Watch CBS News

8 Things Overheard In Tad Boyle's Golf Cart

ERIE, Colo. (CBS4) - In this weekend's episode of The 19th Hole you'll see some monster drives by the coach of the CU Buffaloes men's basketball team.

Tad Boyle makes those shots at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie with partner Vic Lombardi in an encore presentation of the CBS4 Sports show. (Watch it on Saturday after the CBS PGA Tour broadcast of the third round of the The Greenbrier Classic.)

Tad Boyle
Tad Boyle (credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

During his conversations with Lombardi in the golf cart, Boyle shared some of his golf stories and also had plenty to say about his experience as an NCAA coach.

He's hit two aces on the links.
Some golfers can spend a lifetime chasing the elusive hole-in-one, but for Boyle the chase was over early on. "One (ace) was when I was playing with my brother up in Estes Park. I didn't see it go in. It was a short par 3. The other one was with three guys I'd never met before, I just went out on a Sunday. I was in my 20s. And it was just an ugly shot. I sculled a 6 iron and it just rolled in the hole. It was legit -- I saw it go in. It's luck."

There have been only eight CU men's basketball coaches who have lasted longer on the bench than Boyle.
Boyle said it's hard to believe that it's already been five seasons as head coach at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Through that time, Boyle has amassed an impressive 108-68 record. Lombardi asked him about what it was like to leave his program at the University of Northern Colorado to take the job. "That was the hardest team meeting I've ever had in my life," Boyle said.

He got into the coaching business "through the back door."
Boyle was working as a stock broker in the Denver metro area in his late 20s when he was offered an opportunity to be an assistant coach at the University of Oregon. "Back then the third assistant on your coaching staff made $16,000 a year and I was a stock broker and I was making a little bit more than that," he laughed. "But I got the job by default because something like four other guys turned it down. Nobody wanted to work for those kinds of wages." He says at the time he felt he didn't want to be in his 50s "saying what if." He says he appreciates the way coach Jerry Green took him under his wing at the time. "You do that when you're 30 and you don't know where it's going to take you. I left Boulder to go to the University of Oregon and it took about 16 years to get back."

The 19th Hole
CU Buffaloes Head Basketball Coach Tad Boyle golfed with CBS4's Vic Lombardi in an episode of the CBS4 Sports show The 19th Hole. (credit: CBS)

He's a big fan of CU playing other nearby schools, regardless of what conference they're in.
"You could say we have very little to gain from playing Northern Colorado, Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, but they're good games for the state. They're good games for basketball in this part of the country. ... We need to get DU. That's really the only team we haven't played, but we'll get them on the schedule at some point, too."

Winning the NCAA Tournament is a very difficult thing.
"You've got to play six really good games in a row," said Boyle, who was an assistant coach at Wichita State when the team made it to the Sweet 16 in 2006. That was the deepest in the Big Dance a team he's coached has ever made it.

He's not hesitant to reference how much power the NBA holds over college basketall programs.
"The NBA makes the rules and we play by them. That's the bottom line."

He'd love to see more star college basketball players staying in school and getting their degrees.
"I worry about the kids that decide they want to go pro and then they don't make it in the league. Education is the great equalizer in our society. I think if you've got an education, if you've got a college degree, it puts you so far ahead of the game. And if these kids don't get it, they'd better make it in basketball. At some point, it doesn't matter who you are, the ball's going to stop bouncing. It's usually in your mid-30s. ... Half you're life is gone and you've got to figure out what you're going to do. So I think college can really help in that regard. When kids have options, it's good."

RELATED: Colorado High Schoolers Drafted By MLB Teams Face Big Temptation

Boyle would like to see the NBA adopt a similar system to the MLB system.
"I love the baseball model. If a kid wants to go pro out of high school I think he should have every opportunity to do that. ... Go pro or if you're going to go to college, you're there for (at least) three years. You make your decision then and then you live by it. There are still some really good baseball players playing in the major leagues who went to college."

See episodes of The 19th Hole on a special section of CBSDenver.com.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.