Wayne Gretzky once famously said a player misses 100% of the shots they don’t take.

The wisdom of The Great One certainly was before Cody Williams’ time. Yet the freshman from the Colorado men’s basketball team nonetheless wasn’t shy about imparting a form of that advice to an older, more experienced player, Luke O’Brien, ahead of the Buffaloes’ biggest game of the nonconference schedule.

O’Brien entered last week’s win against nationally-ranked Miami battling through a mini-slump. It ended against the Hurricanes, and O’Brien carried the momentum into Friday’s win against Northern Colorado. He looks to do the same as the Buffs prepare for the nonconference finale at home on Thursday against Utah Tech (5 p.m., Pac-12 Network).

“I think the last couple years I’ve been really helping my mental. It’s progressed a lot,” O’Brien said. “So I just keep shooting it. I know my work is going to pay off. (Against) Miami, before the game, Cody said, ‘In order to make shots, you gotta take them.’ I like that a little bit. My mentality is just, ‘Next shot.’ If I miss it, I’m going to get the next one, I’m going to get the next one.”

O’Brien settled into his niche with a strong finish last season, providing solid rebounding and a consistent burst of hustle and energy off the bench.

Although O’Brien has made a pair of spot starts this season, including in Friday’s win against UNC as Williams continues to recover from an injured wrist, it has been a similar story this year. While O’Brien’s rebounding numbers are down slightly (5.6 per game last year, 4.2 through the first 10 games this year), the Buffs are a much-improved rebounding team overall and are less reliant on O’Brien to carry a large share of the work on the glass.

Like last year, O’Brien has weathered some ups and downs from the 3-point line, but he will go into Thursday’s nonconference finale coming off arguably the best back-to-back games of his career. After going 3-for-4 from the arc with 13 points and five rebounds in the win against Miami, O’Brien hit a career-high four 3-pointers against Northern Colorado while tying a career-high with 14 points.

Two years ago, as a sophomore going through his first season in the rotation, the Columbine alum posted a lofty 3-point percentage of .462 (23-for-79). O’Brien was unable to approach that mark last year while playing eight and a half minutes more per game, but his final 3-point tally (.291) was weighted heavily by a rough start, as he finished .380 in Pac-12 play.

If role players like O’Brien (.385 on 3-pointers) and Julian Hammond III (.457) can continue to consistently knock down shots from long-range, CU will remain difficult to guard.

When the Buffs resume practice on Monday, head coach Tad Boyle said his high-scoring, sharpshooting club still has a number of weaknesses to address before the Pac-12 opener on Dec. 29. Including cutting down on the team’s 13.9 turnovers per game.“The one thing I like about our team is we’re not taking a lot of bad shots. We’re really not,” Boyle said. “That’s why our offensive efficiency is what it is. The shot selection is key.

“We had 12 turnovers (against UNC). Our number is 11. We’ve only hit that once. Taking care of the basketball, without a doubt. We had 15 turnovers against Miami, even as well as we played. And being just consistently a rock-solid defensive team, where teams have to make shots against us to beat us. And they have to do it over a hand. I think our guys are doing a great job with the scouting report, for the most part.”