Pat Rooney: CU Buffs 3 extra points (April 22, 2024)
Apr. 22—BuffZone writer Pat Rooney discusses three topics surrounding CU Buffs athletics as spring recruiting speeds up in basketball and football's spring game closes in.
Portal-ing
Time to panic? Or just another unfortunate step in the process?
Not shockingly for Colorado football fans, the answer is a matter of perspective.
The latest rash of spring defections into the transfer portal has been alarming not because of the quantity of the losses but because of the names involved. Tight end Chamon Metayer, a transfer from Cincinnati pegged as a potential starter. Cornerback Cormani McClain, the former five-star prospect who was one of the first, and biggest, recruiting wins for head coach Deion Sanders at Colorado. And running back Alton McCaskill IV, who arrived in Boulder on a damaged knee but an impressive pedigree, yet is leaving a CU program still devoid of a dependable between-the-tackles runner. Savion Washington was considered perhaps the best of a bad bunch along the offensive line, but unless the new guys prove to be All-Americans across the board, it's a position group at which the Buffs can't afford to be overly judicious while building depth.
Sanders, predictably, dismissed the losses, declaring "we're good" last week when asked about losing a handful potential starters. To the original question, whether this turn of events should be considered a part of the process or a bad omen, the answer probably is a little of both.
In terms of on-field production, the Buffs don't really have anything to replace in the quartet of Washington, McCaskill, Metayer and McClain. With rosters in flux and the portal crowded throughout the nation, adding quality talent to the roster still is well within reach for Sanders and his staff. Yet the constant turnover in year two of the Prime Era isn't something to summarily dismiss. I still believe it's difficult to build a cohesive, winning football team on the fly, and last year's Buffs certainly didn't disavow me of that notion. CU will try to do it once again with two new coordinators and revamped personnel, particularly on the interior, on both sides of the ball.
Spin control
While I'm still curious what the end game will look like following the latest roster overhaul, some of the flak Sanders and his program have endured in recent weeks has seemed petty and meaningless.
Most notably was last week's social media post from safety Shilo Sanders and quarterback Shedeur Sanders imploring potential transfers to reach out to them directly that sparked a curious backlash nationally. I'm not sure why. My BuffZone colleague Brian Howell wrote about the matter last week, but potential transfers reaching out directly to players at other programs is a process that predates even email. That the Sanders brothers have social media platforms that put the genesis of those conversations in bright lights is just a circumstance of modern times. I thought the same thing of coach Sanders' claim about never personally doing home visits. Unconventional? Sure. But that describes much of his coaching style, and it's not the 1970s anymore. You don't necessarily have to sit in a recruit's house to connect with him and his family.
Hoops additions
Head coach Tad Boyle and the CU men's basketball team received a pair of commitments in recent days, adding Colorado Mesa's Trevor Baskin in addition to former Washington State forward Andrej Jakimovski.
Jakimovski probably won't be a savior as CU moves into the Big 12, but Boyle said one of the keys to the spring would be to add experience, and Jakimovski fits that bill with 120 games to his credit in four years with WSU. Among CU's projected returnees, Julian Hammond III has appeared in 88 games and Javon Ruffin has played in 42, but the Buffs' next most experienced player is the seven minutes averaged in 32 games this season by freshman Assane Diop.
Jakimovski's career shooting numbers don't stir confidence (.358 overall, .343 3-pointers, .600 free throws), but he averaged 5.6 rebounds this year and could provide a boost on the glass for a team losing its top five rebounders. After watching Joel Scott (formerly of Division II Black Hills State) thrive at Colorado State this year, I'm curious to see what Baskin brings to the table. Granted, Scott stepped into a much more stable personnel situation at CSU than what Baskin will walk into at CU, but he showed moving from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to the Division I level can be a smooth transition.
