Colorado will get one last dress rehearsal before the 2026-27 season begins, and it comes with a Denver twist.
The Buffaloes host North Texas in their lone exhibition game Sunday, Oct. 18, at 1 p.m. in the Mile High Hoops Classic at the Auraria Event Center on the Metropolitan State University of Denver campus. The free event is being used not just to tune up on the court, but to put Colorado basketball in front of the Denver community in a more direct way.
“We always expect people from Denver to come to Boulder to support us, and this is really a step in the right direction of taking our program to Denver," Colorado men's basketball Head Coach Tad Boyle said. "I want the Denver community to get to know our team, to get kids from Denver that don't have the chance to come to Boulder for a basketball game; they have a chance to go to Metro State and see our team."
Colorado Athletics is also working with youth sports organizations in Denver so 300 kids can attend. With the game limited to the 2,200-seat venue, the Buffaloes are expecting the building to be full after tickets for the free exhibition were claimed quickly.
"I definitely can't wait to play on Sunday," Colorado sophomore guard Ian Inman said. "It's been a long time since we played actual games in front of fans. I can't wait to play."
On the floor, Colorado will lean on a familiar face in fifth-year guard Barrington Hargress, who is back after a huge season. He averaged 14.7 points, 4.5 assists and 2.2 rebounds in 33 games last year, and his shooting numbers stood out even more: he set Colorado single-season records for assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.6 and 3-point percentage at .481. Hargress also led the Big 12 and ranked 10th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio.
The supporting cast includes returning sophomores Ian Inman, Jalin Holland and Josiah Sanders, the same group that helped Colorado go 17-16 last season and reach the College Basketball Crown. Holland put up 4.9 points and 2.7 rebounds while finishing fourth on the team in steals.
Sanders was Colorado’s second-best offensive rebounder as a freshman with 36, and he added 4.4 points and 1.7 assists. Inman finished fourth on the squad with 22 made 3-pointers.
Colorado also brings in a pair of newcomers who arrive with proven production. Justin Neely, a forward who transferred in after ranking second nationally in rebounding for UNC Greensboro at 11.5 per game, also scored 17.9 points a night, which made him the fourth-best scorer in the Southern Conference. Noah Feddersen joins after being named the 2026 Summit League Sixth Man of the Year at North Dakota State, where he averaged 9.3 points and 5.0 rebounds and helped the Bison sweep the league regular season and tournament titles en route to an NCAA Tournament berth.
North Texas provides the opposition with its own strong recent résumé. The Mean Green went 19-14 in 2025-26 and finished tied for fifth in the American Conference at 9-9.
They averaged 70.9 points while shooting 43 percent from the field, but their calling card was on defense, where they allowed just 67.4 points per game to rank as the best scoring defense in the league. North Texas also led the American and ranked 10th nationally in turnover margin at 3.7.
Junior guard Je'Shawn Stevenson was named the American Preseason Player of the Year and enters as the league’s top returning scorer after averaging 17.3 points per game. He also made his mark defensively, piling up 66 steals to rank 34th nationally and record the second-most steals in a single season in school history.
Colorado’s official season opener comes a little later, when it hosts Abilene Christian on Monday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center.
In Other News...
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Pavia also offered his take on Colorado quarterback Isaac Wilson, a useful outside perspective as the Buffaloes try to sharpen themselves for one of their biggest conference tests. He sounded optimistic about Colorados path in the Big 12 championship race, and his presence around the team only heightened the sense that this week has a little extra meaning beyond the matchup itself. [Read more 🡒]