KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Just watching Levi Knutson and Dwight Thorne limp out of the Sprint Center after Colorado's season ended was painful.

To their credit, the broken Buffs played through injuries for most of the season and refused to use them as excuses for their play. Due to a lack of depth on the team, both of these role players really helped Jeff Bzdelik by gutting it out through the tough 12-20 campaign that was capped off with Friday's 54-49 loss to Oklahoma in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.

Knutson, a freshman shooting guard, played with a damaged hip. He is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail. Thorne, who knocked down a 3-pointer to cut CU's deficit to 51-49 with 30 seconds left on Friday, will have his bad right knee cleaned up soon after.

"He's a trooper. He's one of the toughest kids I've ever met," CU athletic trainer Melissa Schau said recently of Knutson, who sustained his injury during the nonconference season and averaged 3.7 points and 17.8 minutes entering the Big 12 Tournament. "He doesn't say a word. And with the injuries that he has currently, there are guys who stop playing and take the rest of the season off with what Levi has. He's playing through some pain we will take care of. Next year he's going to be a step quicker."

Knutson, who was 0-for-3 from the field in nine minutes against the Sooners, plans to spend a lot of time in the weight room after recovering.

"I think it was good to play through it for the experience factor," Knutson said. "I didn't want to sit out at all because I love this game. Being hurt was a small factor in my play, but I wanted to be out there playing."

Schau discovered some problems inside Thorne's knee after he re-injured it just before the rigors of the Big 12 schedule started.

"Dwight is a very special case. There's a lot of stuff going on in Dwight's knees that we were actually unaware of up until that point," Schau said. "I'm glad that we were able to push through it. Next year he will be a lot better off. We're going to do some postseason surgeries on him."

Thorne, who only averaged 2.9 points and 13.8 minutes during the regular season, spent hours in the training room to keep his season alive. He scored a career-high 14 points during CU's first-round upset of Baylor on Thursday.

"He plays through the pain every day," Schau said. "He's real meticulous about getting his treatments because he knows without them he's not going to play right now."

And then there is the senior point guard, perhaps the toughest guy on the team. Marcus Hall had thumb surgery right before the season, lost two teeth in the third game, played through a groin injury down the stretch and still broke CU's record for minutes played in a season (1,202).

"I'm fine," Hall said after scoring 12 points and playing all 40 minutes of his final CU game. "I'll rest for a couple weeks and let the (groin injury) settle down and get ready for (professional) camps."