This coming basketball season marks an important milestone in Colorado Basketball history -- the 20th anniversary of the 2002-03 team. As such, it's time to open old wounds and dig into some Big 8/XII scar tissue.
Kansas, once, was the measuring stick by which CU men's hoops were routinely found to be inadequate. KU was, and still is, a national power, one of the true blue-bloods of the sport; comparatively, the Buffs have never been either. Their meetings reinforced that dichotomic status quo of haves and the have-nots: Kansas had, Colorado had not.
Yet, in spite of the disparity in pedigree and prestige, from Colorado's joining of the Big 8 in 1947 until their exit from the Big XII in 2011, the two played regularly. Each year, the Buffs would get two or three shots against the Jayhawks, and, most years, they'd get that measuring stick upside the back of their heads for their efforts. It became a sticking point; a hump that CU could never seem to get over. In a recent conversation, Neill Woelk (formerly of the Daily Camera, now with CUBuffs.com) even referred to them as Colorado's "white whale." [1]
You see, the history of Colorado v Kansas on the hardwood is not really a rivalry, in the traditional sense. More a Sisyphean reflection of the BasketBuffs' decades-long struggle with relevance, one that has only gotten more extreme with time. Let me put it this way: in his four years as a player at Kansas in the early 80s, Tad Boyle suffered more losses to Colorado (3) than the Jayhawks have experienced, all-told, from 1992 to the present (2). KU's slips against their former Big 8/XII "rivals" were already rare by the time the 90s rolled into town (they lead the overall series 124-40), but since February of 1991, the 'Squawks have gone 47-2 against the Buffs with an average margin of victory of over 18 points.
Hammer, meet nail.[2]
The annual tilt in Boulder was, typically, the most painful, as Colorado would put up a wilful fight before succumbing in the end. What's more, a full 30-50% of the arena would be clad in red and blue, and all Buffalo faithful would have to suffer that damn chant. In the late-aughts, I myself witnessed more than a few of the season ticket holders around me swapping colors -- one week loosely cheering for CU, the next noisily rooting for the neighbor to the east. It was not uncommon for Kansas fans, including, as I found out in our conversation, Woelk's father, to hold CU season tickets simply for that one night a year when KU would come to Boulder:
"My dad was from Kansas, moved to Colorado. He grew up a Kansas basketball fan. Every year, I would get him tickets to the Colorado/Kansas game. And I finally ended up buying him season tickets to CU basketball just so my dad could come to one game a year. I just remember telling him how much I hated that KU chant… he would get a huge kick out of that.”
An unfortunate reality: the Buffs weren't even the headliner in their own building.
By that measure, there are some parallels to Colorado's great rivalry on the gridiron -- their annual fracas with former national power Nebraska. As was reinforced in 2019, a lot of red suddenly appears in Folsom anytime the Huskers come to town. It's what made those games so tense -- as a Buff fan, you desperately wanted to win just to see those invaders sitting next to you look so glum. Hell, that yearning for schadenfreude is why this remains such an indelible image in the CU/NU rivalry to this day.
With the Nubs and football, at least, Colorado has enjoyed some recent success. A breakthrough win against the Corn in 1986 helped propel the Buffs to a national title a few years later, and, since 2001, the Buffs have beaten back the red tide as many times as they've been flummoxed, going 6-6. In basketball, against frickin' Kansas, however, CU has not been nearly as successful.
So, for a school that has 62-36 metaphorically etched into the keystone of Norlin Library, it stands to reason that those two out of 49 against Kansas are worth mentioning if you care in the slightest about Colorado Basketball.
Now, any modern CU fan worth their salt is keenly aware of the latter of the two, the Ski-for-Three madness of December 7th, 2013.[3] What, then, of the former? What, then, of January 22nd, 2003?
If you're already familiar, it's probably because you were there. Comparatively, Askia's Miracle is easily accessible for those new to Black and Gold religion. Pac-12 Network has it on their decaying platform about a dozen times per season if you're interested in re-living that one. But, the win in '03? I dare you to try and find all but the barest of hints online. Believe me, I had looked. Unless you were willing to pay for access to the Daily Camera and Denver Post print archives (like I was), the best you could do was a few AP articles linked on the CU website and the mirrored articles on ESPN. Certainly, there were no highlights to be found online; YouTube has nothing that I could find. Even pictures from the game are difficult to come across.
How? How could one of the biggest victories in modern Colorado Basketball history get so lost in the internet shuffle?
Well, not anymore. Approaching the 20th anniversary of its birth, I lay 60-59 to rest with a full In Memoriam. I'll cover Colorado's program history in the preceding years and the 2002-03 season's outlook; I'll review both teams' performance that year and how they stood coming into the night of January 22nd, 2003; I'll even touch on the series beef each team brought with them into the game that night; of course, I'll break down the game itself (with the help of some archival footage); and, finally, I'll wrap-up with a discussion of the aftermath. There are even endnotes and a full sources list!
So, strap in. It's a long and winding ride. Best consumed with a beer in hand...
Let's go!Ricardo Patton, the 2002-03 season's outlook... and a little program history...
In all my research for this project, I kept coming back to a singular factor; a central figure that drew my contextual attention time and time again, and one that I think makes for a good starting point in this tale. He's a magnetic focal point for this era of Colorado Basketball, and one who underscored the positives and negatives of the play on the court and a number of roster issues off. A character both clearly outlined in my memory, yet wholly unknown and enigmatic in honest retrospect. The head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes in 2002-03, as he had been since midway through the 1996 season: Ricardo Patton.
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| From: the Daily Camera |
Try as I might, I'd never been able to fully grasp how challenging the setup was for Coach Patton at Colorado. This was the Belmont grad's first full-time head coaching position at the collegiate level. First starting as an assistant in 1993, it was also his first coaching gig period outside of the South -- in excessively white, cloistered Boulder, CO, to boot. Oh, and it just so happened to be in one of the toughest leagues in the country. After all, come the fall of 2002, the Big XII was loaded with entrenched coaching heavyweights like Roy Williams (Kansas), Bobby Knight (Texas Tech), Kelvin Samson (Oklahoma), Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State), and Rick Barnes (Texas). Woelk recently called it a "brutally" tough basketball league, and he wasn't kidding.
What's more, Ricardo had been thrown headlong into this High Plains frying pan, initially starting his tenure with an interim tag attached. He had been left to pick up the scattered pieces of the program from Joe Harrington, who had resigned just barely ahead of the axe in early January 1996. Patton's performance (and recruiting ties) quickly moved then-Athletic Director Bill Marlot to rip off the interim tag after only a few months, but, this was far from an ideal situation for the young coach. As the Baltimore Sun (Harringon was a Maryland alum and had roots there) noted:
"Joe Harrington's sixth season as Colorado's basketball coach was fraught with controversy, beset by an endless run of misfortune. Players made headlines for a number of reasons. There were shoplifting charges and academic suspensions and one complaint of sexual harassment. When they managed to keep the news on the court, it wasn't good, either. The Buffaloes lost regularly, if not routinely."
That was the situation Patton inherited. And it wasn't a blip, either. The sluggish 1995-96 campaign had come on the back of nearly 26 years of non-stop losing in Boulder.
From the highs of 1969's legendary 21-win, Big-8 winning Sweet Sixteen team, the program had slumped to a point where, by the end of the spring of 1976, Colorado had failed to reach double-digit wins in four of five seasons. It was at that moment the iconic Sox Walseth retired, but the slide would only continue from there. Through three regimes, the losses mounted. In succession, Bill Blair, Tom Apke, and Tom Miller led the program to a paltry four winning runs over 14 combined seasons -- and only once, in 1980, did any of them manage as much as finishing .500 in conference play. [4]
Harrington had taken over for Miller in 1990, ushering in not only a new decade but the program's first tastes of success in a generation. In his first season, Harrington led Colorado to their best record (19-14) and their first post-season play in 22 years, sprinting with Shaun Vandiver, Stevie Wise, et al to Madison Square Garden and the 1991 NIT Final Four. En route, the team even beat then-#8 Kansas in February that year. Vibes were high.
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| From: the Maine Basketball HoF |
But that long-winding journey to New York proved to be the furthest Coach Harrington could take CU down the path of success. He followed up that run with three straight losing seasons before a 15-13 NIT blip in '94-'95. Into his sixth season, which would be his final with Colorado, the wheels were clearly falling off the bus, and it was time for a new voice on the bench. It was not exactly a prime situation for anyone to step into, let alone a fresh minnow into a sea of seasoned sharks.
So, Coach Patton was trying to succeed at Colorado, a program with a set-in haint of losing, one without a consistent local pool of recruitable talent (or, at least without one that wanted to play in Boulder[5]), one that was afforded few resources by an Athletic Department focused almost entirely on the thriving football program, and one that received inconsistent, at best, fan support. The Buffs had no dedicated support facilities, like they do now, often forced to practice in aging Balch Fieldhouse or Carlson Gym (or even local middle schools) if the CEC was tied up with classes or other Athletics programs. The stories of Patton having to trudge cross-campus, from offices at Folsom to the CEC and back, in the dead of winter are legendary and sad, in a way. Even then-Athletic Director Dick Tharp acknowledged to the Daily Camera at the end of the 2002 season, "It's not easy here." RP was mostly left to operate independently while his superiors spent their time, attention, and money on the gridiron. He was not, in any measurable way, set up to succeed.
Yet, succeed he did. Maybe not in a way familiar to us today, or comparative to prominent programs around the county. But, compared to his immediate predecessors on the bench in Boulder, Patton's tenure marked a solid improvement. And, an immediate one at that.
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| From: the Denver Post |
Built around bedrock local talent Chauncey Billups, Patton's first full team, the 1996-97 squad, pulled off a seemingly impossible trick -- making the NCAA Tournament. For the first time since the Swinging Sixties, Colorado was in the Dance. They even won a game, besting a late Bobby Knight-era Indiana squad in the first round before succumbing to Dean Smith's UNC in the second (Notably, this was Smith's 877th all-time win, moving him past old codger Adolph Rupp in the all-time standings).
Yes, Billups was a stand-out talent, and he would've succeeded with any number of programs/coaches around the country. But there had been some strong talents in the program previously, yet no one since Sox Walseth himself had managed to get Colorado to the promised land. Further, it was Patton who had helped to convince Chauncey to stay 'home', recruiting him to Boulder as an assistant under Harrington. You have to afford RP some credit for that feat alone.
In fact, luring national-level talent to Colorado in the first place was central to Patton's program-building philosophy. In my interview with Woelk, the veteran reporter raved about Patton's ability to identify talent, wherever it could be found.
“He beat the bushes and found good players. [...] I think he was a very good talent evaluator. And, if he identified a need, i.e, a Jose Winston as a PG or a David Harrison as a big man, he went after them. He was a very dogged recruiter and would work his tail off to get kids. He identified talent, looked for needs. But he didn’t have a specific place that he went after kids; I mean he wasn’t hot after kids in Texas or California or anything like that. I think he just identified kids that he thought would fit the program and then went after them.
Indeed, he didn't rely on any specific pipeline (though his home state of Tennessee features prominently) -- during his time in Boulder, players from 23 different states and five foreign countries would feature on the roster. A number of those were highly-regarded, national-level preps, as well, including four top-100 recruits by 2002: Chauncey Billups, Jose Winston, Stephane Pelle, and David Harrison.
In Patton's own words:
"The first thing I thought was that we had to improve on our talent level. We had to get involved with kids that could make a difference. In the past, Colorado has taken kids that were easy to get. They didn't get in any wars with Top 10, Top 20 programs for talent. I think the only way you compete with those teams on the floor is you've got to compete with them in recruiting. That was our first goal, to compete with anybody and everybody."
But, it wasn't enough. Expectations had been raised in 1997, and both fans and administrators wanted more tastes of that kind of success. Post-season appearances and overall winning seasons aside, the program was still running behind its peers, finishing no better than 7th in the Big XII over the five years since that Tournament run in 1997. When the 2001-02 Buffaloes, who had harbored rebellious hopes of again making the NCAA Tournament, stubbed their toes and fell into a 15-14 finish, many began asking serious questions. Just how much was all that talent actually developing once it hit Boulder? Was Ricardo even the right man for the job?
That was certainly the question raised by the Daily Camera's Ryan Thorburn in March of 2002. Problems were mounting, both on and off the court, and everything was starting to take on a similar feel to when Harrington bolted in 1996. Thorburn, in his analysis, spared nothing:
"Last November the talented Buffs openly talked about making a run at the program's first NCAA Tournament since Chauncey Billups took them dancing five years ago. The calendar now reads March and CU's record is a maddening 14-13. In the last two seasons, CU has only one win against a team that finished in the top half of the Big 12, a home victory over Oklahoma State. The Buffs are the only team winless against the upper half of the conference this season. In his six full seasons on the job, Patton has brought 16 freshman recruits to CU. Half of them have transferred before completing their eligibility. Five of the remaining players are on this year's team. In the last three years, eight players have left the program. This year, two transferred and one starter (Jason Carter) was declared academically ineligible, leaving CU with just eight scholarship players."
What's more, the program simply wasn't drawing; Colorado was dead last in Big XII attendance in '01-'02, posting numbers over 1k fewer than any other team in the league. To hear them tell it, basketball at the Foot of the Flatirons was a money pit, reportedly losing over $1M a year -- a consistent refrain from the mid-90s onwards[6].
So, entering the 2002-03 season, Ricardo's bench in Boulder was heating up. And the frustrations were apparent, not least with Coach Patton himself. Tharp, commenting in 2002: "He works hard at it and the talent has really improved. But I think he's frustrated, we're frustrated, everybody's frustrated." This frustration was so apparent that, looking back on Patton's tenure 20 years later, Woelk couldn't help but summarize:
"It seemed as if Ricardo’s frustrations with not being able to build a consistent winner spread throughout the program, to a degree. All the players and everybody else felt that frustration [...] And it showed."
But there was hope, within the program at least, that the unrequited promise of 2001-02 could finally see its payoff. Blue-chip recruits Pelle and (particularly) Harrison were still in the program, and their presence was a strong foundation to build upon. Woelk confirmed recently:
"There was (post season expectations) because of the presence of David Harrison. He’d had a good freshman season. I think people, at least in Boulder, people around the program expected Colorado to be better. […] The rest of the conference wasn’t looking at them to be that good, but I think that the expectations in Boulder were for Colorado to be an improved team and certainly be a postseason contender. Just because of the presence of a 7-footer who [...] was a highly, highly, highly touted recruit."
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| From: the Lawrence Journal-World |
Any hopes of post-season play, however, would necessitate some big improvements against the powers of the league, chief amongst them Kansas. Entering the season, Colorado had yet to repeat Harrington's February 1991 win over the Jayhawks, going a mind-numbing 11-plus years and 27-straight games against their neighbors to the east without a win. Something had to change, or so would the head coach.
In that vein, on the eve of the 2002 Big XII Tournament -- where CU would fall, yet again to Kansas in the quarterfinals -- Thorburn included in his analysis a Checkov's gun of a tease: "Perhaps Patton will silence all of the critics with a victory over Roy Williams, something he has been unable to do in (then) 15 tries." Indeed... perhaps.
--
Colorado and Kansas in 2002-03...
As we move into a review of the 2002-03 season itself, let's consider the giant, big-beaked chicken in the room. Don't believe for a second that this story involves a Jayhawk team who had somehow fallen on hard times. No, this was still very much KANSAS in all their circus-font glory -- a nascent version of Kenpom has them as the overall #2 team in the country that season, only behind Tubby Smith's Kentucky. They were legit.
The Lawrence-based crew was led that season by coach Roy Williams, as they had been since 1988. By that point, Roy had amassed 13 Tournament appearances, three Final Fours (including one the year prior), and eight league titles with the school; though, notably, no national championships. Williams was entrenched, enjoying one of the safest jobs in the country, having recovered Kansas from a potentially perilous recruiting scandal early in his tenure (Larry Brown does as Larry Brown wants). His teams were rightly feared when entering opposing gyms.
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| The circus was in town. From: the KC Star |
Williams' '02-'03 version of the Jayhawks was a team, unsurprisingly, loaded with blue-chip talent, returning three starters from the previous year's Final Four squad. The roster was headlined by forward Nick Collison and guard Kirk Hinrich, who each featured on the 2003 All-Big XII 1st team as seniors. Collison, not only the Big XII's Player of the Year that season, went on to earn consensus 1st Team All-America honors. Hinrich would go on to be a lottery pick of the NBA's Chicago Bulls. More than that, the entirety of the regular starting five -- Collison, Hinrich, forward Wayne Simien (who would miss the CU game with a dislocated shoulder), and guards Aaron Miles and Keith Langford -- would go on to feature in the NBA, although Collison and Hinrich were the only ones to hold careers of any significant length or note.
Almost in spite of that veteran talent, KU had started the season 3-3, dropping early neutral court tilts with UNC, Florida (#7 at the time and on the come-up to their national title form later in the decade), and Oregon (#7 at the time, as well). But they had since reeled off 10-straight wins rising back up to #6 in the country by early January. By all accounts, they were back on track and aimed straight at national title aspirations.
Compared to the highly-touted swans from Lawrence, the Buffs of 2002-03 were ugly ducklings. Picked 9th in pre-season Big XII polls, there weren't many outside of Boulder who shared the program's hopes of a post-season run. Still, the CU roster held some notable talent that belied the prognostications.
The headliner was big 7-0 sophomore center David Harrison from Tennessee. Brother of the recently graduated DJ Harrison, David had come to Boulder with glowing headlines as a McDonald's All-American and Rivals' #10 recruit in the nation. It was a massive coup for Colorado Basketball at the time, with the Buffs reportedly beating out Kentucky, UNC, Vanderbilt, and Duke for his signature. Harrison, to this day, remains the highest-rated incoming freshman in the history of the program.
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| From: CUBuffs.com |
The man was almost as massive as the expectations placed on his shoulders. A behemoth of a center in the old-school mold, "Big Dave" could do it all in the paint -- put up shots, send them back, rebound, and clear space. The perfect pivot at a time when such things still seemed required to build a successful roster. Harrison had his own 1st round NBA pick future to look forward to, and was enjoying a strong 2002-03 campaign, even posting a triple-double (31 points, 17 rebounds, 10 blocks) in an early-season romp over Stetson.
His counterpart up front was 6-9 senior power forward Stephane Pelle. Coming to Colorado from Cameroon (via Pennsylvania), Pelle brought with him his own blue-chip resume, named a Parade All-American as a high school senior in 1999. Into his fourth season with the program, Stephane was a proven double-double threat and one of the best all-around players in the conference. More or less, the veteran could do it all, save hit a three-pointer, which he rarely attempted and only ever missed (0-3 all season). Said Woelk recently,
"I thought Stpheanne Pelle, still to this day, is one of the more underrated players in CU history, simply if you look at his numbers.[...] He was a great rebounder, he could score inside, he could shoot, he could play defense. From the beguining, you thought ‘this guy had a really high ceiling.’ And was as consistent a player as Colorado had had for years, Chauncey aside. Stephane was a consistently strong, good player inside. You knew he was capable of a double-double every night that he went out and played. Stephane could match up against anybody else’s big power forward. I was just always a big Stpheane Pelle fan."
Really, all that was left for Stephane his senior year was to cement his legacy as one of the best players in program history. To that end, by mid-January Stephanne was closing in on the all-time CU rebounding record, then held by the great Cliff Meely.
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| From: Eurobasket.com |
It sometimes gets lost in the ether of history, but this was a particularly adept defense and rebounding team. Anchored by Harrison in the post, CU was a top-10 shot-blocking squad that year and held opponents to under 43% from 2pt. Elsewhere, thanks in large part to Pelle, they posted stand-out offensive rebounding rates (top-40 nationally), and were, overall, a top-30 defensive club. If a Tad-led squad put up these numbers today, other than the blocks, we wouldn't bat an eye. Offensively, the '02-'03 squad weren't as crisp, but they usually held onto the ball (top-50 turnover rate) which helped make up for an offense that would seem very inefficient to a modern eye (a lot of mid-range jumpers, almost 60% of points came from 2pt-range). Overall, the pair of Harrison and Pelle were among the best 4/5 combos in the country, and really gave the Buffs an advantage in the paint most nights; combined, they averaged around 26/18 each game.
Balancing the heavyweight forwards was a pair of rangy wings, each capable of playing and defending a number of positions. Michel Morandais, affectionately known as 'Frenchy' in the student section, came to Boulder from Guadeloupe in the French West Indies (via Paris and New Jersey). The 6-5 junior was the team's leading scorer but was also a willing facilitator in the offense, posting an assist rate of over 21%. He paired well with Blair Wilson, a 6-6 local product from Broomfield. The latter junior was the team's lethal 3-point threat, more than making up for what Pelle lacked by hoisting up 237 total attempts from deep that season (no Buff has even approached that volume since), helping to stretch the floor.
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| From: the Daily Camera |
With additional forwards Chris Copeland (6-8 freshman from Virginia, with his own NBA future down the road) and Lamar Harris (6-7 JuCo junior from LA) coming off the bench, this was a big, athletic front court-heavy bunch, capable of standing with all but the largest of teams.
A trio of freshman guards, Glean Eddy (6-5, Tennessee), Jayson Obazuaye (6-2, NorCal), and Antoine McGee (5-10, SoCal), filled out the rest of the rotation, with McGee typically seeing the most time as the regular starting point guard.
Really, the only thing missing was a veteran point guard to tie it all together and keep some of the pressure off of McGee. The Buffs had such a player on the roster to start the season, Mookie Wright, but come the day of the KU game Wright was still out with an ongoing suspension (with only himself to blame). The roster had been further depleted the week prior by the sudden departure of backup sophomore forward Jason Carter, leaving Colorado with just 10 scholarship players by mid-January.[7]
Buoyed by their strong front-court base, the Buffs had enjoyed a solid non-conference start to their season. Hiccups on the road to New Mexico State and Rice aside, the only real blemish of note was a home loss to a ranked Georgia squad, a game that ended in a gut-punching, banked-in last-second shot from the Bulldogs, holders of the nation's most efficient offense that season. That had been the Buffs' last home loss, however, and they had swept their non-conference tournament in Charlotte ahead of sizeable home romps over a strong Penn team and inter-state rival CSU. By early January, CU was 10-3 and just needed a strong run in conference play to make the post-season.
But, the Buffs had been in similar spots before. Just the year prior, an 8-2 non-conference start had collapsed into 5-11 form against Big XII opponents. It was a group of players that had yet to show the capability to win tough league games. Further, without Wright and Carter, the Buffs had dropped a tough back-and-forth overtime road game to a lousy Nebraska bunch in Lincoln the preceding Saturday, culminating a disappointing 1-2 preamble to conference play. Suddenly, the strong non-conference start to the season seemed destined to float away in another Big XII slog.
And so, the stage was set for January 22nd, with few expecting all that much from Colorado. Realistically, even with the talent apparent in the CU roster, all the matchups seemed to favor Kansas, particularly in the backcourt. In the Daily Camera the morning of the game, Chris Dempsey noted:
"For Colorado it boils down to this: The Buffaloes must find a way to counter/slow down the Kansas perimeter game. It is the biggest mismatch on the court in favor of the Jayhawks. Aaron Miles, Keith Langford and Kirk Hinrich vs. Antoine McGee, Michel Morandais and Blair Wilson.
[...]
'I know I have to play hard,' understated a smiling McGee, who has started all but one game for Colorado at point guard this season. 'They have three good guards, and all of them are aggressive.' [...] McGee`s challenge is the greatest he figures to face this season, but Patton says he`s not worried about his unflappable freshman. 'We`ve shown him film, we`ve talked to him. It`s just part of the process; he`s got to go through it,' Patton said. 'He`s got a way about him that`s pretty level. He keeps an even keel, he doesn`t get too high. He doesn`t ride that rollercoaster.'"
Dempsey wasn't overselling it, either. The Jayhawks entered the contest leading the nation in raw scoring, totaling over 88 points per game. For the year, KU was top-20 in 2P%, scoring an adjusted 1.15 ppp on over 72 possessions per game. The trio of Collison, Hinrich, and Langford made them go, each with an eFG% over 55. They were explosive, efficient, and put teams on their heels from the out. Roy Williams, by this time, was famous for his "Secondary Break" offense, which he had brought with him from his apprenticeship under Dean Smith at North Carolina. The system relies on players filling assigned lanes on the break, so, if the attack peters out, they're already in a position to execute their base offense. It's flexible, produces a number of options, and is designed to put a bunch of points on the board quickly. The prospect of running out there with a neophyte point guard against that seemed daunting.
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| From: the Denver Post |
Most Kansas fans, and maybe even the team themselves, were simply looking forward to their looming tussle with then-#1 Arizona in Lawrence that following weekend. Certainly lowly Colorado, whom they'd beaten the last 27-times, wouldn't pose a serious challenge, right?
For the Buffs, best-case scenarios at the time had them stringing together enough wins in Big XII play to slip back into the NIT -- the NCAA Tournament was just not a realistic expectation, at that point. But, saddled with the frustrating loss to Nebraska, and faced with a brutal upcoming schedule that included road games at Texas Tech and Missouri (both ranked that season) before a home game against a top-5 Texas squad, even the NIT was starting to feel like a long shot.
For a realistic shot at post-season play, the Buffs needed a miracle; an adrenaline-fueled kick-start to their conference campaign. They needed to slay the beast, somehow stunt the Secondary Break, and beat their heated "rival," Kansas.
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The Pseudo-Rivalry...
You would be forgiven, considering the gulf in perception and performance, to assume that on-court meetings between Kansas and Colorado in the late-90s and early-2000s were rather staid affairs. However, nothing could be further from the truth. This lede from Chris Dempsey in the Daily Camera, ahead of the preceding year's meeting in Lawrence, makes it clear that the teams each had a chip on their shoulders when the other appeared on the schedule:
"Exactly when this Colorado-Kansas matchup turned physical and escalated into something that resembles a rivalry despite the Jayhawks` 25 straight wins in the series is unclear. Maybe it was Nick Collison`s concussion-causing foul on Jose Winston two years ago, which incited a fight between both teams. Maybe it was something more recent. What is crystal clear, however, is that this newfound chippiness on both ends appears nowhere near ending."
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| From: the Lawrence Journal-World |
But, in spite of the handshake, the big man's natural good nature, and a shared pastoral background with many of the rural Kansas fans ("We have a farm and everything"), the younger Harrison is noted as Lawrence's "public enemy No. 1" in more than a few articles from the era. Boos rang down every time he touched the ball in Lawrence. "I like it," said David, who seemed to have a knack for maybe not outright instigating, but still somehow finding his way into the periphery trouble -- a knack that would follow him into his professional future. KU's Wayne Semien said of Harrison, “When I’m around him he’s real cool and laid-back. When the cameras turn on him, he’s a different person." A babyface in ill-fitting heel clothing, then.
"'I don`t start anything,' David said. 'But if they grab me like they like to do, I`m going to grab them back. I`m not going to go out there with the mentality of trying to fight somebody, but I'm not going to shrink from it. They're not going to try to do that,' David added, then smiled slightly. 'But if they did, they'd lose. Me and D.J.? I don't think so.'"So, disregard the bad blood at your peril. Even with the elder Harrison and Drew Gooden out of the picture by the 2002-03 season, these two teams desperately wanted to both beat and beat on each other. Physicality was expected. A close game, at least in this first match-up in Boulder, was likely. Whatever the score, you could be sure there would be fireworks...
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January 22nd, 2003...
It really did take me a while to find any audio or footage of the game for a
review.[8]
I know that the game was broadcast on KVCU radio (1190 am) with Larry Zimmer
and Jay Leeuwenburg, but my emails to the station went unanswered. It was
televised on KWHD (subsidized by ESPN+), but that station has since changed
formats and call letters. Finally, I got some luck going through the CU SID
office and BuffVision. Deric Swanson was kind enough to pass along a 10-min
highlight package, including the final few minutes of the game. Most of the
clips come without audio, but it helps paint the picture from that night.
You can check it out yourself below:
In watching the package, I pick up some small things. The old familiarity of the early-aughts court design; a reminder that the student section was to the bottom-left of the camera angle; the expected physicality of the matchup; how high Michel Morandais and Stephane Pelle got on their *gasp* midrange jumpers; how much more athletic Big Dave Harrison was than we probably gave him credit for; the way Alan Cass intoned "STEPH-ANE PEEEE-LLE"; that the shot clock was set to 35 seconds. I see Kansas trying to take a number of fake charges that would probably draw whistles today -- maybe the refs were on the lookout? There's a glimpse of freshman Chris Copeland hitting a big shot mid-way through the 2nd frame. Oh, and a shot of me and the band at the 8:42 mark.
I had forgotten that Harrison came down hard in the 2nd half, as a cheap under-cut from Collison sent the Tennessean crashing down on his hip at the 17:30 mark; the latest, but not final, incident involving Harrison and Kansas in the pseudo-rivalry. But, with brother DJ in the crowd, the big man stayed in the game. Afterward, Dave remarked "The game was too close to be hurt. We have a day off tomorrow and I can rest then. I just grit my teeth and keep going." It clearly stung him the rest of the way, though; in the clip package linked above, you can see him limping and grimacing in the time-stamps after that moment.
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From: the AP |
The audio kicks in with about 5:25 to go. Up until then, the game had been a back-and-forth affair, with KU leading by only three at the break. Colorado had pushed into the 2nd frame, leading by as many as six at one point. The key? Defense. The 1st thing you hear is the announcer stating that Kansas has had to "run a lot of free-lance offense tonight." That was in reference to how tough CU had played the visitors defensively, forcing them into a lot of second and third looks out of the Secondary Break. Woelk said in the Daily Camera after the game:
"[CU] played defense as if their lives depended upon it. They chased every rebound with a vengeance, sacrificed their bodies at every opportunity, and made the biggest of plays when there was absolutely no other alternative. [...] The sixth-ranked Jayhawks didn`t miss open shots. They never had any open shots. KU`s stars were hounded and harassed all night, tormented by a CU defense that suffocated its opponent nearly every trip down the floor."
KU posted a 13-3 run to flip a six-point CU advantage on its head, taking a 57-53 lead into the final three minutes. That's when Colorado answered. Pelle: pure jumper. Copeland: big rebound and the presence of mind to flip the ball over his head to a breaking teammate. Morandais: long two after KU misplays the delayed break. Copeland: another big rebound. CU was back into it.
One of the biggest plays of the game turned out to be the iffy block called on KU's junior forward Jeff Graves, which sent Copeland to the line, where he made one of two, and Graves to the bench with five fouls. CU now had the lead and the momentum with 1:27 to play. However, after a Pelle over-the-back foul, Kansas made both free throws, leaving them with a perilous 59-58 advantage and just under 40 seconds to go.
With the Buffs unable to hold for the final shot, the resulting inbound went to Blair Wilson. The junior forward was looking for an easy switch to Morandais off a push cut near midcourt but had to keep the ball across the timeline with KU holding firm. Instead, he wound up backcourt-right with the ball and 28 on the shot clock. With the primary option of Morandais still locked off by Hinrich, Wilson found Pelle at the logo a few seconds later. The 6-9 Pelle was picked up by the 6-3 Michael Lee, and Stephane took advantage of the mismatch to drive the smaller defender towards the right-side baseline. With 27 seconds left, Pelle hit the brakes and pulled up for a 15-footer from the angle... back-rim and in. Buffs led 60-59 with 25.3 to go, the 14th lead change of the night.
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| From: BuffVision |
As Tom Kensler noted in the Denver Post the next day, Pelle wasn't even meant to get the ball on that possession. The design had been intended for the shot to come from Morandais, with the wing cutting into the lane for either a bucket or a foul; or, as a last resort, a kick-out to an open shooter. Instead, the Jayhawks pulled out a matchup zone, forcing Morandais out of the action and leaving Wilson with nowhere to drive. Hence, the flow put the ball in the lone senior's hands. Pelle said afterward:
"'I'm the senior on this team. I wanted a say in what happened at the end. [...] Blair had nowhere to go, so I took the ball. I wasn't thinking about shooting, but then I thought, 'You know what? The game is in my hand.' I was wide open, so why not? [...] I wanted to score. I took the ball determined and ready to score. I drove and when I saw somebody come up, I pulled up. It felt so good.'"
In the aftermath of the Pelle shot, Roy Williams doesn't appear to call a timeout. It's unclear, given that I don't have access to a play-by-play chart and can't recall, whether he 1) had one remaining and eschewed it, 2) was caught in a Sean Miller-esque late-game trap without a timeout to take, or 3) if we just don't see one that was taken in the available highlight package.
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From: the Denver Post |
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The Aftermath...
At the final whistle, KU's Roy Williams rushed the court in his own way. He felt that Hinrich had been fouled by Wilson on the former's final flip towards the rim, and booked it towards the refs. Woelk recalled recently,"What I remember most is Roy Williams just going ballistic when Hinrich had a chance to get a rebound… didn’t get it, and, oh man, I thought Roy was going to tackle the official. Just outraged they didn’t get a foul call on the last series."
But, to his credit, the future Hall of Famer did not try to deflect the result onto the backs of the officials in the post-game news scrum:
"First off, the officials didn't lose the game for us. I thought Kurt (sic) was fouled on the last play, but that is just me. We got off to a slow start, then played well. But if you just talk about those two things (officials and slow start), then you are not giving Colorado their credit. We needed one stop and we couldn't get one stop. I told Ricardo (Patton) that I am as ticked off as I am happy for him. They were into it emotionally and mentally. Colorado made the plays...not us. Their defense was better than our offense the entire game."
The headlines in the Daily Camera the next day screamed "ROCK CHALK THIS," with the sub-head alluding that Stephane Pelle's shot had set the Buffaloes free from that chant, as if they were Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank.
The Buffs hadn't folded against Kansas the way they had in previous years; instead, they had surged and left the Jayhawks looking worse for wear. It wasn't just that the Buffs had won -- the Buffs had earned the win. Not in some flukey fashion, but by out-hustling and out-executing the favored visitors. They had turned the perceived disadvantages on their heads and had made a statement in the process."This feels great, I just can't describe it. Walking around on campus today I saw people wearing Kansas shirts. I just wanted to prove people wrong tonight--to prove people wrong and to surpass what people believe. It was great."
CU had overcome an uncharacteristic 19 turnovers (14 in the 1st half alone and 11 combined from McGee and Pelle) largely through their defensive effort. KU only shot 4-15 from deep for the game and a tic under 33% overall. With Colorado also out-rebounding the Jayhawks by five that night, a proto version of #TadBall was in full effect.
The win was Coach Ricardo Patton's first, and ultimately only, win over Kansas.[10] The implications were immediately apparent -- Neill Woelk in the Daily Camera called it "the kind of victory that can save a job." David Harrison went further, telling Woelk, "Coach Patton deserved this win. He fought as hard for this as anyone out on the floor. We owed it to him. If he's in the hot seat like you all say, you better pay attention to this one."
The win, of course, snapped CU's 27-game skid against the Jayhawks and marked Kansas' first conference loss in 23 games. It was also Colorado's first win over a top-10 opponent since Billups left for the NBA and their first over an opponent ranked in the top-6 since 1992. I specifically recall that highlights that night moved the ESPN News anchor at the time to mutter, "that's a shocker." No one had expected this.
The Colorado Daily went above and beyond in the aftermath, cranking out a
special pullout of splashy pictures that I had taped up in my dorm room
the rest of the semester. The Daily Camera quoted numerous
former players who reveled in their program finally slaying the dragon:
Guard Marlon Hughes (1996-98): "It feels good to watch these guys go out there and compete and just give it their all after so many years ... it feels good. It feels real good."The current team spoke in terms of how this reinforced their process; how they could carry this momentum forward. Pelle, in the Denver Post:
Forward D.J. Harrison (1999-2002): "I love them. Obviously I still care. You saw me running out on the court like a madman."
Guard Josh Townsend (1996-2000): "Even though we`re not playing for CU anymore, we`re still a part of this family. You know what? I`ve been waiting seven years to have something like this. To see this finally happen makes me feel so good inside. I`m so excited."
"That showed us we can beat a team like Kansas; confidence-wise, it just builds up. That confidence should be used in knowing that we know what it takes, we're capable of doing it and we'll do it on the court."
"That’s always been the case with Colorado Basketball. Certainly that year, when they finally beat Kansas at home, ended the losing streak, fans got excited. They saw that this was a team that had a chance to go play in the NCAA Tournament, something that didn’t happen very often in Boulder. And I think they rallied around it, got excited, and bought in to how much fun college basketball can be. And I think you’ve seen that over the years – fans will get excited over an NCAA Tournament-potential team."
Other than the Billups year of '96-'97, this was the most successful Colorado Basketball team that saw the hardwood from 1969 to 2011. Hell, I would even make the argument that the '03 Buffs were more balanced than the Chauncey-centric team that won a game in the NCAA Tournament, and possibly a better team, overall. Williams agreed, telling Daily Camera the day before the game "I think it`s the best Colorado team since I`ve been here. [...] They really have a good club." Indeed, that season CU would beat two teams, Kansas and Texas, who would go onto the Final Four that April.
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| Patton never again got to the Dance. From: the Rocky Mountain News |
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Conclusion...
And so, we come to the end. The CU/KU series used to be about what Colorado Basketball wasn't: relevant. Men's hoops at the Foot of the Flatirons were so damn adrift for the 42 years from 1969 to 2011 that the only time there was ever any juice in the arena was when the circus font came to town. As Neil Woelk put it the morning of the game in 2003:
Once a year, a genuine college basketball atmosphere is present in the state of Colorado. Of course, it`s only because the Kansas Jayhawks are in town, and it means that at least a third -- maybe as much as half -- of the Coors Events Center will be decked out in KU red and blue. Unless CU faithful are particularly vociferous, the Rock-Chalkers are even capable of drowning out their Boulder brethren in their own gym. But if you`re a college basketball fan, it`s the one game of the year you don`t want to miss, simply because it reminds us all of what is available in so many other arenas around the nation on a regular basis.
But, that hasn't been the case since 2011. Through much better and the occasional mediocre, Colorado Basketball has been truly and utterly competitive since Tad Boyle, a KU grad hired by another KU grad (Mike Bohn), stepped onto campus and raised the hull above water. The "genuine college basketball atmosphere" that Woelk longed for has been here, in Boulder, "on a regular basis" throughout the past decade, often irrespective of the opponent. No, CU hasn't hoisted any banners since 2012 in Los Angeles, but the product continues to improve and evolve each season. Colorado is now solidly a top-half program in their league, and staking claims to be top-third. They are decidedly relevant in ways they simply weren't at the turn of the century.
There are almost no parallels between the program of today and the program of 2003. I no longer talk about Colorado Basketball in terms of who we aren't, but who we are.
This, then, was a story about what Colorado Basketball once was, and where I hope to God it never is again.
Farewell, 60-59. Requiescant in pace.
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Endnotes and other errata:
[1] - I'm not sure who Captain Ahab would be in this
metaphor, but I have a sneaking suspicion it might be me...↩
[2] - I perceive the old CU/KU basketball rivalry as
personal for older Colorado Basketball fans in a way even the
CU/Nebraska rivalry on the gridiron could never be -- a relationship
filled with almost nothing but pain and frustration. There's a shame
there. An understanding that we as Colorado would never be good enough
to stand toe-to-toe with a conference opponent, and, thus, are out of it
before a ball is even tipped. Maybe that's why CU football diehards get
so fired up to play USC? I'M KIDDING!↩
[3] -
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Bless Ski. Bless him.↩ |
[4] - Truly, the '80s were an atrocious decade for
Colorado basketball, with all apologies to JoJo Hunter, Jay Humphries, Matt
Bullard, Scott Wilke, and their teammates.↩
[6] - I should note that I have a problem with the way
those numbers were reported and spun. As far as I can tell, they're
soft, not reflecting conference distributions, TV money, or NCAA Tournament
shares... which are kind of important. The point, that Colorado basketball
wasn't a consistent draw or moneymaker, is fair, but any notions of it being
a million-dollar loser are probably overstating it.↩
[7] - Carter had left the team, mysteriously, the
previous weekend, telling assistant coach Terry Dunn that he was returning
to Las Vegas and his 2-year-old daughter. Coach Ricardo Patton was at a
loss, telling the Denver Post "I don't know the reason he left. He has all
my numbers and he hasn't called, so I'm going to assume he's no longer with
us. We've moved on." Wright, who had been suspended after being charged with two felonies and a pair of misdemeanors for illegally entering a
female student's dormitory room and making unwanted sexual advances, would
later
return
to the team for the final weeks of the season. After the season, he reached
a deal with authorities by pleading guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge of
"trespassing on agricultural land."
Wright's situation that season was only the latest in a number of ugly incidents from the Athletic Department, a series that would eventually culminate in the football scandal of 2004. Woelk, musing the morning of the KU game in the Camera, pointed at the AD's reaction to Wright's felony charge and the mysterious departure of Carter, connecting some dots:
One player [Wright] is charged with a felony, and athletics department officials do nothing publicly -- but privately they do their best to coerce the university into lifting his suspension from school. In the name of "education" and "concern for his future," they keep him on the team long enough to help produce a winning record in non-conference play. But when another player leaves the team for personal reasons [Carter], the head coach doesn't bother to find out what those reasons are. Doesn't even bother to check in and see if he might need some assistance. What about that player's future and his education? And meanwhile, not a word from the Gang on the Hill. No direction, no leadership -- nothing. The inaction is a symptom of a much larger problem.I grant that our 2022 eyes will naturally perceive this situation differently, and there's evidence that the 'Good Ol' Boys' nonsense is now being addressed in Colorado Athletics, given the intervening 20 years. However, the fact that Wright would be allowed to stay with the team, play through the non-conference portion of the season, mentor McGee throughout his suspension, and later return to the court and star in postseason play looks horrific in retrospect. Wright could help the team, so a way was found, no expense spared. Carter couldn't, so not even a phone call was placed, apparently. This is the kind of crap I have called Dana Altman to the yard for, in the past, and no one then in CU leadership deserves sparing here. It's clear, in review, that the situation was worked not to keep Wright in the classroom but on the court, the victim be damned. Simply, shameful.↩
[8] - There's some poetry there. If the pre-Tad days can
be considered the dark ages, then why should we expect to be able to see the
action in living color?↩
[9] - I think, at this point, it's worth digging into why this game means so much to me. The '02-'03 season was my freshman year in Boulder. That naive 18-yr-old from Glen Ellyn, IL knew next to nothing about Colorado Basketball before he stepped onto campus. Something about Chauncey Billups... do they run the bison on the court?
After the topic of post-season play for the Women's team was brought up in the first Basketball Band meeting in the Fall of '02, a hearty chuckle was shared across the group when someone (not me) asked about the same for the Men. I, in all my wisdom, asked myself, why are they laughing? This is college basketball, anything can happen.
See, my previous college basketball exposure was centered around the University of Illinois, where previous generations of Burrows had been drawn. My youthful understanding of the sport was shaded in orange and navy, with the occasional flashes of UIC dancing, DePaul's gradual decline, and Bryce Drew's heroics at Valparaiso. To me, the NCAA Tournament was a place that anyone could go (well, except Northwestern). Why couldn't that be the case for Colorado?
Thus, that season was my induction to basketball at the Foot of the Flatirons. By the time January 22nd, 2003 rolled around, that didn't mean too much. Sure, David Harrison had recorded that triple-double against Stetson, there was the heartbreak of that buzzer-beating home loss against Georgia, CU had even swept their non-conference tournament in North Carolina (not that there was any television coverage of it), and the Buffs had blitzed CSU by 21 at home. I enjoyed the games and looked forward to the next one. I recognized that CU was flawed, but they were a fun team to watch. I liked playing in the band and being "in the arena," both physically and metaphorically. However, nothing really of note had made a significant impact on me, save my frustration at the tubas being kicked off the court for the Tuba Cheer. I was present and involved, but not invested.
On the day of the KU game, it became different. A number of my fellow tubas begged off, not wanting to play at another loss at the hands of the Jayhawks. A high school friend, who attended KU, made sure to let me know (via AOL Instant Messanger, because I'm old) that they were going to roll that night. I read Woelk, Dempsey, Kensler, and Brooks and became aware of the trauma inherent in the previous CU/KU matchups.
Then, the game unfolded. You could feel the emotion in the building. The tension. It was writ large across the face of every true Coloradan in the arena, from players to fans. This *meant* something.
Stephane hit his shot, the Buffs won, and the students rushed the court. The emotional explosion across the CEC was palpable. How could you not be caught up in it? This is where I wanted to be. This is where I belonged. In that arena, playing music with my friends, rooting on the Buffs.
I cried playing the alma mater. I was sold; I was now invested in Colorado Basketball. And I have never let go of the program since.
All that followed -- the home wins over ranked Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma
State, flipping on the radio to listen to the season's lone conference road
win against Baylor, the Pervis Pasco-assisted win over K-State in Dallas, and the eventual first-round defeat to Michigan State in
the NCAA Tournament -- only cemented what I knew that night. That I would be
a fan for life.↩
[10] - I should note that every Colorado Basketball
coach, save one, has at least one win against Kansas since the two began
playing regularly in the 40s. The lone outlier is Jeff Bzdelik, who himself
nearly pulled the trick off twice -- first, flirting with the impossible (a
win in Lawrence) in 2009 before taking #1 KU into overtime in Boulder in
2010. The latter, FWIW, is the game that inspired the very 1st post on this
here blog -- you can check it out here... or maybe don't because my writing back then was even more wobbly than it is now.↩
That's not to take anything away from MSU. The Spartans that year were one of the best rebounding teams in the country and had beaten the overall KenPom #1, Kentucky, in Rupp Arena. Underseeded, they went on an Elite Eight run, eventually bowing out to Texas.↩
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Sources:
Obviously, the big shout-out goes to Deric Swanson with BuffVision for the hookup on the game's highlight package. Without it, I don't know how realistic writing this post would've been. Pat Rooney with the Daily Camera and Troy Andre with the CU SID each helped in the process of getting me in touch with Deric.
I also enjoyed the opportunity to have a 1/2 hour chat with Neill Woelk back at the end of April, who helped add crucial context to the status of the program in 2003, his recollections of the talent in the team, and his remembrances of the game itself.
Finally, I dove through the virtual archives of the Daily Camera and the Denver Post, which are where I sourced the vast majority of quotes and context. If you'd like to check them out yourself, it's $10 for a day pass to each (20 articles).
All apologies to BG Brooks and the Rocky Mountain News. Their work would've been equally as valuable, but the demise of that paper left a gaping hole in their accessible archives.
In total, however, here are the articles leveraged:
Woelk, Neill. "Victory over Kansas no fluke." Daily Camera, January 23, 2003, p. C1
Dempsey, Chris. "Buffs can parlay win over Kansas - Key victory gives Patton something to build upon." Daily Camera, January 24, 2003, p. C1
Dempsey, Chris. "COLLEGE BASKETBALL Calmed-down Buffs set for next challenge." Daily Camera, January 28, 2003, p. C1
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