While the roster overhaul remains an ongoing spring project for the Colorado men’s basketball team, one significant change already is in the works for the 2025-26 season.

During a media session last month at the Big 12 Conference tournament, commissioner Brett Yormark and vice president of men’s basketball Brian Thornton confirmed the league’s plan to revert back to an 18-game league schedule next season.

The Buffaloes finished 3-17 in the conference, returning to the Big 12 after leaving for the Pac-12 following the 2010-11 season.

After expanding to 16 teams with the addition of CU, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, the Big 12 played a 20-game league schedule for the first time this past season. It was nothing new to the Buffs, though, who played 20-game conference schedules during their last four seasons in the Pac-12.

However, when the Pac-12 moved to 20 games, it also added a pair of early December conference games to the schedule, which kept intact the one-game matchups for two weeks in every season for the designated rivalry matchups (CU-Utah, ASU-Arizona, USC-UCLA, etc.).

Yormark and Thornton said league coaches pushed for the change, and CU’s Tad Boyle echoed that sentiment.

“It wasn’t the 20 games as much as it was the no break,” Boyle said. “I called it a bye week (in the Pac-12). It’s not a bye week, but it feels like a bye week because you only have one game. You can take two days off. You play on Saturday, you don’t play until the next Saturday, you can take Sunday and Monday off, catch your breath, get some guys healthy. But with 20 games, and not playing any in early December, it’s tough.”

Obviously the change means one less conference game at the Events Center, but after playing eight of 11 nonconference games at home this past season, CU could make up that date during a 13-game nonconference schedule. The only confirmed date on next year’s nonconference schedule is a game at Colorado State.

“We can get back to playing some better nonconference games,” Boyle said. “Our nonconference schedule should be better next year in terms of a little more difficulty. This year we obviously had Maui. We’re trying to get some home-and-homes. We’re trying to get some neutral-floor games.”

The Big 12 has not yet made its schedule format official for men’s basketball, but if it follows the women’s format from this past season, each team will play three opponents twice and the other 12 opponents once.

Windy City-bound

On Thursday, 247Sports reported that now-former CU guard RJ Smith is set to join DePaul, a move Smith soon confirmed himself on social media.

A member of the Big East, DePaul finished 14-20 overall and 4-16 in the conference. The Blue Demons’ season ended on the same date and locale as CU. DePaul was defeated by Cincinnati in the first round of the College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas on April 1. It was DePaul’s first season under former Ohio State and Butler head coach Chris Holtmann.

Smith played in 34 of 35 games, making 16 starts, for the Buffs. He posted a team-high 3-point percentage of .386 and averaged 6.2 points per game.

Notable

Assane Diop and Baye Fall, his former teammate at Accelerated Prep, released a joint statement earlier this week after both players entered the transfer portal: “While this is a tough decision, we’re excited for what’s ahead and look forward to continuing our growth both on and off the court. Thank you to everyone who have been part of this journey.” … Fall and Diop were the top-ranked recruits in the state in the class of 2023. Fall spent this past season at Kansas State and is transferring for the second time after spending his rookie season at Arkansas. … Former CU wing J’Vonne Hadley announced he will return to Louisville for a second season. It will be Hadley’s sixth season of college basketball, as he used his extra COVID season this past year and will use the extra year granted by the NCAA to former junior college and NAIA players. Hadley spent the 2020-21 season at Northeastern, then played at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa before spending the next two seasons at CU.