just-completed season because of a torn Achilles tendon, but said he will be returning for his senior season next fall.

“He's excited about next year and he has both feet in,” Boyle said. “He is going to be a big part of next year's team. We know he's a proven guy at the Pac-12 level. We know he can score and rebound.”

Boyle said Johnson told him he is about “85 percent” back from the Achilles injury.

“He obviously has to drop some weight and get back into playing shape, and he's in the process of doing that,” Boyle said. “Hopefully in the month of April, that's our goal with XJ, to get him to hopefully 100 percent and ready to go as we go into the off season.”

SOPHOMORE DEVELOPMENT: While the Buffs will be a senior-laden team next year, with five players on the roster with just one year of eligibility remaining, Boyle will also be looking for big steps forward from three players who all had dramatically improved sophomore seasons: George King, Tory Miller and Dom Collier. Here's what Boyle had to say about each:

On King: “I'm really proud of him. The exciting thing about George is the ceiling is much higher than where he is right now. The conversations I have with George will be about assist-to-turnover ratio, something that he's got to concentrate on and get better at. He can make plays for himself and now he's got to be able to make plays for his teammates. That's the next step for him — to be a facilitator as well as a scorer. He can really shoot the ball. Getting better off the dribble, finishing at the rim, finishing with contact, and finishing in the lane will be key as well. He's got to become a better rebounder. He's got great size, length, and strength. There's no reason that he can't be a double-double guy in my mind. Defensively, continue to get better in that area. The one thing we know about George about his redshirt year is that he's got great work ethic. He's going to take any challenges we give him and he's going to work on them.”

On Miller: “The biggest improvement usually in college basketball comes from the summer between your freshman and sophomore year. Tory's improvement from his freshman year to his sophomore year was terrific. He became a guy down the stretch that we wanted give him the ball in the low-post. As his sophomore year progressed, he was a guy that we wanted to get the ball and get him touches. He delivered. If Tory can continue on that progression of improvement, now he can improve on his perimeter jump shot. Tory has great work ethic. You look at what he did to his body; he went from 255 to 238. He became more explosive, ran the floor better, and became a better defender. He made great strides and great progress. … If Tory continues the path he's on, he's going to be a much better player as a junior than he was as a sophomore. That's exciting, because he brings as much energy and enthusiasm to the table as any player we have. I love the kid.”

On Collier: “Dominique certainly showed strides this year in terms of getting better. You look at the way he shot the ball, especially from the 3-point range relative to his freshman year, he made great strides there. He made some good plays for us at critical times, made big shots for us at critical times. Dom is a lot like Wesley (Gordon) was at the same point in his career. Now it has to be about consistent production, not just spot production. Especially at that point guard position and role, he has got to be able to learn how to finish games, how to take control of the team. One of our challenges this year was finishing games in the second half. We came back from deficits and won games but we also had some situations where we had leads and we weren't able to protect them and finish games, and that really falls on guys like Dominique, Thomas (Akyazili), George (King), perimeter players that have the ball in their hands at those end of games. We have to finish games better than we did next year. To me that's where Dominique making strides for next year he has to make some improvements. As I look back I kind of wish we would have redshirted him as a freshman but we didn't. So now is the time for him to make major strides and he is capable of doing it, there's no question.

NEXT YEAR'S SCHEDULE: While the official schedule hasn't been released, Boyle said next year's schedule is complete and simply awaiting some contracts to be signed. It includes a two-game appearance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in late November that will also feature Notre Dame, Texas and Northwestern; as well as road games at BYU, Air Force and Portland and a home game vs. Colorado State, with other non-conference home games to be announced.

The Pac-12 schedule, meanwhile, will include home games with UCLA and USC, road games at Arizona and Arizona State, and home-and-home games with the remaining seven conference schools.

SUMMER PLANS: A year ago, Boyle had his players remain in Boulder for virtually the entire summer.

This year, he said, they'll return to the former schedule of having players in town for June workouts, then allowing them some optional time off before they return to school in August.

“They'll all be here in June,” Boyle said. “We'll be running our basketball camps, they'll be in summer school, and lifting. June's a very important month. July is up to them. If somebody needs to take a summer class and stick around Boulder, they can, but they don't have to. A lot of them will go home in July and come back in August ready to go. We'll figure that out for summer school and how they finish up academically this spring plays a part in that.”

PLAYING BY THE RULES: In the wake of two of the teams in this year's Final Four owning NCAA troubles in their very recent history, Boyle was asked if there was a level of frustration in that regard.

“I don't know what goes on at other programs, but I have an idea of who's doing things the right way and who's not,” Boyle said. “There is some frustration; I'd be lying if I said there wasn't. I think if you're not running your program the right way … taking postseason play away is the sucker punch that the NCAA has to send that that's not acceptable. Suspending a coach is not effective. I'm not talking about any program in particular, but there are programs that do it the right way and there's programs who operate the gray area, and there are programs who cheat. ... I know how we operate this program and I'm very proud of that. When you see other programs that maybe live in the gray area it is frustrating, but that's life.”

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu