For much of last season, the Colorado men’s basketball team put on a clinic in ball-sharing.

The Buffaloes opened the season that way, maintained the approach when midseason injuries scuttled the rotation, and kept sharing the ball until the season finally ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The 2024-25 season is barely underway for the Buffs, who survived first-week upset bids by Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado to start 2-0. But so far, sharing the ball hasn’t been a team strength. It’s something CU will look to address ahead of a Wednesday night home date against Cal State Fullerton (7 p.m., ESPN+).

“Really just slow it down. I think sometimes we’re playing too fast,” CU guard RJ Smith said. “I feel like we’re too excited sometimes. We try to make the right plays at the end of the day. Just playing together, making one more pass, being strong with the ball, all the things that will prepare us for the Big 12 we need to get better at right now. Just having physical practices, just keep learning.”

CU put up a solid assist total in the opening win against Eastern Washington with 16, as six different players recorded multiple assists. But the Buffs managed only nine against Northern Colorado, even with 10 extra minutes of overtime.

The nine assists against UNC would’ve tied the third-lowest total last season, when the Buffs put up some of the best assist numbers in program history. CU recorded three 20-assist games out of the gate and finished with nine 20-assist games, equaling the Buffs’ number of 20-assist games over the previous four seasons combined. CU finished with 600 assists, its highest total since the stat was first tracked in the 1974-75 season (although the per-game average of 16.2 fell just outside CU’s all-time top 10 list).

KJ Simpson, picked in the second round of last summer’s NBA draft by Charlotte, spurred much of that effort, with his 181 assists ranking third in team history (and just one behind McKinley Wright IV’s total in 2020-21). He had plenty of help, though, as J’Vonne Hadley, Tristan da Silva and Eddie Lampkin Jr. all topped 80 assists.

CU has plenty of potential play-makers on this season’s roster, but the Buffs are still honing the share-the-ball approach. Senior guard Julian Hammond III entered the season with a career assist-to-turnover rate of 1.19 but struggled in that department during the opening week, combining a team-leading six assists with a team co-leading eight turnovers.

Forward Assane Diop has made some plays in his role off the bench, ranking second so far with five assists, while Smith and fellow guard Javon Ruffin have combined for six assists with four turnovers (three assists, two turnovers apiece).

The Buffs aren’t likely to feature any play-maker on par with Simpson, who finished third in the Pac-12 with 4.9 assists per game. Yet as the Buffs look to rein in the turnovers, they also will seek more productive assist numbers.

“With this team, it’s like throwing darts on a dart board right now,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “It really is. At practice, there’s just not a lot of separation.

“What’s crazy is, the last two days of practice (prior to the UNC game) we played what we call the assist game, where you’re going up and down and you’re team doesn’t get a point unless you get an assist. So we’ve really been stressing it. And then we come out (against UNC) and play like this. This team, offensively, what I see in practice every day relative to what I’ve seen in the first two games, it’s like not the same team. And that, as a coach, is very, very frustrating.”