Men's basketball: Forward Sebastian Rancik commits to CU Buffs' 2024 class
Oct. 22—The Colorado men's basketball team is shaping up to feature a young and formidable front court next year.
On Saturday, another piece to CU's recruiting puzzle fell into place as forward Sebastian Rancik announced his commitment to the Buffaloes as part of the 2024 recruiting class.
Rancik is the third recruit to announce his pledge to CU ahead of the November national signing day, joining Texas big man Doryan Onwuchekwa and ThunderRidge standout guard Andrew Crawford.
Rancik, who visited CU last month, is a 6-foot-9 native of Slovakia who moved to America in order to play prep basketball at JSerra Catholic High School in Southern California — a route similar to the one traveled by former CU forward Lucas Siewert, a native of Brazil.
247Sports lists Rancik as a three-star recruit ranked 134th in his class nationally and 16th in the state of California. That site's composite rankings sets Rancik as a four-star recruit ranked 113th nationally.
As it stands, the Buffs are set to lose a pair of 2023-24 seniors in Tristan da Silva and Luke O'Brien, while seniors Eddie Lampkin Jr. and J'Vonne Hadley have extra seasons of eligibility in their pockets from the 2020-21 pandemic season. Da Silva and O'Brien are eligible for those extra seasons as well, but da Silva almost certainly will go pro and O'Brien told BuffZone earlier this year he is approaching the upcoming season as his final collegiate campaign.
Rancik and Onwuchekwa will join a CU frontcourt likely to include two of this season's true freshmen in 6-foot-10 Assane Diop and 6-foot-9 Bangot Dak. Plus, possibly, Lampkin and Hadley.
After hosting Texas in a closed scrimmage on Saturday, the Buffs resume preseason workouts on Monday, which marks the two-week date ahead of the Nov. 6 season opener at home against Towson.
