Colorado University Athletics
CU Renews Rivalry With Denver
THE GAME: The University of Colorado will host the University of Denver on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Coors Events/Conference Center.
BROADCAST: Wednesday's game will be televised by FSN Rocky Mountain. Tom Helmer will have the call with legendary CU head coach Ceal Barry providing the color commentary and Alanna Rizzo reporting from the sidelines. All Colorado women's basketball games can be heard live on KKZN AM 760. Mike Rice will handle play-by-play duties with USA Basketball's Carol Callan providing the color commentary. Live internet audio of all CU basketball games is available on BuffsRadio, a subscription service through CUBuffs.com. Please note the BuffsRadio audio and BuffsTV video are separate subscriptions.
OPENING TIP: Colorado is off to a 4-1 start, its best since 2003-04 when the Buffaloes started out 12-1 and eventually advanced to the program's last NCAA Tournament appearance.
THE BUFFALOES: Colorado will be looking for its third straight win overall and fourth straight at home to start the season. The Buffaloes will be looking to take advantage of an early season schedule that sees them play eight of their next nine at home. The lone exception is a road game at Colorado State on Friday, Dec. 11.
Colorado won its home tournament, the Omni Hotels Classic, this last weekend defeating Georgia Southern 62-50 in the first round and then Harvard 67-65 in the championship game. Brittany Spears was named tournament MVP averaging 15.5 points and nine rebounds per game while Bianca Smith and Chucky Jeffery were named to the All-Tournament team.
Spears leads the Buffaloes in scoring (19.0 ppg) and rebounding (10.4 rpg). Smith leads Colorado in 3-point shooting (15-of-36) and is second in scoring at 12.6 per contest. Colorado's depth is starting to show with six players averaging at least six points per game and six averaging at least three rebounds per contest.
ABOUT THE PIONEERS: Denver is 1-3 overall having lost two straight since registering its lone win on the season, a 68-55 home triumph over Colorado State. The Pioneers will be playing their third straight road contest and are in the middle of a six-game overall road trip. Denver is shooting fairly well as a team, hitting 47 percent from the floor, but has been losing the battle with rebounds and turnovers. The Pioneers average nearly 20 turnovers per game, giving up six more than it opponents, and is being outrebounded by 1.7 per contest.
Junior guard Britteni Rice leads Denver by averaging 15.8 points per game, hitting 46 percent from the field. Sophomore forward Kaetlyn Murdoch tops the Pioneers in rebounding at 7.3 per contest and is the team's second leading scorer at 13.3 points per game. She is also hitting 60 percent from the field over her first four games. Junior forward Brianna Culberson is averaging 11.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
SERIES RECORDS: This will be just the fifth meeting between the two schools that reside only 33 miles apart from one another, and the first in 10 years. Colorado leads the series 3-1, with Denver winning the last meeting, 71-67 in Denver on Nov. 19, 1999. The Buffaloes have won both meetings played in Boulder, a 70-58 win on Nov. 14, 1998 and a 85-50 triumph on Dec. 13, 1978.
Kathy McConnell-Miller has never faced Denver as a head coach.
CONNECTIONS: The Buffaloes welcome back former All-American and CU Athletic Hall of Fame member Shelley Sheetz to the Coors Events Center on Wednesday. Sheetz, in her second year as a DU assistant coach, is CU's all-time leader in 3-point field goals (252) and ranks second in career assists (514) and fourth in scoring (1,775). The 1995 Big Eight Conference Player of the Year, Sheetz will actually be making her second appearance on the opponent bench at the Coors Event Center. Prior to joining DU in 2008, she was an assistant at Pepperdine when the Buffaloes hosted the Waves in January 2008.
Current CU Director of Basketball of Operations Tracy Tripp and Assistant Athletic Trainer Nicole Makris both have ties to DU. Tripp, who played for Colorado from 1985-89, spent 13 seasons as a Pioneer assistant coach (1995-08) before coming back to Boulder. Makris was as an Athletic Trainer at DU from 2000-04.
SPEARS EARNS BIG 12 HONOR: Junior Brittany Spears was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Co-Player of the Week by a media voting panel for games from Nov. 16-22, the league office announced on Nov. 23.
Spears was named to the Minnesota Subway Classic All-Tournament team after averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds in two games. She scored 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds in a season-low 25 minutes in the 63-49 win over Illinois-Chicago. She then recorded her 17th career double-double and second of the season with a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds against Minnesota in the tournament final. She reached a double-double before intermission with 16 points and 10 rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. Spears hit 10-of-20 shots from the field and added four assists and four steals.
Spears earns her fifth career Big 12 weekly honor, and first as Player of the Week. She earned four Big 12 Rookie of the Week citations as a freshman in 2007-08. It's also the first Big 12 weekly honor for the Buffaloes since Alyssa Fressle gained Rookie of the Week honors in the final week of the 2008-09 season.
SPEARS' HOT START: Brittany Spears is off to a great start. Her 10.4 rebounds per game lead the Big 12 Conference and her 19 points per game rank fourth. She has double-doubles in three of five games, tying for the league lead. Spears also ranks second in both offensive (3.8) and defensive (6.6) rebounding, sixth in minutes (34.4) and eighth in blocks (1.6 bpg) and steals (2.2 spg) on the Big 12 charts.
SMITH OFF THE BENCH, SAME RESULTS: After starting the entire 2008-09 season, senior guard Bianca Smith has come off the bench for the first three games of 2009 without missing a beat. She is averaging 12.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game and is still displaying her sharp-shooting abilities. Smith leads CU and is third in the Big 12 with 15 3-pointers in her first five games and hitting 41.7 percent from downtown. She is also CU and the Big 12's top free-throw shooter making 12 of her first 13 attempts on the season (.923).
Through Nov. 30, Smith ranks third in the Big 12 in scoring for thsoe players primarily coming off the bench (starting less than half of a team's games). Here are the current leaders:
Player,
Team
PPG
Danielle Adams, Texas
A&M
20.3
Brittainey
Raven,
Texas
13.8
Bianca Smith,
Colorado
12.6
Brittany Chambers, Kansas
State
11.4
Sydney
Carter, Texas
A&M
9.0
JEFFERY'S BIG TOURNEY: Freshman Chucky Jeffery was named to the 2009 Omni Hotels Classic All-Tournament Team. Over the two games she averaged 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.5 steals and shot 61 percent (11-of-16). She had 11 points, six rebounds and a team season-high five steals in the first round win over Georgia Southern. Shot 5-of-8 from the field against the Eagles. Scored a career high 14 points against Harvard, including the decisive basket on a driving layup with five seconds remaining in the game as the Buffaloes won 67-65. Hit 6-of-9 from the field (67 percent) and recorded five rebounds, four assists and one block.
MULLANEY'S HOME COOKING: No one was looking more forward to CU's trip to Minnesota than Minneapolis native Kelly Jo Mullaney, and she responded in a big way. Against Illinois-Chicago, Mullaney came off the bench to score 13 points and record a career-high seven rebounds in the win. She also played well in the classic final against Minnesota with nine points on 3-of-4 from the field.
Mullaney has come out looking for her shot this year, especially from 3-point range. She already has nearly one-half of her total 3-point field goals from last year, making 4-of-6 (9-of-20 in 28 games in 2008-09), and overall she is shooting 52 percent while ranking fourth on the team in scoring with 7.6 points per outing.
HOUSTON WE HAVE A RETURN, DESPITE BUMPS: Junior Whitney Houston made her much anticipated return to the CU lineup against UC Irvine. Houston redshirted last year after a preseason knee injury forced her to miss the 2008-09 campaign. She finished with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting with two steals in 26 minutes. Houston hit a couple of big buckets down the stretch, including a layup which gave the Buffaloes their first lead at 54-52 with just 1:37 left in the game.
She sat out the Illinois-Chicago game due to a slight concussion sustained in the UC Irvine game, but returned against Minnesota two days later and put up nearly identical numbers, scoring 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting while dishing out three assists.
GETTING 'ER DUNN: Senior center Courtney Dunn made her first two collegiate starts at the Minnesota Subway Classic, averaging 5.0 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 50 percent in the two game set. Dunn scored seven points and had career bests with eight rebounds and three blocks in 34 minutes against Illinois-Chicago.
FRESHMAN DEBUTS: A pair of true freshmen made their collegiate debuts and made significant contributions to the Buffaloes come-back win against UC Irvine. Forward Meagan Malcolm-Peck got the starting nod and responded with six points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Guard Chucky Jeffery came off the bench and registered four points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Malcolm-Peck's start marked the fourth straight year the Buffaloes have had a freshman in the initial season starting lineup. The three others: Bianca Smith in 2006, Brittany Spears in 2007 and Alyssa Fressle in 2008.
Two additional players from CU's heralded freshman class saw court action for the first time in Minnesota. Brenna Malcolm-Peck and Melissa MacFarlane saw spot duty in the win over Illinois-Chicago, each playing five minutes. The 6-foot-7 MacFarlane was fouled literally one second into her collegiate debut, off an inbounds pass, and hit 1-of-2 from the line. MacFarlane also had three rebounds and a block against the Flames. Brenna Malcolm-Peck recorded one defensive rebound in her debut.
REBOUNDING WOWS: Colorado has enjoyed early success on the boards. The Buffaloes began the season with back-to-back 50-plus rebounding efforts, coralling 50 against UC Irvine in the season opener and improving on that mark with 52 against Illinois-Chicago.
Colorado had just one game all of 2008-09 with 50 or more rebounds, notching 51 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 2. CU's 52 rebounds against Illinois-Chicago were its most since recording 58 at Colorado State on Dec. 1, 2007.
The Buffaloes back-to-back 50-rebound effort was the teams first since stringing together three straight from Nov. 20-24, 2001 (50 vs. San Diego, 59 vs. Bowling Green, 50 vs. Houston). CU wasn't able to get a third 50-rebound game this time, grabbing just 24 against Minnesota, but it should be noted that both teams shot right at 50 percent from the field in that game, leaving rebounds at a premium (UM won the rebounding battle 32-24).
Against UC Irvine, Brittany Spears led the way with 14 while Meagan Malcolm-Peck grabbed 11 in her CU debut. It marked the first time the Buffs had two players reach double-digits in rebounds since Brittany Spears and Julie Seabrook each had 13 against Idaho State on Dec. 30, 2008. In the Illinois-Chicago game, the rebounds were well distributed. No one had double digits, but six players had four or more rebounds and all 10 that played had at least one.
Back to UC Irvine, Malcom-Peck's 11 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end, put her in some exclusive CU company. Her 11 boards are the third most in team history by a freshman in her CU debut and the most in 27 years:
No.
Player
Opponent
16 Monica
Kosenski
vs. Northern Arizona, 11/28/86
13 Kim
Jackson
vs. UTEP, 11/19/82
11 Meagan
Malcolm-Peck vs. UC Irvine
11/17/09
10 Randie
Wirt
vs. Albany, 11/17/00
10 Lisa Van
Goor
vs. Colorado Women's, 11/18/80
9
Crystal
Ford
vs. Adams State, 11/23/85
8 Jamillah
Lang
vs. Gonzaga, 11/23/90
Chucky Jeffery had seven rebounds in her debut. She is one of eight different players, a list that includes Brittany Spears (at San Francisco, 11/16/07), to reach that number in her first collegiate game.
MEMORABLE COMEBACK: Colorado's comeback from a 14-point halftime deficit to win against UC Irvine ties for the third-largest margin achieved in team history. The Buffaloes trailed the Anteaters 33-19 at the break before outscoring them 42-23 in the final 20 minutes.
Colorado came back from 19 down against the University of Washington on Dec. 21, 1982, at the Guisti Tournament in Portland, Ore.CU trailed 35-16 at halftime before winning 67-65. Colorado came back from 15 points down against Kansas State on Jan. 31, 2007, that game included a 23-0 second half run.
CU's Top Halftime
Comebacks:
Date
Opp.
Half
Final
Margin
12/21/82 Washington
(N) UW
35-16 CU
67-65
19
1/31/07 Kansas State
(H) KS 39-24
CU 66-55
15
11/15/09 UC Irvine
(H)
UCI 33-19 CU 61-56
14
12/1/83 Wyoming
(A)
UW 35-21 CU
57-56
14
12/20/03 Southern Cal
(A) SC 39-27 CU
69-67
12
2/19/00 Texas
(H)
UT 38-26 CU
79-65 12
CLIMBING THE LADDERS: Junior Brittany Spears and Senior Bianca Smith continue to make their impressions on the CU record book.
Spears, who became just the second player in team history (Lisa Van Goor) to reach 1,000 points as a sophomore, is 19th on CU's all-time scoring list with 1,097 and will move into 18th place past De Celle Thomas (1992-96) with her next two points. She is 17th in rebounds with 538, needing five to move into 16th past Mindy Henry (1989-93). Spears is also seventh in blocked shots (93) and eighth in 3-pointers made (110) and attempted (344).
Smith is fifth in career 3-point field goals made (190) and third in attempts (510). She needs eight 3-pointers to move into fourth place on CU's all-time list. Smith would need 77 total 3-pointers this year to break Shelley Sheetz's career mark of 252, but it's possible. Smith holds CU's single-season mark hitting 80 from downtown in 2007-08.
CAPTAINS NAMED: Before the season opener head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller announced that Brittany Spears, Whitney Houston and Bianca Smith were named captains for the 2009-10 season. Smith is a captain for the second straight year while Houston and Spears are first time captains. CU captains are voted on by the players.
BUFFS IN OPENERS: Colorado is now 31-5 (.861) all-time in season openers and started the season with a home game for the 24th time in 36 seasons. Colorado is an outstanding 34-2 (.944) all-time in home openers. Colorado has never lost its overall season opener when played at home (24-0).
TOUGH SCHEDULE: Colorado once again faces a tough schedule with potentially 16 games -- or 55 percent of the regular season schedule -- against 2009 NCAA or WNIT tournament teams. Six of CU's opponents are ranked in the current 2009-10 ESPN/USA Today/WBCA Coaches Preseason poll: Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Virginia and Iowa State. Six are ranked in the Associated Press poll: Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Virginia and Kansas. A host of others are receving votes in the intial preseason polls including Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Minnesota.
HOME AT THE CECC: Colorado is traditionally tough at home with a 333-106 all-time record at the Coors Events/Conference Center (.759). The Buffaloes have won 10 or more games in a season at the CECC in 20 of the previous 31 years. The Buffaloes have enjoyed five undefeated seasons (1980-83, 1992-94) at the CECC.
BUFFS ON TV: Colorado's regular season schedule features nine games that will be televised either regionally or nationally, eight of which are at home. CU opens its first of eight FSN Rocky Mountain games on Wednesday, Dec. 2, as the Buffaloes host Denver University. FSN Rocky Mountain will also televise home games against Virginia (Jan. 2), Missouri (Jan. 9), Iowa State (Jan. 16), Oklahoma State (Jan. 24), Nebraska (Jan. 30), Texas (Feb. 10) and Kansas (Feb. 16). The games against Missouri and Oklahoma State will be televised nationally on FSN as part of the network's Big 12 package. Colorado's game at Kansas State (Jan. 20) is set to air on FSN Kansas City.
Colorado was 2-5 in televised games during the 2008-09 regular season. CU has appeared on 72 regional or national telecasts over the previous eight seasons.
BUFFS SIGN THREE: Shae Kelley, Ashley Wilson and Brittany Wilson have signed National Letters of Intent to play basketball and continue their education at the University of Colorado in 2010-11, CU head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller announced Nov. 12, during the NCAA early signing period. Kelley, a 6-foot forward from Denver, is a two-time All-State honorable mention and All-Denver Prep League pick out of East High School. Kelley will be the fifth Denver Public Schools player to suit up for the Buffaloes and the first since Montbello's Nikki Weddle (1997-99). Ashley and Brittany are identical twin 5-8 guards from Long Beach, Calif. Playing for one of the most storied programs in Southern California, the Wilson twins have won three consecutive CIF Division I state titles with nationally-ranked Long Beach Poly.
SMITH GAINS FULL SEASON: Senior guard Bianca Smith was formally released from the National Letter of Intent she originally signed at the University of Tulsa earlier this summer, allowing her to gain back the semester of eligibility she would have otherwise had to surrender this season. Smith is now eligible to play the entire 2009-10 season for the Buffaloes. Smith, a native of Missouri City, Texas, had signed an NLI in November 2004 with Tulsa, who at the time was coached by current CU head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller. When McConnell-Miller took over the Colorado program in April 2005, Smith decided to follow her to Boulder.
She never enrolled at Tulsa, but was faced with sitting out two full seasons, one for not honoring her NLI commitment to Tulsa and a second for transferring to another NCAA Division I school. Smith was able to use her redshirt year to fulfill the NCAA transfer obligation, sitting out the 2005-06 season. She successfully petitioned the NLI Appeals Committee in 2005 to gain one semester back, but was still faced with losing one semester under the NLI commitment.
In the spring of 2009 then-CU-Boulder Chancellor Bud Peterson contacted Tulsa President, Dr. Steadman Upham, on behalf of Smith and the University of Colorado to ask for Smith's full release. Thanks to cooperation from both universities and athletic departments, Smith was released and rewarded a full final season.
BUFFS PICKED 11TH...AGAIN: For the fourth straight season Colorado was picked to finish 11th in the annaul Big 12 Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.
In one of the closest votes at the top in recent memory, Baylor was picked to win the 2010 title with five first place votes and 109 total points, edging out Texas and Kansas who tied for second with 106 points (3 first place votes each). Texas A&M was picked fourth with 87 votes and picked up the final first place vote. Defending champion Oklahoma was fifth (86), followed by Nebraska (80), Iowa State (59), Kansas State (44), Oklahoma State (41), Texas Tech (38), Colorado (22) and Missouri (15).
The Buffaloes have fared better than the Big 12 coaches preseason prediction three of four seasons under Kathy McConnell-Miller:
Season
Preseason
Actual
2009-10
11th
??
2008-09
11th
12th
2007-08
11th
9th
2006-07
11th
t-7th
2005-06
12th
11th