Men's Hoops Faces Tough Task At No. 19 Texas

BOULDER ? The University of Colorado men’s basketball team looks to make it two victories in row taking on the No. 19/19 Texas Longhorns, Saturday, Jan. 19, in their third Big 12 Conference game at the Frank Erwin Center on the campus of the University of Texas.

Game time is 6 p.m. (mountain) and will be televised by Altitude Sports & Entertainment ALT 2 (Comcast Cable). The game will also be heard on 760-AM, in addition to Sirius Satellite Radio 140.

The Buffaloes (9-7, 1-1 Big 12) are coming off an exciting 55-51 home triumph over Nebraska last Wednesday, while the Longhorns (13-3, 0-1) look to rebound after falling at Missouri.

CU returns home for a two-game homestand next week with Kansas State on Wednesday, Jan. 23 and Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 26. K-State will begin at 7 p.m. and Mizzou at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

Complete notes with probable starting lineups and statistics located in PDF form below.

FOR STARTERS (team): CU has won nine games this season surpassing last year’s total of seven. They are shooting .498 from the field and averaging 68.6 ppg. in nine victories and allowing 52.7 ppg. ? CU is 5-1 when shooting over 50 percent from the field ? After 16 games, CU starters are out-scoring the opponent starters by an average of 52.3-to-43.2 margin; the opponent bench is out-scoring CU by an average of 18.1-to-11.8 ? The Buffs have lost 30-straight nationally ranked games away from Boulder, including 23 on the road, seven on neutral courts. Their last road win came at No. 20 Texas Tech, 80-78, Jan. 11, 1997 ? Last win over ranked top-10 opponent at home: No. 3/3 Texas, Feb. 4, 2003 (93-80); last win over a top-10 opponent on the road: never ? CU committed a season-low 10 turnovers at Texas A&M and Nebraska.

FOR STARTERS (individual): Richard Roby is 15 points away from reaching fourth place on CU’s all-time scoring list (1715) ? Roby is averaging 20.8 points, 6.5 rpg. with a double-double and a 30-point scoring effort against the Longhorns ? Marcus Hall has led in assists four straight games (6.3 apg.) ? Cory Higgins has led CU in scoring two games in a row (14 ppg.) ? Hall, Higgins and Roby have started every game (16) ? CU is 7-1 when Roby performs a double-double. He has three this season, the most of any season for him.

BUFFALO GOLD: For the first time since the 2000-01 season, CU wore gold uniforms in their conference home opener against Nebraska. The last time CU wore gold was an 81-71 home win versus Oklahoma State (Jan. 27, 2001). During the 1999-2000 season, CU also wore gold in a 69-64 loss at Nebraska on Feb. 26.

CU v. texas: The Longhorns lead the all-time series 10-8 and have won the last two in the series. CU has lost four straight in Austin and last won there Feb. 28, 1998. Overall, the Buffaloes are 2-5 in Texas since the series began in 1967.

LAST GAME REVIEW: Cory Higgins scored a team-high 13 points and Richard Roby tallied his eighth career double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) leading CU to a 55-51 home win over Nebraska, Tuesday. Xavier Silas nearly recorded his first double-double scoring eight points and grabbing nine rebounds, while Marcus King-Stockton started his second straight game for the Buffs, tallied a career-high three steals. It was the lowest scoring game between these two schools in nearly 28 years (Jan. 19, 1980).

ABOUT TEXAS: Saturday is Texas’ Big 12 Conference opener and bring a perfect 9-0 mark under head coach Rick Barnes since 1999. The Longhorns lost at Missouri to open conference play (97-84) back on Jan. 12. Texas is 9-1 at home this season with their only setback to Wisconsin, 67-66. UT is one of three schools in the Big 12 nationally ranked.

COACHING REUNION: CU’s Jeff Bzdelik and UT’s Rick Barnes will oppose each other for the first time today on opposite benches. Back-in-the-day, 1978-80, both men were on the same coaching staff at Davidson College (N.C.) as assistants under head coach Eddie Biedenbach.

1,000 POINTS: Marcus Hall is 68 points away from becoming the 25th player in school history to score 1,000 points in his career. Hall has 932 points entering tonight’s game and is in 28th place overall.

TEAM LEADERS: CU’s leading scorers are Richard Roby (16.2 ppg.) and Marcus Hall (12.6 ppg.); leader on the glass is Roby (6.1 rpg.) and Jermyl Jackson-Wilson (4.7 rpg.); Hall tops the team in assists (4.1 apg.), steals (2.1 spg.) and 25 3-pointers.

SEASONED VETERAN?: With 16 starts already under his belt, freshman Cory Higgins is making the most of his initial season with 31.1 minutes per game. Higgins recorded his seventh and eighth double-digit scoring game, respectively with a team-best 13 points against Nebraska and 15 points at Texas A&M. He has led the team in scoring two straight games. Higgins also led CU in rebounding once and has led the team in assists, three times.

HALL or ROBY: Through 16 games, Richard Roby and Marcus Hall have led the majority of games in scoring. Roby has led seven times, Hall six times. Cory Higgins has done it in back-to-back games with Xavier Silas (24 pts. vs. Florida A&M) performing it once. In his seven games, Roby averages 22.1 ppg., while Hall is 16.2 ppg.

MOVING UP IN HISTORY: With his season-best 27 points against Tulsa on Jan. 7, Richard Roby moved into fifth place on CU’s all-time scoring list. With 1,715 points, Roby is 12 points from passing Stevie Wise for fourth overall. Wise played 119 games and scored 1,727 points (14.5 avg.) from 1988-91.

EASY POINTS: In recent years, CU was not a very good free throw shooting team. This year, the Buffaloes are shooting .698 (fifth in the Big 12). With under two minutes to play in the game, Marcus Hall is an impressive 20-of-22 (.909) during that stretch, while the entire team is 43-of-52 (.827 percent).

CAN’T PASS THROUGH THIS HALL: Senior Marcus Hall’s eight steals against Tulsa were the most since Jose Winston had eight for the Buffs in a 67-56 win over St. Mary’s on Nov. 11, 1999. It’s the second-most steals in a game this season in Division I (Lester Hudson, Tenn.-Martin, 10). The school record for steals in a game is 10 by Jay Humphries against Milwaukee-Wisconsin on Jan. 15, 1983. Hall’s 116 career steals puts him in ninth place on the all-time list at CU (teammate Richard Roby is fifth on the all-time list with 161 career swipes).

AK-47 MEET MH-1: The stat sheet will tell you Hall didn’t even record a double-double against Tulsa, but that’s doesn’t explain how close he was to notching the first quadruple-double in NCAA Division I history. Hall shot just 2-of-14 against Tulsa, preventing him from reaching 10 points, usually the easiest stat to fill. Other than that, he was just one teammate’s missed lay up and two tipped passes out of bounds away from infamy. A lot of what if’s, but Hall is turning into the Andre Kirilenko of college basketball with his ability to fill a stat sheet in several categories. His final line: 4 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 8 steals.

IRON MAN: Marcus Hall ended his streak of 161 consecutive minutes played. From Nov. 29-Dec. 22, Hall played 196 out of 200 possible minutes spanning five games (40 each at Air Force, Stanford, at Wyoming, New Orleans, at Colorado State). For the season, Hall averages a conference best 36.2 minutes a game.

REDSHIRT YEAR: Sophomore forward Jeremy Williams will be redshirted this season and will return next year with three full years of eligibility. He was academically ineligible for the fall semester. Williams averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rpg. last season with 18 starts.

3-Point Streak: Dating back to the 2001-02 season, CU has made a 3-pointer in 179 consecutive games. Last time they failed to make at least one trey was Jan. 16, 2002 against Iowa State in Boulder. The Buffs won 63-61.

FOUR IN A ROW? - Richard Roby will be looking to become only the third player in school history to lead the team in scoring four consecutive seasons. From 2004-05 (16.0 ppg.), 2005-06 (17.0) through last year (17.3), Roby has made it three straight. Here are the others:

Donnie Boyce 1991-95 4-straight

Shawn Vandiver 1988-91 3-straight

Emmett Lewis 1975-79 4-straight

Cliff Meely *1968-71 3-straight

Pat Frink ^1964-65, ’66-68

(3 of 4 years)

* - Played only three years

^ - did not play 1965-66 season

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