Brooks: Higgins Brothers Plan Reunion

Years ago, Concetta Higgins had a dream that went something like this:

With two sons who were two years apart naturally gravitating towards basketball (saying it ran in the family is severely understating the matter), she dreamed they someday would be in college together.

This fall, they will be.

Rick Higgins, whose younger brother Cory has blossomed in two seasons for the Colorado men's team, will join the Buffaloes as a walk-on.

Rick is a 6-foot guard who played two seasons as a walk-on at Cal-Poly, the last being 2007-08 when he played in 21 games (4.8 minutes a game) and averaged 0.6 points. In 2006-07, he played in 22 games (8.5 minutes a game) and averaged 2.0 points.

He sat out last season for what he termed "a lot of reasons . . . I don't know where to start. A lot of things didn't go the direction I expected, and I just needed to almost reevaluate my priorities and get everything back straight.

"It was one of those situations where everything kind of had to go bad before it could go good. And I think in the end everything has turned out for the best, because this is definitely where I want to be."

And the biggest reason is being reunited with his younger brother, who in CU's basketball media guide lists "being able to play with my brother" as his biggest moment at Monte Vista High School in Danville, Calif.

"Cory is excited about this . . . we're probably as close as two brothers could be," Rick said. "We're polar opposites, but we rarely disagree and never get mad at each other. He's my best friend, and I know he feels the same way. The hardest thing about going to college in the first place was leaving him behind."

Rick Higgins played two seasons at Cal Poly.
Courtesy: Cal Poly Media Relations

Rick, who plans to graduate from CU with a degree in economics, left Cal-Poly classified as a junior but still is waiting to see how many credits transfer. In sitting out an NCAA-mandated transfer season, he'll be a practice player only - but the mere fact he and Cory will be reunited is reason enough for jubilation.

"Mom told me before Cory and I first went to college that she had a dream that we would be in college together," Rick said. "At first, we thought it would be that Cory would come to college with me (at Cal-Poly). I guess we had to wait a little while to see that it would be me being here.

"That thought was always in my mind; Cory and me are really close, and if the opportunity presented itself, I would be here. It did and I'm excited to be here."

Maybe the only downer in the deal is they won't be living together during the fall semester. By the time Rick's plans to come to Boulder were settled, Cory and his off-campus roommates already had signed a lease for the fall term.

"They had already picked up a fourth roommate - which I wanted to be. But we'll live on the same street," Rick said, adding he would room with junior college transfer Marcus Relphorde, a 6-7 wingman from Indian Hills Community College.

Currently, the Higgins brothers, whose father Rod is general manager of the Charlotte Bobcats, are apart. After staying at CU for May-mester, a condensed academic session that follows the spring semester, Cory returned to California before attending a basketball camp in late June run by Celtics star Paul Pierce in Boston.

"He's home now working out harder than he's ever done in his life," Rick said of his brother, whose freshman-to-sophomore season improvement yielded five top 10 finishes among last season's Big 12 Conference statistical leaders - including first in steals (2.1 a game), second in minutes played (37.5 a game) and sixth in scoring (17.7 points a game).

Rick and Cory last played together in high school during Rick's junior-senior seasons and Cory's freshman-sophomore years. They also were teammates on one AAU team while growing up.

The groundwork for this reunion was laid by Cory, who, according to Rick, approached coach Jeff Bzdelik and his staff about the possibility.

"It started off with Cory feeling them out and seeing if they would be receptive about me coming here," Rick said.

"The more positive feedback he got, the more proactive it made me want to be. It seemed like there would be a possibility, so that just fueled me because I wanted to be here so badly . . . . Cory started it and it pretty much just caught fire."

During Cory's first two years in Boulder, Rick said he visited his brother so much "it felt like I was already (enrolled) here."

Finally, he is. Dreams do come true.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU