It wasn’t the first time Tad Boyle offered this particular anecdote when describing how much college basketball has changed since he took over the Colorado men’s program in 2010.

Yet given the most recent upheaval that has impacted a sport still adjusting to an era of player revenue sharing and year-to-year free agency, the tale probably has never been more appropriate.

Back then, CU could provide pre-morning practice snacks like bagels or toast, but the morass of NCAA bylaws prevented the Buffs from offering toppings like jam or butter. This week, as Boyle discussed the latest round of seismic change in college basketball spurred by Big 12 rival Baylor adding a former NBA Draft pick in James Nnaji, the days of being worried about illicit grape jelly seemed both quaint and comical.

“I keep going back to 15 years ago, when I got the job at Colorado, there was a rule that we could provide our players bagels in the morning for practice, but we could not, by NCAA rule, provide them with butter, jelly, cream cheese, or any kind of spread for their bagel,” said Boyle whose Buffs open Big 12 play on Saturday afternoon at Arizona State (3 p.m. MT, ESPN2).

“That was a rule. We had compliance come down, kind of check out the locker room. And now we’re paying guys millions of dollars a year, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.”

College coaches across the country have chimed in on Baylor’s addition of Nnaji with most of them, like Boyle, expressing frustration about the lack of NCAA leadership and apparent re-writing of rules on the fly. Nnaji was picked at the top of the second round of the 2023 draft but never signed an NBA contract, spending the past few seasons playing overseas.

“The rules that we currently operate in, we have free agency every year and no salary cap. And there’s no other pro league that I know of in the world that has that,” Boyle said. “We’ve got to have rules, and it can’t be well, this judge says we don’t agree with the rule so we’re going to sue the NCAA. And that’s where we’re at. We’re there with all this stuff. I’ve always operated in my life that I try to do the right thing. Have I made mistakes? Absolutely. But I don’t live my life, or make decision, with the fear of being sued. I do it for the right reasons, and hopefully legitimate reasons. The NCAA, unfortunately, doesn’t have a lot of credibility with our legal system.”

Glass work

CU goes into its first Big 12 game on the heels of its first back-to-back losses of the season, and the defeats against Stanford and Northern Colorado also marked the first two times the Buffs have been outrebounded this season.

“You don’t want to be thinking negative going into the next game or the next game,” said forward Bangot Dak, who leads the Buffs with 6.8 rebounds per game. “You just want to have a positive mindset, and I feel like we’re going to have good positivity from the team.”

Rotation matters

In the immediate aftermath of the loss against Northern Colorado, Boyle mentioned possibly re-examining the setup of the Buffs’ rotation. During the week he said any changes on display at ASU would probably be less about any dramatic benchings than merely tweaking the minutes among the established rotation.

Boyle has used primarily nine-man rotation the entire season and has used the same starting lineup in every game — Dak, Barrington Hargress, Felix Kossaras, Sebastian Rancik and Elijah Malone. The bench minutes have predominantly gone to the freshman quartet of Jalin Holland, Isaiah Johnson, Alon Michaeli and Josiah Sanders.

The loss against UNC featured the first significant rotation adjustment of the season, as Johnson started the second half in place of Kossaras.

“We’ve got a nine-man rotation right now. I don’t see that changing,” Boyle said. “We’ll probably talk about that as a staff. I don’t think it’s a major thing. I don’t think it’s a major issue. Because all nine guys are going to play. It’s just a matter of how much.

“Isaiah Johnson played his tail off in the first half the other night and really helped us in many respects. And so we started him in the second half. It wasn’t anything to penalize Felix for. So if we make any changes it will be because of that. It won’t be because I’ve lost faith in somebody.”

Meet the new boss

Prior to departing to Arizona, Boyle said he had talked to new CU athletic director Fernando Lovo but, like the rest of Buff Nation, was still looking forward to meeting the new boss.

“I look forward to meeting him when he gets here and sit down with him and talk about the challenges that we have. Because we definitely have a lot of challenges as a department and certainly as a basketball program as we move in on this new era of college athletics,” Boyle said. “I’ve got my list of things to talk to him about and get his opinion on and his take. Obviously working with Rick (George) for 13 years, I had a pretty good feel for how he stood on things and his philosophy. I’ve got to get the same kind of feel for Fernando and how he wants to approach things and what he expects of this program.”

Notable

Colorado began Saturday at No. 86 at KenPom.com and No. 83 in the NET rankings. ASU was No. 79 at KenPom and No. 78 in the NET. … CU’s chances for a road win on Saturday will be bolstered by a return to form by starters Rancik and Dak. The duo struggled from the floor during the Buffs’ two consecutive defeats, with Rancik going 8-for-24 in the defeats against Stanford and Northern Colorado while Dak went 8-for-20. … ASU point guard Moe Odum, who formerly played at Pacific and Pepperdine, enters Saturday’s game with 599 career assists. That ranks third among all active Division I players. … Dave Pasch and Sean Farnham will handle the broadcast on ESPN2.