The Colorado men's basketball team embarked on its first road trip of the season on Friday afternoon without Shannon Sharpe.

Jeff Bzdelik's team, still dealing with the shock of losing the promising freshman to a season-ending knee injury, will conduct a closed scrimmage against Utah in Salt Lake City today.

The irony of Sharpe's injury is that the explosive guard sustained the trauma making a spectacular play.

"He went up to dunk the ball and he gets up so blasted high that he kind of came down with all the weight on one particular leg," Bzdelik said before Friday morning's practice. "And he felt a little tweak."

The little tweak turned out to be serious enough that Sharpe will undergo microfracture surgery on his left knee next week. The 6-1 guard from Corona, Calif., whose dunking skills are legendary on youtube.com, will have to wait to make his CU debut a year from now.

Sharpe was expected to challenge Nate Tomlinson for the starting point guard spot, and Bzdelik had said recently that the two would probably split the minutes equally. The Buffs still have a guard-heavy rotation that includes Dwight Thorne, Cory Higgins, Alec Burks and Marcus Relphorde.

"It doesn't change our approach at all," Bzdelik said. "Marcus Relphorde is like a point-forward, he's an excellent ball handler. Alec Burks has point guard skills. If you look at the so-called recruiting services they listed him as a point guard, whatever that means. We've got enough ball handlers out there. Everybody just has to rise to the occasion."

Last season Tomlinson started all 28 games he played in (he missed three games due to injury) and averaged 33.6 minutes, 7.4 points and 2.6 rebounds. He had 83 assists and 77 turnovers, a ratio that will need to improve dramatically for the Buffs to climb the ladder in the Big 12 this season.

Bzdelik said patiently waiting for freshmen like Tomlinson to grow up into more productive and efficient players as sophomores at CU is not any different than waiting for Carmelo Anthony to mature when he was the head coach of the Denver Nuggets. 

    “It’s interesting, I’m driving here this morning and listening to the recap of the Nuggets game ... and what they said is Carmelo, they feel, is really coming into his own because of the maturity and experience he has now under his belt,” Bzdelik said. “I keep harping on that, but it is so true. There’s no other way to go about it. I think if you go back and look at some of the great players in the Big 12 and look at their stats as freshmen ... I mean, look at the jump Cory made from his freshman year to his sophomore year. His stats were very similar to Nate and Austin (Dufault). 

    “Nate is a year wiser, a year stronger, and it just takes time.”

    Just before the start of last season the Buffs lost Trent Beckley to a serious back injury that required season-ending surgery. The 6-11 forward’s presence this season should help CU with its rebounding issues and also keep Sharpe’s spirits up.

    “I was heartbroken when I heard about it,” Beckley said of Sharpe’s injury. “The first practice when he sat on the side I thought about the first practice I sat out. It’s hard to even pay attention because there’s nothing he can do this year to get back on the court. It’s frustrating and I feel bad for him.

    “At the same time, when I was sitting on the bench and teammates came up and talked to me it felt like I was still a part of the team. I’m going to do that as much as I can with Shannon. There are ways he contribute off the court, that’s what I did last year.”