Undefeated Buffs take on San Francisco in Acrisure Holiday Classic

The Colorado Buffaloes keep scoring and they keep winning. Tad Boyle’s squad is 5-0 while scoring 94.4 points per game, something we couldn’t imagine a mere three years ago. Although the competition hasn’t been the mots difficult — Eastern Washington might be the best 1-6 team in the country — there’s a lot to be excited about with these 2025-26 Buffs.

Colorado will be tested on Thanksgiving Day when they take on the San Francisco Dons in the Acrisure Holiday Classic. It’s a mid-season tournament (check), a noon tip-off (check) against a slow-paced, guard-centric opponent (check) on the road in the outskirts of California’s Palm Desert (check). That would be 4/4 on the checklist of Colorado’s early-season bug-a-boos.

This isn’t to say the Buffs will be lethargic. It doesn’t have to be like 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 … and so on. This is a young, exciting team with enough vitality to survive the 2-hour flight and 6:30 a.m. alarm clock. We’re more likely to see a McKinley Wright-style breakout than a jet-lagged loss to Southern Illinois. (Ignore that Wright had to carry the half-asleep Buffs to tight wins over Quinnipiac, Drake and Mercer.)

The bigger issue is that San Francisco is a good basketball team and easily dispatched the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday. The Dons are masters of the Princeton offense, meaning they control the pace, find openings with off-ball screens and timely cuts, and are fundamentally sound with their passing and shooting. It’s not hard to see them tearing apart CU’s defense, an inexperienced unit susceptible to breakdowns.

Colorado might be able to keep up. Barrington Hargress is starting to heat up, same as Bangot Dak. Sebastian Rancik and Isaiah Johnson are living at the free throw line. Elijah Malone might be too big for USF’s frontcourt. If everyone shows up, and the role players continue to shine — shoutout to Felix Kossaras for scoring 17 points on 7 field goal attempts last game — the Buffs have a chance.

This game between the Buffs and Dons will air on CBS Sports Network. Both teams will move on to face either Nevada or Washington, depending on who wins each matchup. That game will be played Friday (time TBD) and will air on TruTV.