BOULDER — It has become a mini-tradition during Colorado’s NIT run. Senior Cory Higgins says during a postgame news conference that postseason success is all the more gratifying because of what the program has endured in his four years.
Meanwhile, sophomore teammate Alec Burks conducts his own one-on-one interview with the postgame radio show. That’s the honor extended for performances of 27, 25 and 25 points.
Throughout, Higgins has watched a seemingly endless series of negatives turn into positives, culminating in today’s team flight to New York, where the Buffs will play Alabama on Tuesday in an NIT semifinal at Madison Square Garden.
“The highlight is just going to postseason play after four years,” said Higgins, a senior who remembers being a ball boy at Madison Square Garden when his dad, Rod Higgins, played in the NBA.
“The lowlights would be the losing seasons,” the Buffs’ leader said.
He started every game as a freshman and sophomore and Jeff Bzdelik’s teams produced a combined 21 wins. In his senior season, CU (24-13) reached 21 wins during the Big 12 Tournament and now has the most wins in school history.
Last season, the Buffs had marked improvement and went 15-16, but it still was not enough for postseason play. So the players hit the weight room, confident the NCAA Tournament was in the future.
Then in mid-April, the program was thrown into chaos. Bzdelik abruptly left for the ostensibly brighter lights of the Atlantic Coast Conference, although his first season at Wake Forest was a struggle as the Demon Deacons went 8-24 overall, 1-15 to finish last in the ACC.
The players wanted popular assistant Steve McClain to get a promotion.
Instead, athletic director Mike Bohn went with Tad Boyle, the area’s rising coaching star who lifted Northern Colorado by the bootstraps.
“That was a tough time,” Higgins said of the uncertainty surrounding the program in April. “I wouldn’t say it’s a lowlight because it turned out to be the best thing for this program.”
Then there was the NCAA snub two weeks ago, which the Buffs turned into an all-time positive. Higgins and Burks haven’t completely been able to enjoy it because both have fought off a viral bug the past week. Burks was so dehydrated he needed an IV at halftime of the Kent State game.
“Cory has been through a lot because he has been here for four years,” Boyle said. “They got beat up a little his freshman and sophomore years. He was part of this rebuilding project here at Colorado.”
While Boyle didn’t always have his eye on every CU outcome, he felt he was with them by proxy.
“I went through it at Northern Colorado as a coach. So I think we’ve all been through it to a certain degree. But I think our seniors Cory and Levi (Knutson) have seen the transformation in this program,” he said.
“Cory has been such an important part of this program each and every one of those years. It’s not like he was sitting on a bench as a sophomore. Now he’s reaping the fruits of his labor and everyone’s labor.”
Higgins is the only four-year full-time starter, although Knutson and Marcus Relphorde are seniors who have played integral parts.
Now Higgins returns to vague childhood memories of The Garden.
“It’s definitely the mecca of everything. So, as a basketball player, it’s where you are going to cherish playing,” he said. “I think we can match up with anyone in the country. We have a goal in mind and that’s to win it.”
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
