The completion of the NCAA outdoor track and field championships last week completed the final chapter of Colorado’s 2023-24 athletics calendar.
And what a school year it was.
Colorado erupted into the national spotlight thanks to the arrival of Deion Sanders and a winter slate for the ages, with both basketball teams advancing to the NCAA Tournaments in tandem for the first time since 2013 while the ski program claimed its first national championship since 2015.
In less than two months, preseason workouts begin for the Big 12 Conference return campaign of 2024-25. Here’s our annual look at the best of the best from the Buffs during the final run through the Pac-12.
Story of the year: The Prime era begins.
No recap of the 2023-24 athletics calendar would be complete without acknowledging how impactful the arrival of Deion Sanders was to CU.
Echoing the swagger of their leader, the Buffs shocked the nation with their opening win on the road against 2022 national runner-up TCU. The Buffs of September were fun to watch, scoring points in bunches behind big-armed quarterback Shedeur Sanders and the unique two-way talents of cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter, whose critical red zone interception at TCU was the sort of play that will have him playing on Sundays.
A Colorado football program in the doldrums for the better part of two decades suddenly basked in the national spotlight. ESPN’s GameDay and FOX’s Big Noon telecasts set up shop in Boulder. The Buffs did their part, dispatching rival Nebraska and showing the gumption to rally late in a back yard brawl against Colorado State.
The momentum didn’t last. Hunter got injured. Shedeur Sanders was gradually beaten down behind a porous offensive line. CU lost eight of its final nine games, including the last six in a row. Yet turning what arguably was the worst power conference team in the nation in 2022 into the darlings of college football, however briefly, is a feat unlikely to be repeated any time soon.
Men’s athlete of the year: KJ Simpson
Simpson was a constant during a season filled with injury issues for the Colorado men’s basketball team, and he turned in a season for the ages.
Simpson averaged 19.7 points, ranking second in the Pac-12 and second among all CU players in 14 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle. Simpson also averaged 5.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists, with his 181 total assists ranking third among CU’s all-time single-season leaders. Simpson set team records for minutes (1,298) and free throw percentage (.876), and his .434 3-point percentage ranks fourth all-time.
Simpson scored 22 points in the season opener and remained consistent while being the only Buffs player to start all 37 games. Simpson scored at least 20 points in 21 games, reaching the 30-point mark three times. A first team All-Pac-12 selection, Simpson averaged 19.8 points in CU’s six games in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments, and he authored one of the program’s all-time buzzer-beaters when his dramatic baseline jumper rattled home in the waning seconds of a wild 102-100 win against Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Honorable mention: Magnus Boee (skiing), Shedeur Sanders (football), Filip Wahlqvist (skiing).
Female athlete of the year: Magdalena Luczak
After taking the 2023 collegiate season off, Luczak returned to sweep the two alpine titles (slalom and giant slalom) at the national championship. Nationally, Luczak became the ninth women’s alpine skier to win both titles, and she became the eighth women’s alpine skier to win at least three career individual national championships.
Luczak is one of 10 skiers in program history to win three titles, and joined Lucie Zikova as the only women’s alpine skiers in that club. Luczak’s win in the slalom was CU’s first since Zikova won the title in 2008. Luczak earned the third first team All-American honor of her career.
Honorable mention: Abbey Glynn (track); Bailey Hertenstein (track); Shyra James (women’s soccer), Madeline Pisani (women’s lacrosse); Jaylyn Sherrod (women’s basketball).
Coach of the year: Jana Weinberger
After serving as the interim head coach in 2023, Weinberger joined Tim Hinderman and Bill Marolt as former CU skiers who won national championships in their first season as the Buffs’ head coach. The Buffs authored a huge final-day comeback to win their first title since 2015. Weinberger is the second person to win a title at CU as an athlete and a coach and she is the first female head coach at CU to win a national title in any sport.
Honorable mention: Tad Boyle (men’s basketball); JR Payne (women’s basketball); Danny Sanchez (women’s soccer); Deion Sanders (football).
Game of the year: CU MBB 102, Florida 100 (First round NCAA Tournament)
Admittedly a very tough call with the season-opening football win at TCU. But given the stage of the NCAA Tournament, combined with football’s 4-8 finish and the reality that TCU wasn’t great, the Buffs’ victorious first-round track meet in Indianapolis gets the nod.
Two days after gutting out a 60-53 win against Boise State in the First Four round in Dayton, the Buffs took a commanding 13-point lead with 5 minutes, 23 seconds remaining before surviving a wild Florida rally. A long 3-pointer from Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. tied it at 100-100 with 9 seconds remaining before Simpson converted his winning baseline jumper.
All five CU starters scored at least 12 points and the Buffs tied a team tournament record with 27 assists in a game that featured 13 lead changes and seven tied scores, five of them in the second half.
Honorable mention: CU football 45, No. 17 TCU 42 (Sept. 2, 2023); CU volleyball 3, Colorado State 2 (Sept. 15, 2023); CU football 43, Colorado State 35 (OT; Sept. 16, 2023); No. 20 CU WBB 92, No. 1 LSU 78 (Nov. 6, 2023); CU MBB 92, USC 89 (2OT; Feb. 17, 2024).
Thanks for everything award: Jaylyn Sherrod
Our annual nod to a four or five-year departing senior who has displayed leadership in their sport and across campus. When Sherrod arrived in Boulder the women’s basketball program still was trying to claw its way back to respectability. Sherrod battled through the lean years to become the sparkplug for a team that reached consecutive Sweet 16s, becoming a fiery leader on the floor and an engaging face of the program off the floor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in three years and used her extra season of eligibility to work on a second master’s degree.
Honorable mention: Tristan da Silva (men’s basketball), Amaya Gonzalez (women’s soccer).
