Colorado doesn’t have much margin for error when it opens the season Monday night, even if the Buffaloes are sitting as heavy favorites against Abilene Christian. ESPN Analytics gives Colorado a 92.6 percent chance to win, but Tad Boyle knows the Wildcats can make life messy if the Buffs let the game get loose.
The issue Boyle keeps circling back to is pressure. After Friday’s practice, he said Abilene Christian’s ability to force mistakes stood out on film, and he tied that directly to what Colorado showed in its three exhibition games.
“One thing about Abilene Christian is that they are very good at forcing turnovers,” Boyle said. “They pressure the ball, they pressure the passing lanes and we saw that against Marquette, we saw that against North Texas, but we didn’t see that against Saint Mary’s.
The one thing about Marquette and North Texas is that we turned that ball over like we owned a bakery. We had 18 and 16.”
That’s the warning sign Boyle has spent the week hammering home. He said the Buffs have to clean up the ball-handling and be ready for a team that tries to speed opponents up and turn possessions into mistakes.
“We’ve got to be able to handle pressure,” Boyle said. “I think that’s the big thing, but I’ll become a little bit more familiar with them over the weekend as we get ready to tip off on Monday night.”
The turnover problem wasn’t limited to younger players in Colorado’s exhibitions, either. Senior guard Barrington Hargress, one of the team’s most experienced pieces, had a team-high four turnovers against North Texas. That was well above his norm, since he averaged just 1.2 turnovers per game in 2025.
Goc Malual said the message has landed inside the locker room. He described a team-wide focus on handling pressure and protecting the ball, with drills built around that emphasis.
“There’s just been a huge emphasis on ball pressure, especially on the defensive end,” Malual said. “There’s been a couple of drills that we’ve been doing to get ready for that, and we’re just going to do that until the game comes up.
But even after the game, we’ll continue to do that. There are more games to come, so it’s just about stacking days and just getting into the habit of staying strong with the ball and decreasing turnovers.”
Colorado’s non-conference schedule was built to test it, and this opener has the feel of one that could get tricky if the Buffaloes aren’t sharp. The season begins Monday at 7 p.m. MT.
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