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As far as season-openers go, it might have been a sight to behold for Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball fans.
Junior guard Cory Higgins led the way with 26 points and Colorado won its home opener for the second straight year, defeating the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions 88-72 Friday in front of 5,086 at the Coors Events Center.
CU knocked off the Golden Lions in its season-opener last year 76-56, a contest in which four Buffaloes scored in double figures. It was more of the same on this night as five Buffs, including four starters, reached double figures. Freshman point guard Alec Burks, who had 13 points in his collegiate debut, started in place of sophomore Nate Tomlinson.
“I think I played good,” Burks said. “I had some little mistakes, but you know, it’s my first game so I played through them.”
The diaper-dandy went 9-of-13 from the free-throw line and was unafraid to take the ball strong to the hole.
Higgins didn’t have a bad night either, especially at the charity strike where he went a perfect 16-of-16. Free-throw shooting had been an Achilles heel for CU in the past, but not on this night as the team shot a collective 34-of-40 for a whopping 85 percent. The junior lauded his teammates’ play as they stepped up on the offensive end to take a little pressure off his shoulders.
“When everybody’s aggressive, it takes our whole team to another level,” Higgins said. “It’s great just having guys that can bring that to the table.”
It wasn’t just Burks who came to Higgins’ aide. Senior Dwight Thorne II and sophomore Austin Dufault scored 10 points apiece and had solid performances in the starting lineup. Junior sharpshooter Casey Crawford added 10 off the bench by hitting two three-pointers and drawing a foul on another. As for Tomlinson, the Australian showed no signs of remorse for being relegated to the bench, tallying seven points and seven assists in 32 minutes.
“It’s great to have a guy with all the experience he (Tomlinson) gained last year coming off the bench,” Higgins said. “He’s just going to add another spark. That means we’re not going to lose anything when he comes in.”
There were a couple of sour notes for the Buffs on Friday. One surprise came before the game when it was announced that CU head coach Jeff Bzdelik would not be on the bench as he had to fly east to tend to an undisclosed “family emergency.” Associate head coach Steve McClain stepped in as interim head coach and filled in nicely for Bzdelik. McClain wasn’t at a loss for head coaching experience as he was the head man at Wyoming from 1998-2007, where he had a 157-115 record. McClain said after the game that Bzdelik was doing fine and Higgins added that Bzdelik had sent the team numerous text messages wishing them good luck.
“Literally, he’s our leader,” Higgins, referring to his head coach, said. “When we heard that news, it probably pumped everybody up more because we knew we had to step up and we definitely wanted to make sure we didn’t have a letdown while he was gone.”
From start to finish, McClain was animated on the Colorado sideline, which is a stark contrast to the Zen-like stoicism Bzdelik exhibits. McClain’s personality definitely seemed to rub off during the course of the game, especially when CU was down early.
“I’ve always believed this: if you don’t have that passion….and you don’t have that energy…how can you expect your team to?” McClain said. “I felt like we had talked to those kids about bringing energy. I wanted to bring that for them, too.”
A prime example of McClain’s energy came on a fast break less than eight minutes into the game. After getting a steal, Tomlinson fed Higgins on a beautiful behind-the-back pass that Higgins slammed with two hands while getting fouled. The old-fashioned three-point play put the Buffs up for good and got the crowd energized for the remainder of the game.
Junior Marcus Relphorde had a bit of an underwhelming Colorado debut, scoring six points on 3-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes on the floor. Relphorde was in foul trouble early, picking up his third at the 12-minute mark of the first half. He played with four fouls the majority of the second half. Despite not getting off to the start he wanted, Relphorde’s feelings after the game summed up the general consensus of the team.
“Just glad to have the first game out of the way,” Relphorde said. “Looking forward to the other ones, glad the team played hard and got this win.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer David Starcer at David.starcer@colorado.edu.
