Coach Tad Boyle has plenty of openings to fill after losing all five starters off a team that won a program-record 26 games, including two in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Marquette. Three of the departed Buffaloes — Cody Williams, Tristan Da Silva and KJ Simpson — were picked in the NBA draft last June. J’Vonne Hadley transferred to Louisville, while Eddie Lampkin Jr. left for Syracuse. Colorado returns Julian Hammond III, who missed the last 11 games last season due to a knee injury. He averaged 7.4 points. The Buffaloes are switching from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 this season. They're picked to finish 15th out of 16 teams in their new league, according to a preseason poll. “I think it’s put a chip on our players’ shoulders,” Boyle said. "I know it’s put a chip on my shoulder.”
The Buffaloes brought in Andrej Jakimovski, a 6-foot-8 forward from Washington State. He averaged nearly 10 points and 6 rebounds last season for a Cougars team that went 25-10 and won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Another addition is guard Trevor Baskin, who played at Colorado Mesa and was an NCAA Division II All-American and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference player of the year.
There are some big shoes to fill in replacing Williams (10th overall pick by Utah), Da Silva (18th by Orlando) and Simpson (42nd by Charlotte). They were the three leading scorers last season. Felix Kossaras could help pick up the slack. The 6-5 guard from Montreal was the 30th-ranked shooting guard in the 2024 class by 247 Sports.
Boyle returns to Allen Fieldhouse to face his alma mater Kansas on Feb. 11. Boyle played for the Jayhawks from 1981-85 and helped mentor Danny Manning, who's now on his staff. The Buffaloes also play in the Maui Invitational, kicking things off with a game against Michigan State on Nov. 25. They host rival Colorado State on Dec. 7. The opener is at home Nov. 4 vs. Eastern Washington.
Boyle has 298 wins at Colorado, the most in men's program history. ... Guard Javon Ruffin was expected to miss the 2023-24 season after knee surgery, but returned in December. He played in 18 games. ... Sophomore forwards Bangot Dak and Assane Diop should see plenty of court time. Dak lists Kevin Durant as his favorite NBA player, while Diop mentions LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Charlotte Hornets' K.J. Simpson shoots the ball during the second half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Utah Jazz forward Cody Williams, right, drives against Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall, left, during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
DENVER (AP) — A man accused of repeatedly threatening to kill the top elections officials in Colorado and Arizona as well as judges and federal law enforcement agents is expected to plead guilty in federal court on Wednesday.
Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, Colorado, has been jailed since his Aug. 23 arrest. Now he's scheduled to appear in court for a change of plea hearing after previously pleading not guilty to one count of making interstate threats. His lawyer notified the court that Brockbank wanted to change his plea. In federal court, “guilty” is the only other option.
According to a detention motion, Brockbank told investigators that he's not a “vigilante” and that he hoped his posts would simply “wake people up.”
Investigators say Brockbank began to express the view that violence against public officials was necessary in late 2021 and proceeded to make multiple threats against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now the state's governor, and the others.
Brockbank criticized the government's response to Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk convicted this year for allowing a breach of her election system inspired by false claims about election fraud in the 2020 presidential race, according to court documents. He also was upset in December 2023 after a divided Colorado Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
In one social media post in August 2022, referring to Griswold and Hobbs, Brockbank allegedly said: “Once those people start getting put to death then the rest will melt like snowflakes and turn on each other,” according to copies of the threats included in court documents. Griswold and Hobbs were not named as among those allegedly targeted by Brockbank when he was first arrested but were identified as victims in evidence unsealed in September.
The investigation was launched in August 2022 after Griswold's office notified federal authorities of posts made on Gab and Rumble, an alternative video-sharing platform that has been criticized for allowing and sometimes promoting far-right extremism, according to court documents.
Brockbank also allegedly posted in October 2021 that he could use his rifle to “put a bullet” in the head of a state judge who had overseen Brockbank's probation for his fourth conviction for driving under the influence, calling the judge a “Nazi,” prosecutors said in an Aug. 27 motion asking that Brockbank be kept behind bars while prosecuted.
Prosecutors also say Brockbank posted in July 2022 that he would shoot without warning any federal agent who showed up at his house. Prosecutors said a half dozen firearms were found in his home after his August arrest, including a loaded one near his front door, even though he can't legally possess firearms due to a felony conviction of attempted theft by receiving stolen property in Utah in 2002.
And although Brockbank was charged for threats allegedly made between September 2021 and August 2022, prosecutors say he's kept it up since then.
In December 2023, after Trump was removed from Colorado's presidential primary ballot, Brockbank allegedly told his stepfather in a text that he was adding the four judges who backed removing Trump to “my list.”
And this July, prosecutors say, Brockbank continued to threaten Griswold because her office triggered the investigation of Peters by notifying authorities about the data breach in 2021. Griswold also has been outspoken nationally on elections security and has received threats in the past over her insistence that the 2020 election was secure.
Peters was sentenced to nearly nine years behind bars this month for allowing access to the county’s election system to a man affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell — a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election. Authorities investigated separate threats made against her trial judge, Matthew Barrett. Most of the messages appear to have been strongly worded opinions but none appeared to rise to the level of a crime, Mesa County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Wendy Likes said Tuesday.
Brockbank was prosecuted by the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force, announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland to protect workers who have been subject to increasing threats since the 2020 election.
In 2022, a Nebraska man pleaded guilty to making death threats against Griswold in what officials said was the first such plea obtained by the task force.
FILE - Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, speaks prior to signing the repeal of the Civil War-era near-total abortion ban, May 2, 2024, at the Capitol in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
FILE - Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
