BOULDER, Colo. — How do you replace a legend?
"Look, there's only one Evan Battey. I'm not going to expect any of these guys to be Evan Battey. He's one in a million -- actually, he's one of a kind," CU men's basketball head coach Tad Boyle said. "Those guys were every day guys and that's what we need, we need some guys to step up and be every day guys."
Boyle will be without Battey for the first of his last five seasons, as he begins his 13th season as the head coach of the Buffs. He's asking a lot of his underclassmen and transfer players, but many of the returners are taking it upon themselves to join together to be all of the pieces that Evan left behind.
"It's important for us to all step up, not just one person can do it," sophomore guard KJ Simpson said. "That's what made Ev special, he could do it by himself, but we may have someone on the team and I'm trying to fill that role, but for now, we just need everybody as a whole. If everyone sees the former guys leading and being more vocal and helping, it just makes the team better."
The men's team is looking to continue off of the momentum they built in the last portion of the season, finishing fourth in the Pac-12, but falling short of an NCAA bid.
For the women, the theme was also unfinished business. The team clinched the school's first NCAA tournament bid in nine years, but surely that wasn't enough.
"It was disappointing in a lot of ways," junior guard Frida Formann said. "It's that weird feeling where you feel super accomplished, but there was more to be done. I think we've all taken that feeling with us."
The team has taken the feeling with them, as well as the learning experience of what it takes to win at the next level and never take a first-round opponent for granted.
"Just knowing what it takes and having that experience to know what it takes to get to the next round is something that I've really embraced and put on my shoulders in a sense to say, you got there, you didn't get the outcome that you wanted, so what are you going to do differently next time?" senior point guard Jaylyn Sherrod said.
Sherrod entered the gym with a renewed swagger that wasn't seen at the end of the last season, despite playing her best game in the NCAA first round. That swagger, she said, came from the knowledge that they deserved to be there and were fully prepared to win each game.
It's a confidence that head coach JR Payne said she had never experienced in her team prior to last season.
"Our team fully expected to win every single game that we played," Payne said. "It wasn't a fluke that we beat Oregon. It wasn't a fluke that we beat Oregon State. It wasn't a fluke that we swept the LA's. We believed that we were going to beat those teams and I think last year was the first time I could honestly say that."
It's that confidence that is carrying this women's team proudly into its next campaign, and on the other court, it's a brashness that will lead the youthful men's team boldly into the great unknown.