Head coach Tad Boyle said the shift to the Big 12 Conference next season would spur a likely shift in recruiting focus for the Colorado men’s basketball team from California to Texas.
It didn’t take long to bring a big-time Texas prospect into the mix.
On Monday, days after completing an official visit at CU, 6-foot-10 forward Doryan Onwuchekwa announced his commitment to the Buffs as part of the 2024 class. It was CU’s first commitment for 2024.
Onwuchekwa is rated as a three-star prospect by 247Sports.com, and ranks as the No. 13 prospect in Texas. The standout from Faith Family Academy in Dallas visited CU for the Nebraska football game alongside fellow 2024 prospects Trent Perry, a combo guard out of the Los Angeles area, and Sebastian Rancik, a 6-foot-9 native of Slovakia playing prep basketball in southern California.
That trio got airtime during the football broadcast on Fox alongside NBA Buffs Derrick White and Spencer Dinwiddie.
Onwuchekwa told On 3 sports: “I chose Colorado because I felt Coach (Tad) Boyle and the rest of the coaching staff can bring the best out of me.”
During the offseason, the Buffs already added one Texas native in TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin Jr. On July 28, a day after CU announced its pending move to the Big 12, Boyle told BuffZone:
“I think it brings Texas back to the forefront of our recruiting. Colorado is always going to be where we’re going to recruit the most. If there’s kids in the state, this is our number one recruiting priority. But our secondary priority shifted from Texas to California once we left the Big 12. Now it will probably shift back to Texas.”
The Buffs are planning to sign at least two prospects on signing day in November to replace the expected departures of Tristan da Silva and Luke O’Brien. But Boyle over-signed last year for the first time in his 13-season tenure at CU, and the prevalence of the transfer portal could make over-signing a more common approach.
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