SEATTLE — Tad Boyle has a solid freshman class getting ready for the future mostly in the background, and the Colorado Buffaloes have an impressive 2021 recruiting class on the way.
Amid that recruiting momentum, Boyle can still tell future Buffs he’s not going anywhere for a while.
CU athletic director Rick George confirmed to BuffZone this week that the automatic one-year extension built into Boyle’s contract was invoked once again, leaving Boyle under contract at CU through the 2025-26 season.
According to terms of Boyle’s deal, the one-year extension is activated every Dec. 31 unless one of the two sides — the university, or Boyle — gives notice they wish to opt out of the extension. That has never happened since Boyle was hired in the spring of 2010, leaving the men’s basketball leader working on what essentially has become a perpetual five-year contract.
Boyle received a pay bump in the summer of 2019, increasing his annual base and supplemental pay to a shade over $1.8 million ($1,807,200). That figure does not include the 10 percent pay cut Boyle is working with this year, which was announced by CU in April as part of its financial cutbacks enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest extension is expected to be presented to the Board of Reagents for approval in February.
Heading into the Buffs’ game Saturday night at Washington State (6 p.m. MT, ESPN2), Boyle ranked second all-time at CU in winning percentage (.616), wins (221), and games coached (359). Depending on how the remainder of this season unfolds, Boyle could make a run at Sox Walseth’s record of 261 wins as soon as late next season, but more likely will approach that mark early in the 2022-23 season.
Boyle probably will need the full duration of the latest extension to approach Walseth’s men’s program mark of 506 games coached.
Upon further review
After reviewing the video of Wednesday’s loss at Washington, Boyle said he believes the Buffs’ shoddy defense was responsible for handing the Huskies about 64 percent of their 84 points.
Excluding Washington’s final free throw when CU was forced to foul, Boyle said the tough shots made by the Huskies accounted for only 30 of their 83 points. The other 53 points he attributed to his squad’s defensive breakdowns.
“If they make tough shots and they do it for 40 minutes, you shake their hands and they beat you. Congratulations, you win,” Boyle said. “We can live with that. But that’s not what happened. Of the 83 points, 30 Washington earned and 53 of them Colorado gave them. We’re in control of those 53 points and we have to do a better job of that. I wouldn’t say it was effort. It was just having a sense of urgency.“
Notable
CU senior guard McKinley Wright IV needs six points to become the 10th Buffs player to reach the 1,600-point mark…Wright enters the WSU game having played 3,785 minutes for the Buffs, which ranks fifth all-time. On Saturday he likely will pass Richard Roby (3,805) and Askia Booker (3,808) to move into third-place behind Jay Humphries (3,864) and all-time leader Cory Higgins (4,478)…CU announced on Friday the home date against Oregon State, originally scheduled for Jan. 9 before OSU was hit with a coronavirus shutdown, will be played on Monday, Feb. 8. That will give the Buffs five home games in a span of 13 days, a run that begins Wednesday in a rematch against Washington State…The Buffs begin Saturday ranked No. 16 in the NET and at KenPom.com…CU also goes into Saturday still leading the nation in free throw shooting (.842).
