News and Notes: Thursday Afternoon Edition

Below, news and notes for Thursday...

• The Denver Post writes:

BOULDER — Colorado men's basketball coach Tad Boyle tells players they need to learn and improve during the offseason. Same goes for the coaching staff, Boyle said. That includes himself.

Boyle set aside some time before preseason drills and visited with two highly respected colleagues in the profession: former Nuggets coach George Karl and Steve Donahue, most recently coach at Boston College.

"We're going to try to institute some of the things Coach Karl and I talked about — playing fast, playing at a high pace, playing a high-possession game," Boyle said Wednesday during CU media day interviews.

Donahue is best known for guiding a traditionally downtrodden Cornell program to the Sweet 16 of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Donahue spent two weekends in Boulder talking with CU coaches, one in the spring and another in the early fall.

"I think Steve is a terrific offensive mind," Boyle said. "We're going to use some of the half-court stuff that he has brought to our team."

Colorado, 23-12 in 2013-14, opens the season Nov. 14 at home against Drexel. The Buffs will attempt to extend their string of three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament. CU returns four starters, losing junior guard Spencer Dinwiddie to the NBA's Detroit Pistons.

• Dwight Tarwater (Cornell '14) plays for Cal today.

• Per the Yale Daily News, Columbia opens its Ivy season against Cornell without Alex Rosenberg.

• Athlon previews the Ivy League and writes of Cornell:
  
  
  ...Not much is expected to change for last season's league bottom dwellars, as both already-lackluster rosters [Penn and Cornell] lost significant talent in the offseason. Cornell is in especially poor shape as one of the worst teams in the nation a season ago (2-26) with no relief in sight... [8th] CORNELL: The Big Red's fall from grace has not been pretty. The team won three straight league championships from 2008-10, but it has failed to break .500 in any season since. Last season, coach Bill Courtney's fourth, was the worst in school history, as it finished a woeful 2-26, including 1-13 in the league. Unsurprisingly, Cornell ranked second to last in all of Division I in scoring margin (-14.3), and a quick turnaround will be difficult with the departure of its best player Nolan Cressler (16.8 ppg). Devin Cherry (12.3 ppg) will likely take over as the top scoring option during his senior season, although he'll need to improve upon his accuracy from 3-point range (.250) and the free-throw line (.690). Robert Hatter (9.0 ppg) was solid as a freshman and is expected to take on a much bigger role.

•  George Mason, per In the Capital, is trying to pump up its campus for the season opener against Cornell with a game of knockout.

• City of Basketball Love previews Archbishop Wood High School and its life after Pat Smith.