Colorado University Athletics
Men's Basketball Opens Regular Season Friday Night at Home
BOULDER ? After five exhibition games, two countries, two time zones, the University of Colorado men’s basketball season finally tips-off Friday, Nov. 18 at 8:30 p.m. against the University of North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks. It’s one of two games that evening at the Coors Events Center as the CU women also begin the regular season taking on Cal State-Fullerton at 6 p.m.
The CU men have started preparations for the 2005-06 season earlier than most schools traveling to Vancouver back in September playing three Canadian universities during exhibition play. During the last two weeks the Buffaloes have played a pair of exhibition games at home to close out the exhibition season 5-0.
Friday night’s home opener features a red-hot 3-0 UNCW team from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). The Seahawks return three starters from its 19-10 team that fell in their conference tournament semis and have built momentum right away entering the 2005-06 season having defeated Butler (75-59), Wyoming (62-59), and Northwestern (56-48) at the eight-team Black Coaches Association (BCA) Tournament in Laramie, Wyoming.
CU returns a nation’s best 10 seniors, including eight scholarship seniors from its 14-16 team a year ago and are led by sophomore Richard Roby, a 16.0 points per game a year ago.
THE GAME: Tonight Colorado brings a perfect 9-0 record in season openers under head coach Ricardo Patton (7-0 in Boulder, 1-0 on the road (Nov. 16, 2000 at Alaska-Fairbanks) and 1-0 neutral courts (Nov. 24, 1996, at Hilo, Hawai’i over Drake). UNC Wilmington enters the season with a 3-0 record having played all three at the eight-team Black Coaches Association (BCA) Tournament in Laramie, Wyoming.
LAST GAME: The Buffaloes wrapped up the exhibition season with a 5-0 record defeating Regis University, 78-51 last Saturday. Chris Copeland scored a team-high 14 points (seven rebounds), followed by Jayson Obazuaye with 12 points. Dominique Coleman (eight points) ran the point with five assists and four steals. CU also defeated four Canadian schools out scoring its northern neighbors by an 87.5-60.2 margin.
ABOUT THE Seahawks: UNCW represents the Colonial Athletic Association and return three starters from its 19-10 team. This season the Seahawks are 3-0 having defeated Butler (75-59), Wyoming (62-59), and Northwestern (56-48).
AGAINST UNCW: This is the first-ever meeting between the two schools and CU’s fifth game against the CAA. The Buffaloes are 1-1 against George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth, and last played a CAA school in Nov. 28, 1999 falling at Virginia Commonwealth in overtime.
UP NEXT: CU takes a five-game winning streak into Fort Collins to play Colorado State, Monday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m. on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain (FSN RM). The Buffs five-game winning streak ties the most wins over the Rams consecutively in 26 years, since winning five straight from 1979-1983. Two of the five victories in the current streak are wins at CSU by an average margin of 5.6 points, at home it’s 16.6 over three games. CU is 34-24 all-time at Fort Collins since 1907, while Coach Patton teams are 7-3 with losses coming in 1999-2000 (79-57), 1998-99 NIT (86-76), and 1997-98 (91-68) - all at Moby Arena.
COMING SOON: CU is one of four teams to play at the Pepsi Center on Saturday, Nov. 26. CU will play 2004-05 NCAA Tournament participant Saint Mary’s from the West Coast Conference. The first game will be Denver/Colorado State at 6 p.m. Both games will be seen on FSN RM.
This and That Tidbits: CU has 10 seniors this season, the most of any school nationally ... Eight seniors are scholarship student-athletes ... The CU men resemble what a box of Total cereal looks like, they return 100% of their scoring, 100% rebounding, 100% blocked shots, 100% of everything from a year ago ... The men look to break their 2004-05 school record of 223 3-pointers ... Richard Roby scored 480 points during his freshman season, the most of any frosh since Chauncey Billups (465) ... Julius Ashby is ineligible for the fall 2005 semester, he could return Dec. 31 or Jan. 3 ... Seniors Chris Copeland, Glean Eddy, Antoine McGee, and Jayson Obazuaye close out their final year in 2005-06. It’s also the first senior class under Head Coach Ricardo Patton that four players will have played their freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years at CU ... Eddy ranks 50th all-time on the CU rebounding list (329) ... McGee (172) and Marcus Hall (171) are 26th and 28th, respectively on the school’s assists list ... Four-year walk-on Billy Boidock (a mechanical engineering major with an influence in alternative energy and energy management) is taking 19 credit hours during the fall semester ... Patton enters his 10th season with the Buffaloes and ranks second all-time on the school’s all-time victories list with 157. He is joined this year by third-year assistant coach Paul Graham (North Texas State ’74) and first year coaches, John Anderson (Stillman College ’80) and Mike Frink (Colorado ’67) ... Frink, who played basketball at CU from 1963-65, is the only former player to be named as an assistant coach in the school’s 104-year history ... Director of Basketball Operations Will Smith is in his second year with the Buffs, was Patton’s first-ever recruit (1996-2000) ... Smith and former CU Buffs player Bob Bauers (1965-67) are tied at No. 52 on the school’s all-time scoring list with 721 points. What makes this ironic, Bauers was Smith’s scholarship donor when Smith played.
“LS” INITIALS: If you notice the “LS” initials on each of the CU player uniforms that’s in memory of senior walk-on Scott Senger’s mother, Linda, who died of cancer this past July. Scott played at nearby Monarch High School where set the school record for 3-pointers made in a season and most scored.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Believe it or not, there’s only been one other game on Nov. 18 in the history of CU hoops. Back in 2000, CU lost against Austin Peay, 91-86 in game played at Alaska-Fairbanks.
BUFFS IN EXHIBITION: The Buffaloes ended the exhibition season having won their last 17 straight, including the three games in Canada played back in September. Overall they are 22-1 (.957) under Coach Patton with their lone setback occurring No. 8, 1998 to the California All-Stars, 91-89. In its history, CU is 42-6 (.875) during the exhibition season.
BUFFS PICKED 9TH: The Big 12 coaches are predicting the Buffs will be a ninth place team in 2005-06. Last season the conference coaches predicted a 10th place finish and were almost correct as CU finished 11th.
In its conference history, CU has finished in second place (once), fourth (one), fifth (once), seventh (once), ninth (three times) and 10th (once). Below is the history of the Big 12 coaches’ predictions and the Buffs actual finish:
1996-97: No Poll done this season (CU finished 2nd)
1997-98: 9th (CU finished 9th)
1998-99: 10th (CU finished 8th)
1999-00: 8th (CU finished 7th)
2000-01: 7th (CU finished 9th)
2001-02: 7th (CU finished 9th)
2002-03: 9th (CU finished t5th)
2003-04: 6th (CU finished 4th)
2004-05: 10th (CU was 11th)
2005-06: 9th (CU ??)
2005-06 Big 12 Coaches Predictions
1. Texas (10) 120
2. Oklahoma (2) 112
3. Kansas 89
4. Oklahoma State 84
5. Texas Tech 80
6. Iowa State 70
7. Texas A&M 68
8. Missouri 48
9. Colorado 43
10. Nebraska 40
11. Kansas State 25
12. Baylor 13
tough non-conference? Do you think CU has an easy non-conference schedule this year, or perhaps it’s difficult? In fact, CU ranks smack dab in the middle based on their opponents record last season. Remember, Baylor is not playing a non-conference schedule this season due to NCAA infractions. Texas A&M has the easiest, followed by Nebraska and so on ...
Big 12 Conference non-conference schedule
1) Texas A&M 0.417
2) Nebraska 0.433
3) Kansas State 0.456
4) Texas Tech 0.504
5) Texas 0.514
6) Colorado 0.523
7) Iowa State 0.534
8) Oklahoma 0.566
9) Kansas 0.574
10) Oklahoma State 0.581
11) Missouri 0.599
BUFFS ON TV: CU’s on the tube 16 times this season with seven of those games in Boulder. The first two games of the season will be broadcast on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, Monday, Nov. 21 at Colorado State (8 p.m.), and at Pepsi Center versus Saint Mary’s in the second game of the Colorado Classic featuring Denver and Colorado State.