BOULDER — If nothing else, the Colorado men’s basketball team probably would win a Big 12 title in H-O-R-S-E this year.
“We’d be tough to beat,” 6-foot-9 sophomore Casey Crawford said Thursday during CU’s media day.
Short-term expectations are low for Jeff Bzdelik’s second Colorado team. It’s younger than his first, with five freshmen and only one senior (Jermyl Jackson-Wilson) and one junior (Dwight Thorne) on scholarship. Big 12 coaches picked the Buffaloes to finish last. Bzdelik, though, is optimistic about the future. With new offices, a remodeled locker room, a new basketball floor and weight machines ready to be installed in another renovated room at the Coors Events Center, recruiting and spirits are looking up.
Bzdelik also has an eye on the lengthened 3-point line. For the men’s game, the arc has been moved back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches. The women’s will remain at 19-9, so most college floors will have two 3-point lines.
“One of my goals in recruiting,” Bzdelik said, “is to put together the best-shooting team in the country.”
Crawford won’t have to look down to see which line is which. Even the NBA’s 3-point arc, 23-9 at its apex, would not faze the former Kansas prep player of the year who sat out last season at CU after transferring from Wake Forest.
Austin Dufault, a 6-9 freshman, felt comfortable shooting jumpers from beyond the lines painted for volleyball on his court in Killdeer, N.D.
“But I don’t think I have Casey’s range,” he added.
CU’s new point guard, Aussie freshman Nate Tomlinson, also can drill it from deep.
“That’s how we’re taught in Australia,” he said. So can 6-9 Trey Eckloff from Cherry Creek High and returnees Cory Higgins and Levi Knutson.
The buzz about the CU women’s program focuses around the addition of two guards with feisty spirits: Alyssa Fressle, a 5-10 freshman from Highlands Ranch and 5-8 Kelly Jo Mullaney, a sophomore transfer from Colorado State.
Fressle, a fourth-team Parade All-America selection last year, has said that she would play football if women were allowed.
“Alyssa can’t stand to lose — even in pickup games,” sophomore Brittany Spears said.
Mullaney averaged a team-best 14.5 points for CSU in 2006-07.
“Nobody could guard her in practice last year,” CU senior center Kara Richards said Thursday.
CU may put four guards on the floor at times, Buffs coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. “The best teams in the Big 12 are the ones with the best guards,” she said.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
