Coach Hawkins signs the book that Jeremy Dahnke, right, won in the drawing at yesterday’s Your Team town hall meeting on campus. Photo by Zak Wood/Colorado Daily

As I mentioned in today’s story on the Your Team meeting at the UMC yesterday, this was an event I was hoping many, many more of the devoted CU fans in the student section would have been able to come see.

There’s so much passion for CU sports, especially the football team, both in the wider community and on the CU campus. If I’ve learned one thing in my brief time here in Boulder so far, it’s an appreciation for that passion.

Which is why it’s such a shame the meeting at the Aspen Rooms in the UMC was so…sparsely attended, to put it kindly. Sure, there might have been a large audience watching online, but considering the support and popularity the athletic department has, I was expecting a larger turnout. I estimate maybe five students came to the meeting – at least, five students who weren’t a part of the Athletic Department, or from the CU Independent, the on-campus student-run web site.

Maybe the timing was wrong; maybe the Athletic Department didn’t advertise it properly (or enough). But it was at noon on a Monday at the hub of campus; simple enough time and date to remember. As for getting the word out enough, if you go to CUbuffs.com right now, the splash screen advertises the Your Team series.

Maybe Hawkins’ statement that they needed to offer free food to attract the students was right. Or maybe Bohn’s thought that this represented a trust in the direction the department and its teams were going in is correct, too (one would presume we’d see tons of students with pitchforks and torches if the department was worse off?).

And who knows what the online hit numbers were for watching the series online, but I may have to ask CU Sports Information Director Dave Plati for a grand total and average once all the meetings have finished up. Bohn was happy with the online numbers, but who knows what the ballparks or targets were for the department going in to these meetings.

But I do know that there’s more than four or five truly dedicated Buffs football fans out there on campus, who believe themselves to be very educated about the team and live and die “shoulder to shoulder,” as it were. I’d figure there’s more than a few hundred of those kids here. But less than a half dozen could find time on a Monday morning to get the sort of facts and figures athletics fans always want to see from the administration?

I find it hard to believe.

Jermyl Jackson-Wilson and Cory Higgins have been huge for the Buffs this year, but would receive more attention on our Bizarro Buffs. Daily Camera photo by Cliff Grassmick.

It’s Thursday, February 19, 2009, in an alternate parallel universe. One where the only real difference is a few bounces of a basketball…

The CU men’s basketball team improved its record in the Big 12 to 8-3 last night, running the season record to a strong 19-6.

This puts the Buffs in fourth in the Big-12, but sitting behind two teams they’ve beaten this year: Kansas and Oklahoma – and both on the road no less. Solidly in the conversation for an at-large pick for the NCAA Tournament, CU has even flirted with the Top 25 – rocketing in after the road upsets, but falling out after a stinkbomb in Ames against Iowa State.

Click hre to read more

As my brain slowly melts away from F5′ing ESPN and watching the NBA trade deadline wire…

Quick roundup of today’s Buffs news. First off, my short story previewing the CU ski team’s RMISA Regional meet this weekend in the Lake Tahoe area (Alpine team competing on the Nevada side, Nordic races on the California side). They have a great chance to bring home yet another regional title and carry the momentum on to the NCAA Championships in March in Maine. CU head ski coach Richard Rokos told me the team will be paying a little bit of attention to the NCAA regional qualifiers on the east coast this weekend because the competitions this year act as a good precursor and preview to how strong teams will be at NCAAs.

On the hardcourt, the men’s team lost a seventh game in eight by single-digits and combined with Nebraska to put up an all-time Big-12 single-game low points total, 46-41. CU has lost a shocking nine games by single digits this year, and that doesn’t even count the Texas game last weekend that went to overtime.

Flip those losses and they’re 19-6…clearly the team is almost there. But almost doesn’t count.

The women’s team had a happier time, winning it’s home “pink-out” game against Kansas Wednesday night at Coors. 69-62 win for the Buffs and that relegates the Jayhawks to the conference basement.

Something I was waiting for information on and missed yesterday was the final results of the CU women’s golf team’s first tournament of the spring in San Diego. CU ended up finishing ninth at the SDSU Aztec Invitational, with sophomore Stephanie Simich finishing ninth total with a one-under final round. Dominique Pytlewski, Christine Kim and Emily Talley rounded out the scoring.

And of course, don’t forget, we’ve had some cool different club and campus sports features the past week or so in the Daily: yesterday’s story on CU club synchronized skating, last Friday’s story on flag football at the indoor practice “bubble,”, and of course underwater hockey, which has a great video by Daily photographer Zak Wood.

Just got the press release in from CU. Denver Johnson, former head coach at Illinois State, will fill the vacant offensive line coach position with the Buffs. The 50-year-old coach had been at Illinois State the last nine seasons.

“He’s very highly respected, and is a great man and a great coach,” CU head coach Dan Hawkins said in the press release. “He has experience coaching with and against Big 12 competition and has recruiting ties in the Big 12 region, especially Texas. I think he’s a great fit for our staff and for our team. When we started looking for someone, his name kept cropping up and from a lot of different sources. And even more so, he really wanted to be a Buff.”

EDIT – More after the jump

Click hre to read more

I’ve been working for almost four hours but the coffee is just now kicking in. Time to spread some news you can use!

First on the docket: Tomorrow night is a “pink-out” at Coors Events Center for the women’s basketball game against Kansas. It’s a part of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s initiative to raise awareness and money to combat breast cancer, but more importantly, it gets to keep the equipment managers busy as they bust out some once-a-year pink gear for the home team. A bunch of teams participated in similar events last weekend, but CU’s women get to have the fun tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

UPDATE: Reading through the press release again, there appear to be incentives for wearing pink at the game – namely $3 general admission seats, and the first 500 fans will receive pink Crocs. Players will have pink shooting shirts, shoelaces and hair bands, so Equipment Manager Impact is LOW for this one (kind of a shame). Also, cancer survivors are encouraged to help form a tunnel for the team when they enter the court before the game. Good stuff.

CU’s women’s golf team is partaking in its first tournament of the spring semester right now in San Diego, but it seems like the weather didn’t get the memo. I don’t know if they’re playing the second and third rounds today or not, but we’ll update once we find something out.

Considering the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach got rained out yesterday, too, it seems like the golf gods are pissed off at SoCal traffic or something. Bask in the glory of knowing that you have better weather than San Diego right now, Boulderites, and we’ll brief you later on the status of the event.

A story to watch today is the drama in West Texas, as Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach and the TTU administration are facing a contract extension staredown. The Camera’s Neill Woelk has analysis of the situation and what it could mean for college coach contracts. It’d be hard to imagine that crazy pirate cruising waters outside of Lubbock, and Tech would be insane to let him go, but maybe they don’t quite realize what they’ve got? Who knows.

Pro news, the Avs play tonight against Ottawa in Denver and look to climb out of the basement. Also, the NBA newswire is alight with trade rumors and possibilities, but so far the only confirmed trade this week involves the alien from E.T.

It’s Cory Higgins’ world, we all just live in it. Photo from the Valentine’s Day tilt against Texas by Daily Camera photographer Cliff Grassmick

Man. That CU-Texas game on Saturday? That was a game. Watching from home on ESPN, it was nice to see the national announce crew praising Bzdelik and the job he’s done, it was even better to hear them gush over Cory Higgins, but when it comes down to it, that’s a pat on the head or a Miss Congeniality award compared to what it would’ve been like to get another conference win.

Especially over a team like Texas, who still harbor hopes to sneak into the Big Dance. Especially on national television, too, where it would have cemented the “hey, these guys ARE competitive” storyline that’s been building in past weeks (brain fart at Iowa State last week excepted).

Next year, hopefully the easy games against Iowa State are strolls, and the games like Saturdays go the other way at the end of the second half. Then, Camera sports writer Ryan Thorbrun’s NIT prediction might be cautionary at best.

In other news, two CU runners broke records this past weekend competing as the indoor season winds down. Senior sprinter Jeremy Dodson broke the 21-second mark en route to breaking the school record in the 200m at the Air Force Invitational this past weekend. Dodson’s mark of 20.88 seconds is the fourth-fastest collegiate indoor 200 this season, tops in the Big 12, and a new school record.

Out in Seattle, CU senior and Olympian Jenny Baringer smashed the NCAA and CU school record in the 5000 meters at the Husky Invitational on Saturday night at the University of Washington. It’s the second-fastest mark by an American in the indoor 5000 ever, and crushes the CU school record by 38 seconds. Her time – 15:01.7 – won the Husky Invitational race by over a minute.

Also, for anyone looking to gain a little insight into the thought process inside the Athletic Department, the first of the CU Your Team Town Hall Meetings is tonight at 7 p.m. at the Boulder Broker Inn. Athletic Director Mike Bohn and other selected members from both the athletic department staff (including coaches as schedules allow) and the general University community will present information about the state of CU athletics. Media members saw the presentation that will be used for the town hall meetings two weeks ago, and it’s definitely very, very informative.

Also, in former CU player news, Denver point guard Chauncey Billups came off the bench for the West in the NBA All Star Game last night in Phoenix. Mr. Big Shot had 5 points and 3 assists in 19 minutes in last night’s game (as if stats really matter in All-Star games anyways). NBA league play resumes later this week.

CU junior Dwight Thorne scored 9 points in the first half against Iowa State Wednesday night. Shame nobody else on the team scored a basket in the first 20 minutes. Associated Press photo.

Bzdelik’s Buffs fell guilty of a curse I’m all-too-familiar with in college basketball this season: overconfidence.

According to the Daily Camera’s Ryan Thorbrun, part of the reason for Iowa State’s 70-42 pasting of the Buffs – which included the Cyclones leading 37-9 at halftime – was an air of ease before the game that could be considered overconfidence.

After all, the Buffs had already beaten Iowa State once this year, and just taken Kansas and Oklahoma to the bitter end at their gyms – how hard could the Cyclones be?

Oh. Well.

“I sensed an air of comfort,” Bzdelik said in Thorbrun’s article. “It was different than what I had sensed in these previous games. I thought in particular at Oklahoma and at Kansas there was a real excitement and desperate kind of effort knowing that we had to play with everything we’ve got to compete. And we did.”

It’s not a shocking statement to say the Buffs are in a re-building process…no, scratch that. Considering the sad historic ticket sales history (the highest season average is a shade over 69% of capacity, though to be fair the Big 8 average was over 9,000 fans per-game in that year) and scattershot of post-season appearances for the Buffs in the program’s history, Bzdelik is building the program here.

If he stays for even 10 years he could probably become the program’s all-time wins leader; if he turns the Buffs into a team at least regularly fighting for NCAA play and settling for the NIT, he’ll be the legend of Coors for the men’s team.

While last night’s loss was disheartening, it was uncharacteristic of this team. Sure, they’ve lost, but since their last bad hammering (the Big 12 opener against Mizzou) the team has visibly improved. One bounce of the ball would have given them a second conference win in the dying seconds against Nebraska; they deserved that much.

The team seemingly thought it deserved to pick up Big-12 win number two (and win over the Cyclones number two) in Ames; that’s the attitude of a team which thinks it’s having a bad year, not one that’s building up a program.

That’s the attitude of my alma mater, Oregon, who are nailed to the Pacific-10 conference doormat this year. The Ducks – who bowed out of the first round of the NCAA tournament last year, and got to the Elite Eight two years ago – have a good chance to repeat Oregon State’s horrific 0-18 conference run last year.

If both the Buffs and Ducks finish with one win in conference play, just for argument’s sake, it’s a terrible year for Oregon; yes, that’s a rebuilding team with as many freshmen as Bzdelik’s Buffs, but the school now expects to compete.

However, what determines the memory of the 2008-09 Buffs is how they got there (if they do finish with such a lowly record). Do they finish meekly and roll over? Will they compete in some of the tough games they have left, like Texas on Saturday? Will they snatch a win or two? Can they play spoiler at the Big 12 Tournament?

It will be interesting to see how this team bounces back, especially against a team that’s just outside the Top 25 and will likely be dancing in late March. I doubt we’ll see such a meager performance again, though.

It’s a Wednesday night – what do CU and Denver sports fans have to look forward to? A couple good games on the hardwood, and a national team taking on its rival.

For CU, the men’s basketball team travels to Ames to take on Iowa State. The Cyclones are the only team the Buffs have beaten in Big 12 conference play this season. Despite a 4-game losing streak, Bzdelik’s team has taken a couple of conference powers (Kansas and Oklahoma) to the wall on the road and are showing marked improvement everywhere but the win-loss column. Watch it on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain.

The Nuggets are also in action; the game’s tipping off shortly on Altitude, and Melo and Billups will have a tough time against the new Superman, Dwight Howard.

And lastly, here in another half hour or so, the US men’s national soccer team will take on Mexico in Columbus, Ohio, in the first match of the final World Cup 2010 qualifying round. To call the red, white and blue and los tris a rivalry is an insult to rivalries, and Crew Stadium should be packed full of U.S. fans for the match. It’s live on ESPN2 and I am chomping at the bit to watch this tonight.

As a sports fan and writer, I’ve got opinions. From time to time, I get to stand on my soapbox and break out some thoughts on topics surrounding the world of sports. That’s what the Soapbox is good for.

So both Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and New York Yankee 3B Alex Rodriguez have had to fess up to being bad people recently, Phelps for pulling tubes from a bong at a party, Rodriguez for admitting he used steroids during his seasons with the Texas Rangers.

Great. I feel both Phelps and A-Rod did the right thing here – being as honest as possible, owning up to their wrongdoings, taking all the blame, asking for a chance at redemption, etc. All the right public-relations moves.

Phelps gets a pass from me – he’s 23, and he was taking some bong rips. Okay, it’s illegal to smoke weed, but not wild, crazy, nor exotic. It’s not exactly the most illicit thing to happen on a college campus; if he were caught with a mirror loaded with cocaine, or a syringe with heroin, or meth, then it’d be another matter. Double standard? Of course. And in all honesty, Phelps’ worst indiscretion was his drunk-driving arrest four years ago – getting stoned is not nearly as terrible or destructive in my eyes.

The U.S. swimming team did what it had to do, and the only sponsorship deal Phelps lost – Kelloggs – was going to expire at the end of this month anyways (link to CNBC, hat tip to AOL’s Fanhouse).

Imagine if Phelps had denied it – evidence would have mounted, pressure from sponsors and the US Olympic Committee would have piled on, and a veritable mountain would have been made out of a molehill. Fessing up, Phelps will allow this to slide out of the limelight sooner than later – and probably reduce it to “hey, man, guess how that swimmer dude managed to chow down all the calories to swim at the Olympics” jokes within a few months.

Honesty really is the best policy. In Rodriguez’s case, he’s got case studies in Major League Baseball to show this as well.

Barry Bonds is going to court next month for perjury, and may not even make the baseball Hall of Fame with an asterisk; Roger Clemens is unwanted anymore after being caught in a lie. Rafael Palmeiro’s career is tarnished and dented; Mark McGwire is a pariah, and Sammy Sosa is one or two steps away from joining him.

Compare that to the players who’ve fessed up – Andy Pettite? Accepted back in the clubhouse. Jason Giambi? It’s a footnote now. That doesn’t reduce the effect the implication of steroids use carries, but like a prison sentence, he’s served his time, and can move forward with his career and life.

Rodriguez says he still has eight or nine years to make up for steroid use. Let’s not travel down the “is he lying THIS time?” rabbit hole, and take the man for his word: Even though I’m not a great Rodriguez fan, I’m willing to accept his apology and move on with his career in baseball. If it turns out he lied (again) about how long he used steroids, let the public’s wraith rain down; but right now, he’s standing out, still, as one of the lone players of this generation that has no blood on his hands – or needles in his bag.

Colorado native Liz Kritza has been named the new CU volleyball head coach by athletic director Mike Bohn in a press conference today.

Kritza comes to Boulder after four years at Tulane. The Colorado Springs native also played for the Green Wave and served as an assistant before taking over the top job for the team in 2005.

Update: The CU press release has been updated with comments from both Bohn and Kritza, so here we are.

“I grew up playing volleyball in Colorado—I’m a Colorado kid,” Kritza said. “I grew up learning the game from some of the game’ s best, I spent a lot of time in the U.S. Olympic Training Center and it is an honor and professionally an absolute great move for me. It’s an honor to come back and lead this program to the heights I know the university is committed to and to the heights I know we will achieve.”

“This current group of players that I am inheriting are a wonderful group of student-athletes, they are highly principled young women,” she added, “I will continue to add into that and you need to know that the players I bring into my program anywhere I am, particularly here, I will take great pride in holding them to a really high standard conduct wise as far as their academics and being able to compete with anybody on the volleyball floor.”

We’ll have full coverage in tomorrow’s Colorado Daily and on buffzone.com.