The official start of the 2025-26 season won’t arrive until preseason practice begins in a little more than three months. Yet in many ways next season’s journey began this week for the Colorado men’s basketball team.

The bulk of coach Tad Boyle’s club has reconvened on campus to begin summer workouts and take summer classes. The Buffaloes are prepping for the 16th season under Boyle, and it certainly will be a summer of transition unlike any other since Boyle arrived in 2010.

CU is welcoming five freshmen and two transfers to the mix with roster spots still open. A staff spot remains vacant following Zach Ruebesam’s departure to take the head coach job at CSU-Pueblo. The Buffs are coming off a 14-21 campaign — only the second sub-.500 season under Boyle and the eighth 20-loss year in program history — yet nonetheless must replace the bulk of their production. Between the graduation of players like Julian Hammond III and Andrej Jakimovski, combined with the transfer portal losses of underclassmen like RJ Smith and Assane Diop, CU lost 66.8% of its scoring and 60.8% of its rebounding production.

With a summer exhibition tour of Australia on the agenda, along with the 10 pre-trip practices allowed by the NCAA, the new-look Buffs will have an opportunity to get a jump-start on the 2025-26. Here’s an early look at the personnel tasked with rallying the program out of the Big 12 Conference basement.

Returning players: Andrew Crawford (6-6, R-Fr.); Felix Kossaras (6-5, Fr.).Newcomers: Barrington Hargress (6-0, R-Jr.); Jalin Holland (6-4, Fr.); Ian Inman (6-5, Fr.); Isaiah Johnson (6-1, Fr.); Jon Mani (6-6, So.); Josiah Sanders (6-4, Fr.).

Outlook: The Buffs will have more options along the perimeter than last season, but it will be untested depth. The exception is Hargress, who led the Big West Conference at 20.2 points per game last season at UC Riverside. In two seasons at Riverside, Hargress averaged 4.3 assists in 68 games.

Expect to see the ball in Hargress’ hands, but he might not be the remedy for one of the Buffs’ biggest offensive shortcoming last year, 3-point shooting. Hargress shot just .329 from the arc last year and .311 the previous year, while CU finished with a .321 3-point mark that was the second-lowest of Boyle’s tenure. Kossaras gave the Buffs solid minutes down the stretch, but he went just 5-for-16 on 3-pointers in limited opportunities.

Otherwise, the Buffs will be hoping for consistent long-range marksmanship from a cast that includes four true freshmen, a rookie who redshirted last year in Crawford, and Mani, who went 15-for-49 (.306) from the arc as a freshman last season at Denver.

Summer spotlight: The Buffs need Hargress to man the point while the rookies acclimate. The Buffs need Sanders to show signs he’s capable of continuing the Boyle-era pantheon of point guards from Spencer Dinwiddie to Derrick White to McKinley Wright IV to KJ Simpson. But CU needs both of them simultaneously in ‘25-26, and the Australia trip should provide the first glimpses of Hargress and Sanders operating in the same backcourt.

Returning players: Bangot Dak (6-11, Jr.); Elijah Malone (6-10, Gr.); Sebastian Rancik (6-9, So.).

Newcomer: Fawaz “Tacko” Ifaola (6-10, Fr.).

Outlook: At this point, the leading rebounder for the 2025-26 squad isn’t going to magically emerge from the transfer portal. That leaves the returning trio of Dak, Malone and Rancik in charge of establishing a team identity on the glass.

The Buffs were average at best on the boards last year, ranking fourth in Big 12 games in average defensive rebounds, 14th in offensive rebounds, and ninth in average rebound margin. CU lost its three most capable rebounders in Jakimovski, Diop and Trevor Baskin, leaving Dak (3.9 rpg), Malone (3.2) and Rancik (2.9) in need of making significant rebounding strides to make the Buffs competitive on the glass. Malone improved late last season, averaging 4.1 rebounds over the final eight games, while Dak (4.6) and Rancik (3.5) both put up rebounding numbers in Big 12 play that were ahead of the curve of their season totals. Yet all three must make even bigger strides if the Buffs hope to compete in the paint in the Big 12.

Summer spotlight: The Buffs avoided a major scare when Rancik went down with a knee injury against Houston in the Big 12 quarterfinals, but he isn’t expected to be slowed during summer workouts. Although Dak also is just scratching the surface of his potential, Rancik is making the freshman-to-sophomore jump and has the potential to more consistently provide the sort of performances like the 19-point, nine-rebound effort Rancik put together at Kansas.