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Coach Prime has asked his walk-on senior to lead the safety room.

Walk-on safety Ben Finneseth has been in Boulder through it all. From the disappointing 2021 season to the disastrous 1–11 campaign in 2022, the media frenzy that arrived with Coach Prime in 2023, and the miraculous rise to the upper echelon of the Big 12 in 2024.

Now, as a redshirt senior, Finneseth is ready to take on a brand-new challenge: leadership.

When Deion Sanders came to town and brought his Louis, Finneseth was one of only a few Buffaloes who decided to stick around and try to make the team. The kid from Durango was dedicated to staying with his hometown squad. After working hard and demonstrating a top-notch work ethic during spring practices in 2023, Finneseth and Coach Prime started to form a bond.

Fast forward to today, and Finneseth is one of the longest-tenured Buffs. With staples in the safety room like Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig and Shilo Sanders gone, Sanders has asked Finneseth to help fill those shoes.

“I’ve been asked to take on a new role—to become a leader on the defense,” said Finneseth after Colorado practice on Tuesday.

During his time in Boulder, Finneseth has seen limited action on defense, primarily contributing on special teams. Now, he’s fighting to lead the safety room and earn a starting job. He says it’s a big task—but one he’s ready for.

“It’s a learning curve, for sure,” Finneseth said. “I was thrown out there on the first day of practice, and I’d never run with the [first teamers] before, so I was a little nervous. But I picked up on it pretty quickly. It’s been a fun role to learn so far.”

After losing both of last season’s starting safeties to graduation, CU’s safety room has undergone a full facelift. Returners like Finneseth and Carter Stoutmire, along with transfers like Tafiq Byard, are all working hard during spring ball to earn playing time this fall. So far, Finneseth and the group are focused on building chemistry before the season kicks off.

“It’s been really new,” Finneseth said. “We’ve got a lot of new guys and a lot of new faces, so communication has been a really big emphasis—getting around the guys and getting to know each other. It’s been a good learning curve for all of us and we’re getting a lot better.”

Even with limited time together in spring practice, Finneseth says the pieces are starting to come together. The Buffs have made significant strides and will continue full steam ahead through the remainder of the spring period.

“It’s been cool to see how much better we’ve gotten through spring ball,” said Finneseth. “We’re through seven practices now, and we’ve gotten significantly better. Obviously, we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Colorado’s spring practices will continue for the next three weeks, culminating in the spring game on Saturday, April 19. Stay tuned to Ralphie Report for more updates from CU’s spring practices.

by RylandScholes
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The Buffs finish the season with a record of 14-21.

At long last, Colorado’s season has officially come to an end.

After having their 20-loss season revived by an invitation to the College Basketball Crown, a third-tier postseason tournament backed by the brass at Fox, the Buffs are finally done hooping for the year after suffering an 85-64 first-round loss to the Villanova Wildcats.

Both the Buffs and Wildcats entered this game in precarious situations. Villanova is in between coaches after firing Kyle Neptune and poaching Kevin Willard from Maryland, while Buffs head coach Tad Boyle made it very clear that this tournament is being used as a test run for next year for Colorado.

Unfortunately for Boyle and the Buffs, that test run didn’t quite go as planned. Colorado’s youngsters had no answer for an average Big East squad like Villanova.

To start, things didn’t look so bad for Colorado. The Buffs crushed the offensive boards to open the game, snagging four offensive rebounds in a little over four minutes. Elijah Malone started hot, hitting all of his first three shots and scoring 6 of CU’s 14 points, but that’s where the good news ends.

Villanova would hit back-to-back-to-back threes to fuel an 11-1 run early, which started to shut the door on Colorado’s chances of winning. Nova’s Wooga Poplar and Eric Dixon would fully slam that door shut shortly after.

The Wildcats would rip off another 13-0 run shortly afterward, where all 10 of those points came solely from Poplar and Dixon. Poplar was unstoppable in the box, sinking eight of his 10 attempts from the floor in the first half. Meanwhile, Dixon’s two three-pointers acted as a catalyst for the Wildcats.

Colorado did their best to answer Poplar and Dixon’s onslaught, as Felix Kossaras hit back-to-back threes over the Wildcats, but it was too little, too late. Poplar (16 pts) and Dixon (13 pts) combined for 29 points in the first half, while Colorado scored just 30 as a team. Headed into halftime down 30-45, things weren’t looking great for the Buffs.

After Villanova hit two consecutive three-pointers to open the second half, this game was all but over. Colorado center Elijah Malone did his best to keep Colorado alive, finishing the game with a team-high 17 points, but there’s only so much you can do when your team has no juice.

Poplar and Dixon never slowed, finishing the game with 46 combined points, and Colorado was completely defeated and deflated with around 15 minutes left to play. When it was all said and done, Colorado’s ticket to the offseason was punched by a 21-point loss to Villanova in Las Vegas.

Still, the Buffs’ trip to Vegas wasn’t all bad. Elijah Malone played well. Players like Bangot Dak, Assane Diop, Felix Kossaras and RJ Smith all got valuable first-team minutes as primary options. Going into next season, Boyle can use film from this Villanova game for teaching opportunities. Also, the extra two weeks of practice ahead of the tournament is a huge booster for the youngsters’ development.

With the offseason officially here, Boyle and his staff can turn their full focus to hitting the portal hard and trying to find some hidden gems. When any transfer news breaks about Buffs Basketball, we’ll be here to update you at Ralphie Report.

by RylandScholes
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William Purnell-Imagn Images

Join us for the Colorado Buffaloes - Villanova Wildcats game tonight at 6:30 p.m. MT in Las Vegas, Nevada.

April 1st, 2025

Who: Colorado Buffaloes vs. Villanova Wildcats

Where: MGM Grand Garden - Las Vegas, Nevada

When: 6:30 p.m. MST

TV: FS1

Radio: AM 850 KOA

Villanova Blog: VU Hoops

Line: Colorado +4

Welcome to the Ralphie Report as the Colorado Buffaloes get ready to take on the Villanova Wildcats in Las Vegas, Nevada for the first game of the inaugural College Basketball Crown.

No need to go anywhere else today, The Ralphie Report has everything you need and we welcome you to weigh in with your live game analysis, critiques, observations and predictions.

Check out the old game thread from the Hawaii game to see how it works. Throw all your comments about the game below and let’s get this thing rolling. If you don’t have an account, sign up here for free and enjoy all that our site has to offer.

Make sure to follow us on BlueSky, X and Facebook. Go Buffs!

by Jon Woods
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Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Colorado goes to Vegas for the postseason tournament

Just like we imagined before the season started, the Colorado Buffaloes are still playing basketball in April.

It’s not the Final Four, nor is it a deep run into the NIT, but the inaugural College Basksetball Classic. This is a week-long tournament set at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The field is quite strong, as a number of teams turned down NIT bids to play in this tournament.

The Buffs begin play later today, as they take on the Villanova Wildcats at 6:30 PM (MT) on FS1. Nova made news this past week as they poached Maryland coach Kevin Willard while the Terps were in Sweet Sixteen. That could mean the Wildcats are distracted, or it could mean interim coach Mike Nardi will have his senior-heavy squad playing like it’s their last chance to prove themselves after a disappointing season.

Villanova finished 19-14 overall and 11-9 in Big East play. It doesn’t look like a bad season, especially compared to CU’s 14-20 record, but it was fair to fire Kyle Neptune considering their NIL budget and championship expectations. In any case, their individual players are quite good, as they’re led by fifth-year senior Eric Dixon (23 points, 5 rebounds per game) and Miami transfer Wooga Poplar (14.5 points, 7 rebounds).

The Buffs’ roster is uncertain. While Courtney Anderson and Harrison Carrington have left the program, they were merely fringe players who will seek more minutes elsewhere. More significant is that Tad Boyle will likely focus on the players who will be around next year, meaning the current senior class is in danger of losing their minutes. Those players would be Julian Hammond, Javon Ruffin, Trevor Baskin and Andrej Jakimovski, plus potentially Elijah Malone as he has one more year to play. Maybe Tad plays everyone like usual, or maybe he cuts one or two of them from the rotation, but we should learn more about next season’s roster.

This could be burying the lede, but it’s also important that Bangot Dak has (so far) remained in Boulder. He’s our most promising player and many people around the program feared he would be poached by a stronger, richer program. There’s still a chance he transfers later in the summer, but for now it looks like he’s here to stay.

by Sam Metivier
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Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images

The fun police are at it again.

The fun police are back at it again.

The NCAA has declined a waiver to allow the proposed Colorado vs. Syracuse spring game and joint practices in Boulder in April, per sources.

In a press conference last week, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders told the media that he wants to hold NFL-style joint practices with another school during the spring practice period, capping off with a spring game against said school. Syracuse head coach Fran Brown heard Sanders’ idea and wanted in, offering to fly the Orange out to Boulder for three days to practice against the Buffs.

The two schools’ athletics departments sent a waiver to the NCAA at the end of last week seeking permission to hold a joint practice, which has not been done before at the college level. After discussing the matter, the NCAA made the choice to decline the waiver, citing lack of timing, potential recruiting advantages and academic impact from being away from campus in the spring as primary reasons.

Unfortunately, there will be no Colorado vs. Syracuse spring game. However, the NCAA did say that they will revisit the topic of allowing joint practices at a later date. The silver lining is that the Buffs and Orange may have gotten the ball rolling. Perhaps next season we’ll get Sanders vs. Brown in Boulder, but not this April.

by RylandScholes
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