Catching up with some CU notes

It's been a busy few days for Buffs news, and I'm just now catching up to all the comings and goings.


NBA Draft and Buffs in the pros -

The NBA draft will dominate the sporting world this evening.  While current Buffs like Andre Roberson and Josh Scott will surely populate the drafted list in future years, the chances of a Buff being taken this evening are pretty slim.  Realistically, the only Buff with draftable prospects is Carlon Brown.  Should he get taken, he'd combine with Alec Burks to make the first pair of Buffs drafted in consecutive years since Jay Humphries (1984, #13 to Phoenix) and Alex Stivrins (1985, #75 to Seattle).

Carlon carries CU hopes into the draft tonight.

While Thorburn wrote yesterday that Carlon could go in the second round, which can get a bit chaotic and unpredictable, I'd bet on free agency.  Still, some team taking a flyer on the Pac-12 tournament MVP isn't out of the question.  He had a solid showing at the Portsmouth Invitational (an important pre-draft tournament for fringe NBA talent), blew up in the bright lights of March, and possesses a marketable NBA skill set.  Regardless of whether his name is called this evening or not, Brown will have to shine in the NBA Summer League if he hopes to make a team, as even being picked in the second round doesn't guarantee a roster spot.

Outside of Brown, graduating seniors Nate Tomlinson and Austin Dufault also look to play professionally, just probably not at the NBA level.  Nate will play for his home town Melbourne Tigers (of the Australian NBL), and Austin will probably get a look with some European team.


Football team continues to round out future schedules - 

Needing to fill holes in the 2015 and 2016 football schedules, Mike Bohn turned to some familiar tactics to put games on the calendar.

For the open 2015 home slot, Bohn went the 1-AA route, inking a deal to bring Grambling St to Boulder.  As a former marching band geek, the big lure of playing a HBCU team is the opportunity to watch their band in person.  From a purely football perspective, however, the lure is (hopefully) an easy win.

In 2016, echoing a recent cash grab with Ohio St, the Buffs will return to the scene of "the Miracle" to renew their historical series with Michigan and earn a $1.45 million payday.  Not necessarily a part of the Pac-12/Big10 scheduling cabal slated to begin in 2017, the game will continue the recent trend of scheduling games east of the Mississippi River.

Headed to the Big House... in 2016.

According to the BDC story on the scheduling, the trip to Ann Arbor is meant to engage the Chicago portion of the fanbase, but the trip around Lake Michigan to Detroit is an awfully long drive (5+ hours w/o traffic). I'd expect far more of the CU contingent that day will be the typical road-traveling crew. 


CU hires their first CMO - 

One of the hallmarks of the Mike Bohn era of CU athletics has been an emphasis in marketing the program properly.  Continuing in that theme, CU went out and hired their first Chief Marketing Officer this week.  In tabbing former Charlotte Hornets executive Matt Biggers, the program gains the professional experience of someone who knows how to improve a struggling brand (read: the football program).

Welcome aboard, Matt.

He'll be in charge of marketing, promotions, web presence, BuffVision, and, most importantly, the ticket office.  That damn ticket office always seems to be limping along, and has been in need of new leadership for quite a while.  The problem hasn't usually been sales, which have continually gone up in recent years; the problem has been organization and distribution.  Hopefully Biggers can end the Keystone Cops routine that has defined the ticket office since before I even showed up on campus.


Go Buffs!