Yesterday, the Athletic Department confirmed the passing of CU's beloved Ralphie IV. Mascot, revered icon, noble beast; "Rowdy" (her given name) was the embodiment of the Colorado spirit over her 10-year career, having led the football team onto the field in more than 75 contests. She was there when the 2001 team won the Big XII title, there when the 2006 team went to Georgia, and there when the 2007 team stunned #3 Oklahoma. Overall, she appeared in six bowl games and four Big XII championships.
We'll miss you, Rowdy. From: 9 News
Big, powerful, rumbling, her running style was distinctly different from the sprinting act of her successor, Ralphie V ("Blackout"). Indeed, it befit the older era of plodding three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football that she starred in. She was the buffalo I played for at CU, and, despite the near-decade that has passed since her retirement in 2008, the one I still think of when I imagine 'Ralphie.'
Having lived a long life for a bison, nearly 20 years, Rowdy's death does not come as a surprise, but it is nonetheless a sad moment. RIP, Rowdy. Enjoy running with the great herd in the sky.
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Today in an abbreviated bag, I'm talking the season-ender in Orlando, and the Colorado Women with their own NIT push.
As you might recall, I correctly predicted the upset over Oregon in last week's grab bag:
"What I'm saying is, as helpless as this feels right now, weird things happen all the time. The current squad could pop out of their slumber this week, and shock the Ducks on Saturday. You laugh, but I've seen dumber."
Of course, some jackass would later #hack both my blog and my twitter account, leading to these blatant reversals of my true opinion:
"As such, the Ducks are going to come in here and rip Colorado; no doubt in my mind. No amount of Tad's black magic witchery is going to save CU this evening. Give me Oregon by a boat-load."
So, I come before you today to talk about the importance of account security, and the necessity of routinely changing your passwords. Otherwise you too could see your accounts #hacked and have some idiot run around claiming your favorite team will get crushed the day of a top-10 upset.
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Today in the bag, I'm talking the win over Oregon that I totally predicted (and totally did not lose a bottle of scotch over), how the rest of the Pac-12 fared, and a brief blerb on signing day.
Note: there will be no Grab Bag this week. In lieu, here's this preview!
Well, what the hell is this? *checks calendar* It's August, by God, and I'm writing a basketball preview. Has the world gone mad? OK, no, the world has not gone mad (at least not the sporting world...). I'm pounding this beast out in the heat of summer because a group of Colorado Basketball Alumni have caught fire, and rolled to the final game of The Basketball Tournament.
For those caught unawares, TBT is a single-elimination, five-on-five, professional basketball tourney played for a grand, winner-take-all prize of $2 million cash. In it's third year of operation, the tournament has been steadily growing in prominence, and features a plethora of current and former pros from top-flight leagues from across the world (though, you won't find any current NBAers here). Many of the teams that featured in the bracket this summer were founded as alumni groups, made up almost entirely of former teammates from big-name college programs. Team Colorado, in their second year of existence, was founded in this mold, looking to bring BasketBuffs of seasons past together in the name of program pride. The venture is the brainchild of walk-on hero Beau Gamble, who, in collaboration with general manager Trent Beckley, forged the current roster from pieces of the Patton, Bzdelik, and Boyle eras, highlighting some of the best and brightest from the last decade of Boulder hoops.
It's all come down to this. One game for the money.
Team Colorado, for all their promise, struggled last year, losing their opening round game against eventual tournament runner-up Team 23. Undaunted, and living by the 'Fight CU' mantra to "never give in," they re-formed this summer, using the knowledge of that painful 2015 loss to fuel a smarter attempt in 2016. They started with a mini-camp in Boulder, taking advantage of Coach Boyle's open door policy to alumni to train at the Foot of the Flatirons. They also added a full-time coach, former star and current DU assistant Dwight Thorne II, giving everything an organized flair, something that didn't really exist a year ago. With focus and preparedness, they hit TBT on a mission, and have done nothing but win since the early days of July.
As a result, the team is now 36 minutes of basketball against the defending champion Overseas Elite away from a $2 million prize and bragging rights. What's more, since the Tournament operates in a weird, social media focused selection process, 100 of the team's supporters could win with the Buffs, sharing in the prize should they come home with the title.
So, since the opportunities to credibly talk hoops over the summer are few and far between, I'm jumping at this chance. I'm going to give this championship game the full preview treatment, with in-depth discussion of both teams' rosters and abilities. I'll also come up with a prediction, saying just how likely it is that TC and friend of the blog @Coloradotrv get to share in a big payday on Tuesday. Let's get to it!
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Hype Music for the Evening: "I Get Money" by 50 Cent
Curtis Jackson, who I last saw promoting boxing, of all things, was one of the biggest rap acts in the world when I was going to CU. Since then, he's slid off my radar, dividing his time and talent amongst a bunch of differing pursuits. This song, one of his lesser hits, fits with tonight's theme: makin' money, bruh.
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Tip off from historic Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx is set for 5pm MT on Tuesday, 8/2. Televised coverage can be found on ESPN, with no radio option available, as far as I can tell. For those of you in the NYC area, you can purchase tickets here.
Before I get to the bag today, I want to take a minute to remember the true Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali. If you've been living under a rock, and hadn't heard, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world passed away last week, at the age of 74. I won't spend too much time here, as others much more capable then myself have written on the subject, but there isn't a single athlete of past generations that I resent having missed more than Ali. Beyond simply being a boxer, he commanded the ring and the narrative more than should've been capable, owning the public spectacle at a time that you still got your news from papers. To have been alive, watching as he held the sporting world in the palm of his hand, must have been awe-inspiring and transformational.
Even today, watching film of his fights is fascinating. No one takes punches like he could, no one that size has ever been as fast, no one more ferocious when he had a man stunned; this isn't just smoke, he was, legitimately, the GOAT. As a boxing fan, I pain seeing what others got to absorb in real time. As a historian, I marvel at the impact he had outside of the ring. We will never see another athlete like him, a defining American caricature now lost to the ages. RIP.
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Today in the bag, I'm talking one last gasp on the 2016 recruiting trail for Coach Boyle and crew, the NBA Finals (such as they are), some #SoxThoughts (as promised).
Before I get going today, I want to give a special shout out to Ryan Koenigsberg who's leaving his post as the editor of BSN Buffs for bigger, brighter things on that site's Broncos landing. Since I give not two shits about the Donkeys, that pretty much means that RK is gone from my sporting life, which is a true shame. He did some great things on the Buffs beat, and the entirety of Buff Nation will miss his voice this coming season. Good luck, dude, and kick ass covering that stuff that everyone but me cares about!
In his stead, we all get to benefit from the return of William Whelan, which is a lot like going from DiMaggio to Mantle... or going back from Mantle to DiMaggio? Not sure, but, regardless, Will is an Elite commentator on all things Colorado Athletics, and is just about the most knowledgeable source on Centennial State hoops around. If you can't have RK dropping knowledge on the Black and Gold, you might as well get tha man himself to pick up the baton. Welcome back, Will! Can't wait for that weekly podcast drop!
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Today in the bag, I'm talking renewed pratfalls on the basketball recruiting trail, the NBA Playoffs, and the basebrawl between the Blue Jays and Rangers.
As @EricMetcalfe helpfully pointed out, today is the 6-year anniversary of Tad Boyle being announced as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. What a day that turned out to be for this program! Basketball in Boulder has never been the same; the program that is almost unrecognizable from the program that was. In just over half a decade, Coach Boyle has brought us all to the point where we're disappointed by a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament. Yo, that's quite a transformation. Good hire, Mike Bohn. Good hire.
Wow, has time flown. From: the BDC
For those adventurous few interested, I've linked to my article from that day here. It is... not good. But it will at least give you a sense of the optimism and hope I felt at the time of the hire, while at the same time shedding a tear for the deserved Steve McClain (since banished to the veritable basketball wasteland that is UIC). Luckily for us Buffs, Alec Burks came back, and all questions of 'what if' have since been erased.
Anyways, happy anniversary, Coach Boyle!
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Today in the bag, I only got two topics, and both of them are about transfers. I'll start off with the Davis Webb 'thing,' before finishing with a basketball transfer roundup.
The news spread like wildfire Wednesday night, breaking up an otherwise monotonous evening of #BuffsTwitter infighting: the transfer rumors were true, but it was two Buffs, not just one, who were leaving the program. As it became clear, both junior wing Tre'Shaun Fletcher and sophomore forward Kenan Guzonjic had decided to continue their playing careers elsewhere, shaking up the narrative I had laid out in last week's Tuesday Grab Bag. Colorado, rather than hitting the summer with a fully complimented roster of 13 scholarship players, would indeed be hitting the break with two open slots.
The surprise here isn't that there is a transfer scenario playing out in Boulder, or even the players involved. In fact, when I had a discussion with a good friend of the blog a few weeks back about the transfer rumors, the first two speculative names out of my mouth were Kenan and Tre'. What is a surprise, at least to me, is that it was multiple players pulling the trigger, making this the second consecutive offseason that it's transfers, plural, emanating from the program (Dustin Thomas and Jaron Hopkins left last spring). I guess, in retrospect, we all should've seen the writing on the wall. Coach Boyle himself alluded to the potential for multiple transfers in his post-season presser Tuesday afternoon, citing a plan for a second scholarship to open up. It is what it is, and I view these moves in a significantly different light than I did those from a year ago, but it still means the coaching staff will have to stay active on the recruiting trail this spring, probably in the hunt for at least one incoming transfer to even out class balance.
But, those are all matters for another day. What this article is about is remembering the contributions of Fletcher and Guzonjic to our beloved Colorado Buffaloes. After the jump, I'll give each the farewell treatment, focusing, as always, on the best aspect of their games, what they will best be remembered for, and their best single efforts in Black and Gold.
The Jayhawks, comforted by years of hoops dominance, have not seen the danger in signing up to play the poor old Buffaloes again. Oh sure, if the series starts in Lawrence this year, CU may get throttled, youth and inexperience possibly keeping the game from being competitive. But that first return leg... *evil grin, maniacal laugh* Lawrence seems to have missed the memo: shit's changed around here.
I had been doing mental gymnastics, trying to envision a scenario where we could trick KU in to coming back up to 5,385 feet of Rocky Mountain High Altitude. Turns out, they'll stroll in willingly.
If KU is expecting 6,000 open seats eagerly waiting the return of their fans, they will be left wanting. That crowd will be Black and Gold, mark my words. Those Jayhawks will be marching into a frothing CEC, with the long-suffering Buff fanbase out for blood and revenge. BLOOD AND REVENGE!
This is a perfect situation for CU. We get the lone Big 8 hoops rival we should care about back on the schedule, and an immediate RPI boost (we care about such things now). From the KU perspective, they get a series that placates the western portion of their fanbase, and a game against a conference champion.
They'll also get a big fat road loss hung on their head in two years.
The news broke yesterday in yet another informative Ryan Thorburn Wednesday chat: Shannon Sharpe is leaving the program. According to the Camera, the reserve guard is planning to transfer to a school closer to his family home in SoCal to take care of family business. Speculation on Allbuffs has said Cal State Fullerton is a possibility, but I will update when there's confirmation of his new home.
Good luck, Shannon, and God bless.
It was only two years ago that I wrote this about Shannon: "I haven't been this excited to see a CU freshman since I heard about Richard Roby tearing up preseason practices in 2004." He was recruited as a hyper-athletic project guard, with a tantalizing vertical ability. His practice court exploits were the talk of fall camp when he arrived on campus in '09, and it's no wonder when watching this tape:
But, as is often the case, hyper-athleticism doesn't necessarily translate into in-game ability. Shannon was never able to develop the kind of jumper required to earn chunks of playing time under either Coach Bzdelik or Boyle, and his on-ball defense, an absolute necessity under Boyle, was often lacking when he jumped into a game. What's more, a devastating knee injury, just minutes into his first practice in Boulder, set back his development.
While he proved to be an important reserve on the '10-'11 squad, appearing in all 38 games, he saw his minutes cut drastically this season as the incoming freshmen duo of Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie proved ready to play from opening night. All told, he only saw 103 minutes of action this past season, with none coming in leverage situations.
Still, he was capable of moments of pure athletic joy. I will never forget his game-capping dunk in the 2011 NIT regional semi-final against Cal. When you talk hops, this is hops:
By all accounts, Shannon was a fantastic guy, and a solid teammate. It's a shame he isn't able to complete his career in Boulder, but I wish him the best of luck in the future. Maybe we'll run into him in post-season play come spring.
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The immediate impact on the program is that it opens up a scholarship to offer to the bountiful 2013 recruiting class. Prior to Shannon's departure, the coaching staff had only been able to offer a speculative spot for new recruits, with limited hope of landing someone in the early signing period. Now, all avenues are open. Should Ben Mills also transfer out, that will only further to improve the staffs recruiting position.
With numerous big-name players not only available, but interested in coming to CU, the program should be able to take this departure in stride.
