After loading up on future backcourt prospects, Colorado has added a prep big man.

On Friday, Arizona prep standout Tacko Fawaz announced his commitment to the Buffaloes for the 2025 class, as first reported by 247Sports. Fawaz, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward, is a 3-star recruit who also collected offers from Oklahoma State, Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall, per 247Sports.

Fawaz is teammates at Dream City Christian in Glendale, Ariz., with 6-foot-4 guard Jalin Holland, who committed to the Buffs last month. The Buffs also have 2025 commitments from guards Ian Inman, Isaiah Johnson, and Denver’s Josiah Sanders.

On paper, the Buffs and head coach Tad Boyle have over-signed for the second year in a row, with the Buffs scheduled to lose four seniors following the 2024-25 season (Julian Hammond III, Elijah Malone, Andrej Jakimovski, Trevor Baskin). However, losing underclassmen to the transfer portal has become the norm after each season, and even if by chance that doesn’t happen, the Buffs also face the possibility of a larger scholarship limit next year.

As part of the House settlement paving the way for a form of revenue sharing to open for student athletes, scholarship/roster limits across all athletic programs will likely soon be altered. In men’s basketball, the scholarship limit is expected to move from 13 to 15. Boyle, though, typically carries a larger roster thanks to walk-ons, but those rosters in the future will be capped at 15 (this year’s roster has 17 players — the 13 scholarship players plus four walk-ons).

Boyle discussed the potential future scholarship/roster limits this week during the Big 12 Conference media day.

“I’ve thought about it. But, again, until we know for sure what next year is going to look like, it’s hard to make decisions,” Boyle said. “I’m approaching it as if we’re going to have 13. If we have 15, then you decide, what’s the best way to do that? And what’s our budget going to be? If this pay-for-play model comes in — or revenue sharing, whatever you want to call it, what’s our budget going to be? Until we know the answer to that, it’s hard to know what you’re going to do with your 15 scholarships.

“You anticipate what we’ll do if it does that and kind of have a model. But a lot of that is going to be determined by how the season goes. Until you have those answers, you prepare for every different scenario you might be facing. That’s what we’re doing.”

Marquee matchups

Not surprisingly, the Buffs are looking forward to the glut of big-time showdowns they’ll face in the Big 12, which landed five teams in the preseason AP Top 25, including No. 1 Kansas.

CU was supposed to host Kansas early in the 2021-22 season, when senior Julian Hammond III was a freshman, but the game was canceled due to COVID issues.

“That freshman year, we were supposed to play them,” Hammond said. “But driving around earlier that day, you see way more people in Boulder. You see the atmosphere is way different. I’m excited for that and all the other great games that we’ll play, the big-time games.”

Notable

The Buffs will play at Texas on Sunday in a closed scrimmage in the final tune-up before the Nov. 4 opener at home against Eastern Washington (7 p.m., ESPN+). … Former Buffs Cody Williams and Tristan da Silva, both first-round draft picks this past summer, made their NBA debuts on Wednesday, with Williams scoring his first two points on a pair of free throws and adding four rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench for Utah in a two-point opening loss against Memphis. Da Silva played five minutes for Orlando, missing his lone field goal attempt (a 3-pointer). … Derrick White has enjoyed a torrid start for the defending champion Boston Celtics, going 14-for-23 overall and 10-for-17 on 3-pointers in the first two games.