BuffZone writer Pat Rooney discusses three topics on CU Buffs basketball as the search continues for the first Big 12 win for the men while the women look to get right on the road.

Grad school dropoff

Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle added three graduate transfers to the mix this season, hoping to infuse a level of experience and versatility to what was mostly an inexperienced roster otherwise.

Certainly the Buffaloes have struggled across the board. Compiling an 0-12 mark in the Big 12 isn’t the fault of any one player, or group of players, any more than it’s the fault of a single shortcoming, such as the Buffs’ penchant for turnovers, or their sub-par defense. It’s been everything, and everyone.

Still, all three of those graduate transfers — Trevor Baskin, Andrej Jakimovski and Elijah Malone — have fallen short of the production expected when they were brought into the mix.

Jakimovski averaged career-highs of 9.7 points and 5.6 rebounds last year at Washington State, and in four seasons with the Cougars he shot .343 on 3-pointers. He is averaging just 4.4 rebounds on a CU team that could sorely use the help on the glass, and his 0-for-4 mark from long range during Saturday’s loss against Houston dropped Jakimovski’s season 3-point percentage to .291, with a .267 mark in Big 12 games.

Baskin followed a path traveled by Joel Scott, the younger brother of former CU star Josh Scott. Joel was the 2023 Player of the Year in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference before using his extra season of eligibility to average 13.1 points and 6.1 rebounds while starting all 36 games for an NCAA Tournament team last year at Colorado State. Baskin, last year’s RMAC Player of the Year, has been a consistent rebounder but has struggled to get going offensively against any Big 12 team not named Arizona State.

Malone, making the jump from the NAIA level, acquitted himself well during his first taste of high-major competition, going a combined 13-for-20 while averaging 15 points in CU’s first two games at the Maui Invitational in November against Michigan State and UConn. But the 6-foot-10 center has struggled to make a mark in Big 12 play, scoring just 13 points total over the past six games while facing a gradual reduction in playing time.

Glass bottom

CU’s turnover habit gets the focal point of fans’ ire when discussing the Buffs’ struggles, and deservedly so. The Buffs have averaged 15.8 turnovers in Big 12 games, by far the top mark in the conference. The turnovers have been so pervasive that even Saturday’s total of 12 turnovers, an only mildly-palatable mark in saner times, tied the Buffs’ lowest total in league play.

After turnovers, though, the Buffs have been crushed for most of the season on second-chance points.

On Saturday, Houston turned 15 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points. It was the fifth time in 12 Big 12 games an opponent has grabbed at least 10 offensive rebounds against the Buffs, and the 10th time overall this season.

CU has been outrebounded in seven of 12 conference games and has won the second-chance point battle just four times in league play.

Road woes

The CU women’s basketball team was able to use its first win in a Big 12 road game — on Jan. 29 at BYU — to put together a much-needed four-game winning streak.

That streak came to a sudden and jarring halt as the Buffs’ road woes returned with a 30-point loss on Saturday at Iowa State. The Buffs begin the week at No. 62 in the NET rankings, and with six games remaining in the regular season, their results in the final three road games (at Utah on Wednesday; at Oklahoma State on Feb. 22; at Texas Tech on March 1) will go a long way toward deciding the Buffs’ NCAA Tournament fate.

If the Buffs can continue to hold serve at home — certainly no given, with No. 25 Baylor set to visit on Feb. 19 — the road results will likely sway the verdict on whether Colorado reaches the tournament field for a fourth consecutive season. The road results also could dictate the level of pressure on the Buffs at the Big 12 tournament. Pick up some road wins, and the Buffs might build a cushion. Keep struggling away from home, however, and CU probably will need multiple wins in Kansas City to secure a tournament berth.