BOULDER — The first student with his chest painted black and gold was spotted walking across campus toward the Coors Events Center at 4:15 p.m.
It was about 30 degrees and two hours before game time. Normally in winter in Boulder, this guy would require serious counseling. But this is a new basketball season at Colorado and Tuesday night wasn’t a normal night.
This guy merely required a ticket.
Sixth-ranked Kansas, oh, mighty Kansas at 18-1, came to town to face a 14-6 Colorado team showing signs of legitimacy for the first time in nearly a decade. Colorado had upset ninth-ranked Missouri, beat Big 12 preseason favorite Kansas State on the road and has a lock NBA first-round prospect in Alec Burks.
Kansas comes to Boulder every year, and usually it’s just another home game for the Jayhawks. The Coors Events Center is more blue than black and considering Kansas had beaten Colorado 42 of 43 times, blue means more than just the crowd’s attire.
Yet at 4:42, the Jayhawks came out to warm up to a hearty chorus of boos from a black-clad student section that outnumbered the Kansas faithful. By 5:05, the student section was two-thirds full. By 5:35, 25 minutes before tipoff, it was standing room only.
Scalpers hawked tickets. Lines to get in stretched around corners. The Coors Events Center, where the Buffaloes averaged only 6,267 a game last season, actually sold out at 11,203.
And the venom flowed thick. During a moment of silence for Kansas sophomore Thomas Robinson, home in Washington after his mother died Friday night, a Colorado student yelled, “(Bleep) Kansas!”
Yes, Tuesday night in Boulder, class was definitely out.
However, the game met the expectations. The Buffs, trying to stop towering twins Markieff and Marcus Morris, left the KU perimeter wide open. The Jayhawks had open shots all over the floor and jumped to a 27-17 lead.
The Jayhawks shot 53 percent in the first half and struggling freshman guard Josh Selby had 15 points.
But unlike most of the, oh, last 20-plus years, there was no early fan exodus. These Buffs, led by first-year coach Tad Boyle, can shoot. Hitting 6-of-9 3-pointers kept them in it in the first half, and after Levi Knutson’s 3-pointer cut it to 35-33, Kansas called a timeout. That sparked an eruption that hadn’t been heard here since the Buffs’ last NCAA Tournament team in 2003.
In the end, however, this 82-78 loss, as close as it came, was just seen by more people. The Jayhawks kept drilling Colorado’s defense and they crushed the Buffs on the boards. The 25 points from Burks, whom 36 NBA scouts from 23 teams came to see, weren’t enough to rescue the Buffs.
“It’s what college basketball’s all about,” Boyle said. “There were too many KU fans for my liking and I hope going forward, obviously we’re going in the Pac-12, but whoever we’re playing, UCLA, Arizona, I want the Oklahoma State crowd where it’s 11,000 Buff fans.”
