This is an excerpt from the BuffsBlog mailbag earlier this week with some updated thoughts.
Question: What will the CU men’s hoops team roster look like next season? –Chris G. from Mariner Drive
BB: Chris coming with the bleak question. For purposes of this answer, I’m going to assume that Post Malone and Trevor Baskin are both granted an extra year of eligibility (which appears likely at this point) and that both return to CU. I’m also going to assume CU gets no incoming transfers next season (which is hopefully unlikely).
First, let’s look at the high school enrollees. CU will have 5 new freshman players for the 2025/26 season:
Jalin Howard: 6’4″ 4-star prospect and rated as the 130th best player in the country and 7th best player in Arizona by 247. He averaged 25.4 points per game as a junior at Los Lunas High School before joining Dream City Christian to play prep basketball his senior year. While at Dream City, he was a teammate of fellow CU commit Fawaz “Tacko” Iraola. Howard (along with Josiah Sanders) might be the most college ready guard among the freshman enrollees, and I expect him to be in the rotation in the upcoming season.
Fawaz “Tacko” Ifaola: A 6’11” 245 pound center from Lagos, Nigeria by way of Dream City Christian in Arizona, Ifaola is ranked a 3-star player. He does all the dirty work that a big man should do — he sets screens, blocks shots and hits the boards. While he’s going to be a work in progress on the offensive end of the court, he will play in the 2025 season.
Ian Inman: Inman is a 6’5″ forward from The Woodlands, Texas. He is a 3-star player. Inman is a fantastic shooter – he shot 50% from 3 during his club season. He will step onto the team and will immediately become one of the best shooters on the team. I expect him to redshirt, but if CU needs shooting, he’ll play.
Isiah Johnson: Johnson is a 6’1″ guard from Valley Village, California. He’s a 3-star prospect and ranked the 38th best point guard nationally. Isaiah is young for his grade and therefore less physicaly developed than many of his classmates. Still, he has the skill and tenacity needed to be an impact player — he’s going to need to make a physical jump, however, before he contributes meaningful minutes.
Josiah Sanders: Sanders is a 6’4″ guard from Denver that has played with Colorado Prep for the last 3 years. The top ranked player in the state of Colorado, Sanders is ranked the #122 player in the nation. Like Holland and Ifaola, I expect Sanders to play as a true freshman. In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if Sanders was starting by the start of Big 12 play.
Potential Starting Lineup
I could see CU starting Post Malone, Bangot Dak, Sabastien Rancik, Josiah Sanders and Javon Ruffin with Trevor Baskin as the 6th man. This is probably a bottom third of the Big 12 type of team, and that’s assuming a big jump from Bangot Dak and Sebastien Rancik. RJ Smith, Courtney Anderson, and Felix Kossaras round out the roster, along with the other true freshmen.
One positive in the last 3 or 4 games for CU has been the re-emergence of Post Malone. He’s starting to realize how to use his size and skill against more highly skilled high major players. (And if basketball doesn’t work for him, I bet he could make a killing in the music industry.)
I do think that Dak and Rancik are probably the two most important players on the roster going forward as they will be legit Big 12-level starters. Both players will receive financial offers to play elsewhere after this season. CU needs to make sure that both of these players stick around — it would be pretty devastating if one of them leaves due to financial considerations elsewhere.
Also, this assumes that Tad Boyle remains the coach next season. I’m on the record for suggesting that there is a material chance that he will retire after this season given his frustration with the current world of collegiate sports (rumor has it that this past off-season CU had separate deals with 3 separate point guards to come play at Colorado, each of which fell apart because CU couldn’t match the dollars that other schools were willing to pay). If Boyle steps down, I expect the new coach to be very, very active in the portal. For who I think CU may hire in this situation, check out:
To see more of the BuffsBlog mailbag, check out: