Boulder, Colo. ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Sorry to inflict that old football bromide on you, but it kept ringing through my head late Monday night.
Here was Colorado, supposedly accustomed to the thin air of Mile High Country, wilting late to a flatlands team that should have been gasping for breath and begging for oxygen.
| Kansas | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Colorado | 43 | 32 | 75 |
Attendance: 11,363
During the last seven minutes, Colorado disappeared like Sasquatch on a Flagstaff Mountain trail, and Kansas stole the basketball game, 85-75.
It wasn’t just the altitude, either. Natural gas prices may be higher than Mount Evans these days, but nobody bothered to turn down the thermostat at the jam-packed Coors Events Center.
Maybe it was because CU officials are so unaccustomed to a sellout crowd they didn’t realize they needed to take a couple of logs off the fire.
Finally, I did all I could do by rolling up my sleeves. CU coach Ricardo Patton took his suit coat off. KU coach Roy Williams didn’t, and his suit is headed for the dry cleaners. The sweat, Williams said, “was dripping off my ears.”
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were sweating, too, of course. And yet they were clearly the fresher team in the last seven minutes. Fresher is a matter of degree, however.
“I was hurting,” guard Jeff Boschee said after he had taken a shower and was dressing in a locker room that was, blessedly, cooler than the arena had been. “There was a time when I was completely deadbeat tired.”
Yet Boschee was a ringleader in the late surge that stuck a sock in the mouths of a CU student section that had been ragging on the Jayhawks (and, as usual, the officials) all night.
Boschee, it turned out, still had not recovered after his refreshing shower. “I feel,” he said, “like every muscle in my body will cramp up.”
While the Jayhawks were sucking it up during the fateful final seven minutes, the Buffs looked like their shooting arms had cramped up. During one stretch, they fired 10 consecutive bricks. Once they fell behind following two Kirk Hinrich baskets the first his lone three-pointer of the night the Buffs were ready for the fork test. They were done.
“With six minutes to go,” KU’s Eric Chenowith said, “coach said somebody’s going to give in, and we decided we wanted to be the tougher team.”
For a while, I thought D.J. Harrison, a junior college transfer, was headed for unanimous Big 12 Player of the Week honors. The 6-foot-7 Harrison scored 17 points in the first half about what he averages for a full game and then drained a couple of long-distance threes 28 seconds apart to boost CU’s lead to seven points.
At that 14-minute stage, the lithe, corn-rowed native of Nashville had 23 points. Then Harrison pushed his point total to 24 with 10:44 remaining. After that, he did what Bill Clinton did on Saturday. He dropped out of sight. Harrison didn’t score again until 27 seconds remained and the outcome was moot.
“I got a little tired,” Harrison said afterward, “but I had to fight through it. You’ve got to find extra effort and play tough.”
It was suggested Colorado’s slide actually began after the Nick Collison-Jose Winston incident with 16 minutes remaining. Not really. Colorado converted Collison’s intentional foul into four points and a five-point lead. And, heck, the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead for the next 10 1/2 minutes.
Without a doubt, Williams hadn’t been woofing on Saturday when he said this was the best Colorado team the Jayhawks would face in a long time. Kansas fans may have suspected that was just coach talk because Williams has lost only once in Boulder and KU loses to Colorado about as often as Williams visits Mozambique.
Before the game, Colorado’s raucous student section was chanting “Overrated, overated,” which I thought was strange because you don’t usually hear that litany until late in a game when it’s clear the unrated team willdefeat the ranked team.
That was only the second time this year I’ve heard the overrated chant used on the Jayhawks. That was at Wake Forest and the Jayhawks were definitely overrated following that humiliating 30-plus point defeat.
Overrated then, yes. Overrated since, no.
Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais). |
Boulder, Colo. ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Sorry to inflict that old football bromide on you, but it kept ringing through my head late Monday night.
Here was Colorado, supposedly accustomed to the thin air of Mile High Country, wilting late to a flatlands team that should have been gasping for breath and begging for oxygen.
| Kansas | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Colorado | 43 | 32 | 75 |
Attendance: 11,363
During the last seven minutes, Colorado disappeared like Sasquatch on a Flagstaff Mountain trail, and Kansas stole the basketball game, 85-75.
It wasn’t just the altitude, either. Natural gas prices may be higher than Mount Evans these days, but nobody bothered to turn down the thermostat at the jam-packed Coors Events Center.
Maybe it was because CU officials are so unaccustomed to a sellout crowd they didn’t realize they needed to take a couple of logs off the fire.
Finally, I did all I could do by rolling up my sleeves. CU coach Ricardo Patton took his suit coat off. KU coach Roy Williams didn’t, and his suit is headed for the dry cleaners. The sweat, Williams said, “was dripping off my ears.”
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were sweating, too, of course. And yet they were clearly the fresher team in the last seven minutes. Fresher is a matter of degree, however.
“I was hurting,” guard Jeff Boschee said after he had taken a shower and was dressing in a locker room that was, blessedly, cooler than the arena had been. “There was a time when I was completely deadbeat tired.”
Yet Boschee was a ringleader in the late surge that stuck a sock in the mouths of a CU student section that had been ragging on the Jayhawks (and, as usual, the officials) all night.
Boschee, it turned out, still had not recovered after his refreshing shower. “I feel,” he said, “like every muscle in my body will cramp up.”
While the Jayhawks were sucking it up during the fateful final seven minutes, the Buffs looked like their shooting arms had cramped up. During one stretch, they fired 10 consecutive bricks. Once they fell behind following two Kirk Hinrich baskets the first his lone three-pointer of the night the Buffs were ready for the fork test. They were done.
“With six minutes to go,” KU’s Eric Chenowith said, “coach said somebody’s going to give in, and we decided we wanted to be the tougher team.”
For a while, I thought D.J. Harrison, a junior college transfer, was headed for unanimous Big 12 Player of the Week honors. The 6-foot-7 Harrison scored 17 points in the first half about what he averages for a full game and then drained a couple of long-distance threes 28 seconds apart to boost CU’s lead to seven points.
At that 14-minute stage, the lithe, corn-rowed native of Nashville had 23 points. Then Harrison pushed his point total to 24 with 10:44 remaining. After that, he did what Bill Clinton did on Saturday. He dropped out of sight. Harrison didn’t score again until 27 seconds remained and the outcome was moot.
“I got a little tired,” Harrison said afterward, “but I had to fight through it. You’ve got to find extra effort and play tough.”
It was suggested Colorado’s slide actually began after the Nick Collison-Jose Winston incident with 16 minutes remaining. Not really. Colorado converted Collison’s intentional foul into four points and a five-point lead. And, heck, the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead for the next 10 1/2 minutes.
Without a doubt, Williams hadn’t been woofing on Saturday when he said this was the best Colorado team the Jayhawks would face in a long time. Kansas fans may have suspected that was just coach talk because Williams has lost only once in Boulder and KU loses to Colorado about as often as Williams visits Mozambique.
Before the game, Colorado’s raucous student section was chanting “Overrated, overated,” which I thought was strange because you don’t usually hear that litany until late in a game when it’s clear the unrated team willdefeat the ranked team.
That was only the second time this year I’ve heard the overrated chant used on the Jayhawks. That was at Wake Forest and the Jayhawks were definitely overrated following that humiliating 30-plus point defeat.
Overrated then, yes. Overrated since, no.
Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais). |
Boulder, Colo. ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Sorry to inflict that old football bromide on you, but it kept ringing through my head late Monday night.
Here was Colorado, supposedly accustomed to the thin air of Mile High Country, wilting late to a flatlands team that should have been gasping for breath and begging for oxygen.
| Kansas | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Colorado | 43 | 32 | 75 |
Attendance: 11,363
During the last seven minutes, Colorado disappeared like Sasquatch on a Flagstaff Mountain trail, and Kansas stole the basketball game, 85-75.
It wasn’t just the altitude, either. Natural gas prices may be higher than Mount Evans these days, but nobody bothered to turn down the thermostat at the jam-packed Coors Events Center.
Maybe it was because CU officials are so unaccustomed to a sellout crowd they didn’t realize they needed to take a couple of logs off the fire.
Finally, I did all I could do by rolling up my sleeves. CU coach Ricardo Patton took his suit coat off. KU coach Roy Williams didn’t, and his suit is headed for the dry cleaners. The sweat, Williams said, “was dripping off my ears.”
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were sweating, too, of course. And yet they were clearly the fresher team in the last seven minutes. Fresher is a matter of degree, however.
“I was hurting,” guard Jeff Boschee said after he had taken a shower and was dressing in a locker room that was, blessedly, cooler than the arena had been. “There was a time when I was completely deadbeat tired.”
Yet Boschee was a ringleader in the late surge that stuck a sock in the mouths of a CU student section that had been ragging on the Jayhawks (and, as usual, the officials) all night.
Boschee, it turned out, still had not recovered after his refreshing shower. “I feel,” he said, “like every muscle in my body will cramp up.”
While the Jayhawks were sucking it up during the fateful final seven minutes, the Buffs looked like their shooting arms had cramped up. During one stretch, they fired 10 consecutive bricks. Once they fell behind following two Kirk Hinrich baskets the first his lone three-pointer of the night the Buffs were ready for the fork test. They were done.
“With six minutes to go,” KU’s Eric Chenowith said, “coach said somebody’s going to give in, and we decided we wanted to be the tougher team.”
For a while, I thought D.J. Harrison, a junior college transfer, was headed for unanimous Big 12 Player of the Week honors. The 6-foot-7 Harrison scored 17 points in the first half about what he averages for a full game and then drained a couple of long-distance threes 28 seconds apart to boost CU’s lead to seven points.
At that 14-minute stage, the lithe, corn-rowed native of Nashville had 23 points. Then Harrison pushed his point total to 24 with 10:44 remaining. After that, he did what Bill Clinton did on Saturday. He dropped out of sight. Harrison didn’t score again until 27 seconds remained and the outcome was moot.
“I got a little tired,” Harrison said afterward, “but I had to fight through it. You’ve got to find extra effort and play tough.”
It was suggested Colorado’s slide actually began after the Nick Collison-Jose Winston incident with 16 minutes remaining. Not really. Colorado converted Collison’s intentional foul into four points and a five-point lead. And, heck, the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead for the next 10 1/2 minutes.
Without a doubt, Williams hadn’t been woofing on Saturday when he said this was the best Colorado team the Jayhawks would face in a long time. Kansas fans may have suspected that was just coach talk because Williams has lost only once in Boulder and KU loses to Colorado about as often as Williams visits Mozambique.
Before the game, Colorado’s raucous student section was chanting “Overrated, overated,” which I thought was strange because you don’t usually hear that litany until late in a game when it’s clear the unrated team willdefeat the ranked team.
That was only the second time this year I’ve heard the overrated chant used on the Jayhawks. That was at Wake Forest and the Jayhawks were definitely overrated following that humiliating 30-plus point defeat.
Overrated then, yes. Overrated since, no.
Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais). |
Boulder, Colo. ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Sorry to inflict that old football bromide on you, but it kept ringing through my head late Monday night.
Here was Colorado, supposedly accustomed to the thin air of Mile High Country, wilting late to a flatlands team that should have been gasping for breath and begging for oxygen.
| Kansas | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Colorado | 43 | 32 | 75 |
Attendance: 11,363
During the last seven minutes, Colorado disappeared like Sasquatch on a Flagstaff Mountain trail, and Kansas stole the basketball game, 85-75.
It wasn’t just the altitude, either. Natural gas prices may be higher than Mount Evans these days, but nobody bothered to turn down the thermostat at the jam-packed Coors Events Center.
Maybe it was because CU officials are so unaccustomed to a sellout crowd they didn’t realize they needed to take a couple of logs off the fire.
Finally, I did all I could do by rolling up my sleeves. CU coach Ricardo Patton took his suit coat off. KU coach Roy Williams didn’t, and his suit is headed for the dry cleaners. The sweat, Williams said, “was dripping off my ears.”
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were sweating, too, of course. And yet they were clearly the fresher team in the last seven minutes. Fresher is a matter of degree, however.
“I was hurting,” guard Jeff Boschee said after he had taken a shower and was dressing in a locker room that was, blessedly, cooler than the arena had been. “There was a time when I was completely deadbeat tired.”
Yet Boschee was a ringleader in the late surge that stuck a sock in the mouths of a CU student section that had been ragging on the Jayhawks (and, as usual, the officials) all night.
Boschee, it turned out, still had not recovered after his refreshing shower. “I feel,” he said, “like every muscle in my body will cramp up.”
While the Jayhawks were sucking it up during the fateful final seven minutes, the Buffs looked like their shooting arms had cramped up. During one stretch, they fired 10 consecutive bricks. Once they fell behind following two Kirk Hinrich baskets the first his lone three-pointer of the night the Buffs were ready for the fork test. They were done.
“With six minutes to go,” KU’s Eric Chenowith said, “coach said somebody’s going to give in, and we decided we wanted to be the tougher team.”
For a while, I thought D.J. Harrison, a junior college transfer, was headed for unanimous Big 12 Player of the Week honors. The 6-foot-7 Harrison scored 17 points in the first half about what he averages for a full game and then drained a couple of long-distance threes 28 seconds apart to boost CU’s lead to seven points.
At that 14-minute stage, the lithe, corn-rowed native of Nashville had 23 points. Then Harrison pushed his point total to 24 with 10:44 remaining. After that, he did what Bill Clinton did on Saturday. He dropped out of sight. Harrison didn’t score again until 27 seconds remained and the outcome was moot.
“I got a little tired,” Harrison said afterward, “but I had to fight through it. You’ve got to find extra effort and play tough.”
It was suggested Colorado’s slide actually began after the Nick Collison-Jose Winston incident with 16 minutes remaining. Not really. Colorado converted Collison’s intentional foul into four points and a five-point lead. And, heck, the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead for the next 10 1/2 minutes.
Without a doubt, Williams hadn’t been woofing on Saturday when he said this was the best Colorado team the Jayhawks would face in a long time. Kansas fans may have suspected that was just coach talk because Williams has lost only once in Boulder and KU loses to Colorado about as often as Williams visits Mozambique.
Before the game, Colorado’s raucous student section was chanting “Overrated, overated,” which I thought was strange because you don’t usually hear that litany until late in a game when it’s clear the unrated team willdefeat the ranked team.
That was only the second time this year I’ve heard the overrated chant used on the Jayhawks. That was at Wake Forest and the Jayhawks were definitely overrated following that humiliating 30-plus point defeat.
Overrated then, yes. Overrated since, no.
Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais). |
Boulder, Colo. ? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Sorry to inflict that old football bromide on you, but it kept ringing through my head late Monday night.
Here was Colorado, supposedly accustomed to the thin air of Mile High Country, wilting late to a flatlands team that should have been gasping for breath and begging for oxygen.
| Kansas | 40 | 45 | 85 |
| Colorado | 43 | 32 | 75 |
Attendance: 11,363
During the last seven minutes, Colorado disappeared like Sasquatch on a Flagstaff Mountain trail, and Kansas stole the basketball game, 85-75.
It wasn’t just the altitude, either. Natural gas prices may be higher than Mount Evans these days, but nobody bothered to turn down the thermostat at the jam-packed Coors Events Center.
Maybe it was because CU officials are so unaccustomed to a sellout crowd they didn’t realize they needed to take a couple of logs off the fire.
Finally, I did all I could do by rolling up my sleeves. CU coach Ricardo Patton took his suit coat off. KU coach Roy Williams didn’t, and his suit is headed for the dry cleaners. The sweat, Williams said, “was dripping off my ears.”
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were sweating, too, of course. And yet they were clearly the fresher team in the last seven minutes. Fresher is a matter of degree, however.
“I was hurting,” guard Jeff Boschee said after he had taken a shower and was dressing in a locker room that was, blessedly, cooler than the arena had been. “There was a time when I was completely deadbeat tired.”
Yet Boschee was a ringleader in the late surge that stuck a sock in the mouths of a CU student section that had been ragging on the Jayhawks (and, as usual, the officials) all night.
Boschee, it turned out, still had not recovered after his refreshing shower. “I feel,” he said, “like every muscle in my body will cramp up.”
While the Jayhawks were sucking it up during the fateful final seven minutes, the Buffs looked like their shooting arms had cramped up. During one stretch, they fired 10 consecutive bricks. Once they fell behind following two Kirk Hinrich baskets the first his lone three-pointer of the night the Buffs were ready for the fork test. They were done.
“With six minutes to go,” KU’s Eric Chenowith said, “coach said somebody’s going to give in, and we decided we wanted to be the tougher team.”
For a while, I thought D.J. Harrison, a junior college transfer, was headed for unanimous Big 12 Player of the Week honors. The 6-foot-7 Harrison scored 17 points in the first half about what he averages for a full game and then drained a couple of long-distance threes 28 seconds apart to boost CU’s lead to seven points.
At that 14-minute stage, the lithe, corn-rowed native of Nashville had 23 points. Then Harrison pushed his point total to 24 with 10:44 remaining. After that, he did what Bill Clinton did on Saturday. He dropped out of sight. Harrison didn’t score again until 27 seconds remained and the outcome was moot.
“I got a little tired,” Harrison said afterward, “but I had to fight through it. You’ve got to find extra effort and play tough.”
It was suggested Colorado’s slide actually began after the Nick Collison-Jose Winston incident with 16 minutes remaining. Not really. Colorado converted Collison’s intentional foul into four points and a five-point lead. And, heck, the Buffs didn’t surrender the lead for the next 10 1/2 minutes.
Without a doubt, Williams hadn’t been woofing on Saturday when he said this was the best Colorado team the Jayhawks would face in a long time. Kansas fans may have suspected that was just coach talk because Williams has lost only once in Boulder and KU loses to Colorado about as often as Williams visits Mozambique.
Before the game, Colorado’s raucous student section was chanting “Overrated, overated,” which I thought was strange because you don’t usually hear that litany until late in a game when it’s clear the unrated team willdefeat the ranked team.
That was only the second time this year I’ve heard the overrated chant used on the Jayhawks. That was at Wake Forest and the Jayhawks were definitely overrated following that humiliating 30-plus point defeat.
Overrated then, yes. Overrated since, no.
Three-point goals: 6-16 (Boschee 5-10, Hinrich 1-2, Gregory 0-2, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 21 (Hinrich 11, Boschee 6, Gooden, Gregory, Collison, Axtell). Turnovers: 12 (Gregory 3, Hirnich 3, Collison 3, Gooden 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 6 (Gooden 3, Chenowith, Collison, Axtell). Steals: 7 (Collison 2, Gooden, Chenowith, Hinrich, Boschee, Carey). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Three-point goals: 7-21 (Harrison 4-8, Mohr 2-6, Harbert 1-6, Winston 0-1). Assists: 18 (Winston 6, Fox 4, Mosley 2, Harrison 2, Harbert 2, Mohr, Renfroe). Turnovers: 15 (Mosley 4, Winston 4, Fox 3, Pelle, Harrison, Mohr, Harbert). Blocked shots: 3 (Pelle, Harrison, Fox). Steals: 9 (Harbert 3, Pelle 2, Harrison, Winston, Mohr, Morandais). |
