It has been a rough adjustment so far in the return season in the Big 12 for Colorado men’s basketball.

That’s been the case on the floor, where the Buffaloes took an 0-4 league mark into a late Wednesday night date against the Big 12’s only other winless squad, Cincinnati. It’s also been the case off the court, as head coach Tad Boyle and his staff have adjusted to the new nuances of the Big 12 schedule.

One case in point was on display this week.

NCAA rules require at least one day off every week. In 13 seasons in the Pac-12 Conference, the schedule was set up so that most Sundays could be counted as the weekly off-day. For the teams that played on Sundays, that easily-scheduled off-day slid seamlessly into Monday.

In the Big 12, the Buffs essentially are playing a game every third or fourth day. Unlike the Pac-12 — which for the most part rotated home-then-away, two-game weekends in league play — the Buffs now more often than not are rotating single games between home and the road. After losing at home against West Virginia on Sunday, Wednesday’s date against Cincinnati marks the last time CU will have back-to-back home games until it hosts No. 25 Baylor and No. 9 Kansas in late February.

With Sunday and Monday games more a part of the routine, scheduling off days has required a little more strategic planning. This week, with games on Sunday (West Virginia), Wednesday (Cincinnati) and Saturday (at Oklahoma State), the Buffs weren’t required to take a day off, with three games being one of the exceptions to the weekly day-off mandate. However, skipping a day off would require taking two off the following week.

CU wasn’t originally planning to take Monday off. But the choice was to either take Monday off and have one day of prep for Cincinnati, or take two days off following Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State and have one day of prep for next week’s home date against BYU.

After losing starters Elijah Malone and RJ Smith during the loss against West Virginia, Boyle opted to take Monday off in hopes of hitting the reset button before facing the Bearcats.

“We were faced with a situation, do you want two days of prep for BYU? Or do you want two days of prep for Cincinnati?” Boyle said. “We didn’t make the decision based on prep days. We made the decision based on kind of where our team was, mentally and physically. Obviously with two guys injured, we thought taking (Monday) off made more sense.”

Remembering Mac

While discussing with BuffZone the legacy of former CU football coach Bill McCartney, Boyle said an unsung hero of McCartney’s national championship-winning tenure might be former Colorado athletic director Bill Marolt.

Marolt didn’t hire McCartney, and when Marolt took over CU athletics in 1984, McCartney was on the cusp of finishing his first three seasons with a record of 7-25-1, bottoming out at 1-10 in that ‘84 season just as Marolt was taking over. In today’s game that record, combined with a new athletic director, more often than not would mean the end of the line for the incumbent coach.

Marolt stuck with McCartney. The Buffs weren’t quite off an running after going 7-5 in 1985, but they were on their way.

“The one guy who probably doesn’t get enough credit is Bill Marolt. Sticking with him,” Boyle said. “I don’t know if that happens today. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. But I think he deserves a lot of credit for making that decision.”

Notable

CU stood at No. 86 (one spot behind Colorado State) in Wednesday’s NET rankings, with Cincinnati at No. 41. The Buffs began Wednesday at No. 86 at KenPom.com, with the Bearcats at No. 39. … CU guard Julian Hammond III needed two assists to become the 30th Buffs player to record 200 assists in his career. Hammond was held without an assist for the first time this season during Sunday’s loss against West Virginia.