There have been a lot of positive changes in the Colorado men's basketball program since Jeff Bzdelik was hired.

New facilities have been constructed, grades are going up and the staff is making progress out on the recruiting trail.

But this year's non-conference schedule -- especially at home -- has a Ricardo Patton feel to it.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Lafayette. Prairie View A&M. Western State.

Not exactly a group anyone will have in the Final Four of their bracket this March.

"Their non-conference basketball schedule is designed the same as everybody else in the conference," CU athletic director Mike Bohn said this week. "Let's win some games, get some momentum and make it happen."

Bzdelik reminded the media during Thursday's basketball media day that next year the Buffs will be playing in the Maui Classic among a field that includes Arizona, Gonzaga, Louisville, Maryland and Wisconsin.

Jody Bailey, the program's director of operations, has been working the phones trying to set up some home-and-home dates with other BCS programs in the years to come.

Obviously this year's schedule was set up to give a very young and inexperienced team a chance to have some success early.

CU’s roster has five freshmen, three sophomores, one junior and one senior on scholarship. There is a good chance the starting lineup will consist of three freshmen and two sophomores.

“You look at this team and it’s important to give yourself a chance to get off to a good start,” said Bzdelik, who also noted that his team will not miss a single day of class during the fall semester.

Instead of playing two exhibition games in front of a bunch of empty seats at the Coors Events Center, CU is going to conduct closed-door scrimmages against Utah in Boulder and Northern Colorado in Greeley.

Davidson, last year’s NCAA Tournament darling, scrimmaged Texas prior to last season. When Bzdelik was at Air Force the Falcons scrimmaged at USC.

“Early success is the key,” junior guard Dwight Thorne said. “If you’re getting beat down and beat down and beat down, sooner or later you’re going to think you’re not worth anything. If you can win you get more confidence and you feel better in your abilities.”

The Buffs will play eight of their first nine games at home with a road trip against Stanford on Nov. 29 sandwiched between a pair of four-game home stands. They will also play at SMU on Jan. 5.

When Bzdelik originally signed up for the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu this Dec. 28-30, Clemson was supposed to be in the field, but the ACC program bought its way out of the tournament. CU is on the same side of the bracket as Coppin State, Buffalo and Pepperdine opposite Colorado State, George Washington, Hawaii and Vermont.

“I think confidence is going to be a huge factor for us,” sophomore guard Cory Higgins said. “These home games should help us out a lot. We have a good chance to get some early confidence.”

If the Buffs are able to simply take care of business at home and only win one non-conference game outside of Boulder they would have 10 wins before Big 12 play tips off. During Bzdelik’s first season CU was 8-6 entering conference play, including blowout losses to NCAA tournament-bound Wisconsin and Stanford, and finished with another 20-loss season.

“If we have nine or 10 wins under our belt before we go into conference, I hope we don’t have any numbers less than that, I think the confidence that we can win will be there and that is incomparable to anything else,” sophomore forward Casey Crawford said.

There is no question Bzdelik is making some progress in building the program, but how many fans are really going to come see the Buffs play the Montana States and Louisiana-Monroes of the world?

“In the basketball sense you’ve got to build some success and get something going,” Bohn said. “I think obviously there are some teams in our league that do that and we inspire to want to get our fan base to say, ‘Regardless if we’re playing Boulder High School or not, we’re going to come and support the Buffs and have some fun with it.’”