At 6-foot-7, Curtis Adds Physical Presence For Buffs

BOULDER – There are not a lot of 6-foot-7 individuals walking around CU's campus. And there are fewer 6-foot-7 females walking around CU's campus. But Jaimie Curtis does not mind standing above everyone else. She loves her exceptional height, and her positive mindset has her believing that the good outweighs the bad of being that tall.

"Some people would look at the negatives," Curtis said. "Yeah, I have to spend a little more money on clothes and stuff like that, and it's hard to fit into regular-sized airplanes and long car rides are hard. But I love it. I don't really notice it anymore until I see myself in pictures. I'm like, 'oh my God, I'm really tall.' I get a lot of attention for it...I try to stay humble about it because I went through some bullying when I was younger. I learned to love it."

A lot of heads turned when the Buffs signed a 6-foot-7 post player last spring. She is tied for the tallest player to ever put on a CU uniform, joining Melissa MacFarlane, who was the same height when she played one season in 2009-10.

Curtis started playing basketball as a sophomore in high school and she credits her coach Robert Ferraro for teaching her the game. She blossomed into a basketball player who was more than just a tall body—she was named defensive player of the year and second-team all-conference as a senior.

But her love for the game was not strong enough to keep her interested after high school graduation. Instead, she moved a couple of hours away from home. After moving back home and taking two years off of school and basketball, she was talked into giving it another try by Christina Day, one of her coaches at Sierra College. Day, along with Brandie Murrish (head coach) and Scott Pisick (assistant coach), helped her rediscover her passion for basketball at Sierra.

"[Day] actually came into where I worked and she remembered me from when they recruited me out of high school and she was like, 'you've got to come out [for basketball], what are you doing?' So I was like oh I'll give it a try and nothing was set in stone," Curtis said. "I wasn't for sure going to come back [and stick with it], but I ended up coming back and loving it. That was the best decision I have probably ever made.

"I owe a lot to my junior college coach because she stayed in touch with me and she never gave up on me. She always tried to get me to come out [for the team]. I think she knew that I was making some bad decisions [while being out of school] so I appreciate her a lot."

Now in Boulder and with her life on track, Curtis provides excellent depth in the post for the Buffs and a physical presence that few other teams have; she is the second-tallest player in the Pac-12.

"Her size definitely adds a different dimension that we've never had on a daily basis," head coach JR Payne said. "We've seen big players before that had that kind of size, but never daily in practice and that's great preparation for everyone. It helps guards that are penetrating and seeing that size at the rim defensively, and it gives us some different options offensively—it's a big benefit for our group."

So far this season, she has been able to provide instant rebounding and defense off the bench in the post when the team needs it. Having played in nine games so far for the 11-4 Buffs, she is averaging 2.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per game. She is also shooting 50 percent from the floor and 62.5 percent at the free throw line. Those last two stats may be surprising to people who have seen exceptionally tall basketballs player before. Curtis seems to be breaking the stereotype of tall players lacking coordination and she has a sense of humor about it.

"I don't know what changed or when it changed because I'm still pretty clumsy [in some ways]," Curtis joked, despite her obvious abilities to get up-and-down the floor and shoot the ball. "I don't like to say I haven't lost my clumsiness. But I just say, 'Jaimie don't mess up, don't fall.' I'm not really that coordinated but I try."

Having already earned her associates degree from Sierra College in criminal justice and social and behavioral science, she is on track to earn her bachelor's degree from CU in sociology. She plans on becoming a parole officer after graduation.

THIS WEEKEND'S PROMOTIONS
The Buffs will host Southern California at 6 p.m. on Friday and UCLA at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Both will be televised on Pac-12 Mountain.

Friday night against USC will be Girl and Boy Scouts night and participants will be invited on the court during player introductions prior the tipoff.

Sunday's game against the Bruins will have autographs on the concourse behind Section 4 after the game.

It is also camper weekend as all kids that attended CU basketball camps over the summer are invited back.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
USC comes into Friday's game 11-4 overall and 1-3 in the Pac-12. The Trojans breezed through non-conference play with a 10-1 record, suffering just a one-point loss to No. 19 Texas A&M. Pac-12 play, however, has gotten off to a tough start. All four of USC's conference games have been decided by 12 or fewer points, but the Trojans lost to No. 20 Cal, Stanford and No. 9 Oregon before a 65-61 win over No. 16 Oregon State on Sunday.

Four players average double figures for USC, led by 6-foot-1 senior Kristen Simon at 17.9 points and 8.3 rebounds. Aliyah Mazyck, a junior guard, is second at 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds. Sophomore guard Minyon Moore scores 15.0 points per night and dishes out a team-high 5.3 assists on average. Sadie Edwards rounds out the top scorers at 14.5 points per game.

USC is not a particularly deep team with all five starters averaging over 30 minutes and just one bench player averaging over 10 minutes. Just seven total players appeared in the OSU game, including one player who played one minute.

Mazyck tied a season high with 21 points and buried four 3-pointers against Oregon. It was Simon then who led USC to its win over Oregon State, scoring 21 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Edwards added 17 and Mazyck had 14 in that game, and the team forced 13 steals, turning over the Beavers 27 times.

UCLA is also 11-4 coming into the weekend, and 2-2 in Pac-12 play. The Bruins have played one of the toughest schedules in the nation and own wins over No. 3 Baylor, No. 16 Oregon State and No. 20 Cal, with losses to No. 1 UConn, No. 9 Oregon, Oklahoma State and Stanford.

UCLA is led by one of the best duos in the country in seniors Monique Billings and Jordin Canada. Billings is an athletic 6-foot-4 forward who averages 15.8 points and 8.8 rebounds. She shoots 50.3 percent from the floor and has 24 blocked shots this season. Canada is a 5-foot-6 guard, averaging 14.9 points, 6.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds. She also averages 3.7 steals. Kennedy Burke, a 6-foot-1 guard, is the remaining Bruin who scores in double figures at 10.5 points per game.

While facing stiffer competition in Pac-12 play, Billings and Canada have upped their scoring average in four conference games at 18.5 and 16.5 points per game, respectively. Billings has three double-doubles in the past four games, highlighted by a 22-point, 10-rebound performance vs. Oregon on Sunday.

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Players Mentioned

Jaimie Curtis