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George King drives to the basket in a game last season against USC. King plans to redshirt this season with the goal of playing a bigger role in the future.
Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera
George King drives to the basket in a game last season against USC. King plans to redshirt this season with the goal of playing a bigger role in the future.
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Expiring scholarships

The Colorado men’s basketball team has 13 players on scholarship. Here’s a look at when those players are projected to exhaust their eligibility:

2015: Askia Booker

2016: Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott, Eli Stalzer, Xavier Talton

2017: Tre’Shaun Fletcher, Josh Fortune, Wesley Gordon, Jaron Hopkins, Dustin Thomas

2018: Dominique Collier, George King, Tory Miller

Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle is excited about what George King can give the Buffaloes on the court.

He’s more excited to see what King can do later in his career as opposed to this year, though. Boyle announced on Wednesday that King, a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard, will redshirt this season.

“The decision to redshirt George was a mutual decision,” Boyle said. “(Players) don’t like it, but when they start thinking about it and talk about the benefits, the benefits outweigh the sacrifice.”

The CU coaching staff considered redshirting King last year, but when Chris Jenkins left the program before the season started, King was needed to add depth. He wound up playing 148 minutes over the course of 27 games, averaging 1.5 points and 1.5 rebounds.

This year, the Buffs are loaded with depth and, although King has improved quite a bit in the offseason, Boyle saw him playing only about 10 to 5 minutes per game.

Boyle said he believes King could be a starter who plays 30-plus minutes per game later in his career, so in essence, the Buffs are trading King’s limited role this year for a starting role when he’s a fifth-year senior in 2017-18.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Boyle said. “It’ll be hard on him this year, but at the end, now he’s got three years (to have a bigger role).”

Boyle said academics were a factor as well, because now King can take five years to get his degree rather than trying to cram his course load into four years.

“For certain kids who might be fighting that competition in the classroom and they’re fighting it on the basketball court, it gives them a year to kind of (exhale),” Boyle said. “George King now this year has to come to practice and try to improve every single day, get in the weight room and try to get bigger and stronger every single day, and go to the classroom and compete every single day. That’s all he has to worry about. He doesn’t have to worry about trying to beat Drexel.”

Redshirting King will also help the Buffs in the future as it brings more balance to the graduating classes. The Buffs were projected to lose six scholarship players after the 2016-17 season, but now reduce that number to five, as King’s eligibility is extended a year.

The next Mills?

Fan favorite Ben Mills is gone this year, so who takes that role? Junior Xavier Johnson had the perfect answer.

“Ben was one of a kind,” Johnson said. “No one can replace Ben. Hopefully, all of us together will become fan favorites and go out there and have fun.”

Notable

The Buffs will play at SMU in a closed scrimmage on Saturday. … CU opens the regular season on Nov. 14 at home against Drexel.

Brian Howell: howellb@dailycamera.com, twitter.com/brianhowell33