BOULDER — After leading the Buffs to an upset of a nationally ranked team for the first time in nearly three years, CU stars Cory Higgins and Alec Burks took a slow, well-earned victory lap, exchanging high- fives with students as the scoreboard beamed the big news: Colorado 78, Baylor 71.
And coach Jeff Bzdelik allowed himself what looked suspiciously like a smile. He works one of the most impossible basketball jobs in the country.
But this felt like bona fide progress.
More important, it felt like genuine fun.
The Buffaloes needed this win to keep the faith.
“Doubt can creep in. There’s no question. I mean, we’re all human,” Bzdelik said Tuesday. “It takes a lot of will to not let people challenge your confidence. And inside of you, at some point you need to get rewarded.”
Bzdelik radiated so much intensity that when a charging foul went against CU and wiped out a basket during the first half, the coach went all Incredible Hulk on the sideline, nearly ripping his sport coat off in protest.
“In every race, if you talk to track and field athletes, there’s that . . . and I’ve got to be careful how I say this . . . there’s that give a you-know-what factor. That give-a-poopy factor,” said Bzdelik, who challenged the Buffaloes during a timeout at crunch time: “Whose will is greater?”
The best player on the floor was Burks, whose 16 points and six rebounds did not tell the story of the statement of physical superiority this 6-foot-6 CU freshman guard made against a tall, rugged Baylor team.
Legitimate NBA talent is not frequently seen making itself at home in college gyms along the Front Range. Burks, however, can do more than dream of someday playing against LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
“I don’t believe in pressure,” Burks said.
And how often do you hear a CU basketball player speak with such confidence?
The CU student body should stand up and give itself an ovation. Although the crowd count in the arena was a modest 6,957, the high percentage of rowdies in attendance distracted Baylor free-throw shooters and demanded defensive hustle from the Buffs in a manner seldom seen around here since Chauncey Billups wore a uniform for the Buffaloes.
“I don’t think we’re mild any more,” Higgins said. “We have a whole different swagger than in years past.”
Bzdelik is a grinder. He refuses to rest easy in defeat. So with 48 losses on his CU resume in only his third season, this job could easily turn him into an insomniac.
But seeing the labor of CU players rewarded gave the coach such satisfaction that Bzdelik could crack a joke about erratic foul shooting that made it difficult for the Buffs to put away Baylor down the stretch.
“Ever since we were the No. 1-ranked free-throw shooting team in the country, I want to say it’s gone to pot,” Bzdelik said. “But maybe you shouldn’t say that here in Boulder.”
Was this a say-hosanna miracle for a CU program that faces a nearly impossible task of competing in a league where basketball is a religion?
“Nobody wants to give us respect anyway. We have to take it,” said Higgins, who led Colorado with 18 points. “We’ve been knocking on the door and we finally busted it open.”
Did the Buffs record a milestone victory that announces there is substantial progress at work and there might actually be a reasonable expectation for Colorado to compete with Kansas and schools where the definition of basketball success is a trip to the Final Four?
Says Bzdelik: “We need more milestones.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
