Former Wyoming coach Steve McClain reacts during the second half of a game against Air Force during the 2007 Mountain West tournament. Wyoming won 67-62.

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Mark Allan Peterson
Managing Editor
editor@big12hoops.com 

Former Wyoming head coach Steve McLain, the current Associate Head Coach at Colorado, will coach the Buffs tonight against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The game starts at 7 p.m. CST at the Coors Events Center.

Jeff Bzdelik will at least miss tonight's season opener after the Colorado coach was called out of town early this morning due to an undisclosed family emergency.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Jeff and his family," CU athletic director Mike Bohn said.  "We are fortunate to have a veteran former head coach with a great deal of experience and previous success like Steve McClain to lead our team while Jeff is out of town."

It's not known at this time if Bzdelik will be able to return in time for CU’s next game Monday against Coppin State.

McClain, the former University of Wyoming head coach from 1998-2007, brings over 27 years of coaching experience to the CU bench. He averaged 18 victories in nine years at Wyoming and led the team to post-season births in four of his first five seasons, three NIT bids and one trip to the NCAA Tournament.

BOULDER – University of Colorado men’s basketball head coach Jeff Bzdelik announced Wednesday that senior Dwight Thorne II and junior Cory Higgins were named captains for the upcoming 2009-10 season. Both earned the honor for the second straight year.

Thorne II, the lone senior on the team, enters his senior campaign coming off his best season-to-date finishing second in team scoring (12.0 ppg.), steals (35), made field goals (128) and made free throws (70). He was the team leader with 45 3-pointers.

Thorne, a native of Arlington, Texas, was also selected one of 10 NCAA Division I student-athletes to participate on an Athletes In Action (AIA) team last summer against teams in Poland and Germany.

Higgins, originally from Danville, Calif., also enters the new season after a stellar sophomore campaign that earned him an All-Big 12 Conference third team selection. Higgins was also associated with elite company last year as one of 13 players nationally ranked first or second on their team in five major statistical categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks). He was the only sophomore on that list.

Sharpe was a standout at Centennial High School in California where he averaged 17.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 3.2 steals per game in 2007-08 helping Centennial to a 27-5 record during his senior season.

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Big hit for the Buffs

Mark Allan Peterson

Big12Hoops Managing Editor

Colorado freshman guard Shannon Sharpe, a 6-1 guard from Corona, Calif., will miss the coming season according to Buffs head coach Jeff Bzdelik.

"Shannon’s injury has been difficult for all of us to deal with because our strong feelings for him as a terrific young man and for what he would have meant to our effectiveness as a team for this season," Bzdelik said. "However, he will come back even stronger for next season and that bodes well for our future. It is now up to others to contribute more, and I strongly believe in my players to rise to the occasion."

Sharpe will undergo micro-fracture surgery after injuring his left knee during one of the team's pre-season workouts.

The Buffs, picked to finish near or at the end of the Big 12 standings by most pre-season sources, begin the season Nov. 13 in Boulder against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Tip-offf is 7 p.m. CST.

In a recurring piece leading up to the start of the basketball season, we will examine the top 5 questions surrounding each Big 12 basketball team.

Today, the top 5 questions for the Colorado Buffaloes.

1)       Now that Jeff Bzdelik is in his third year, can he bring a winning season to Boulder?

2)       If not, how much longer will the CU AD go on with the Bzdelik experiment?

3)       Can Cory Higgins perform up to his 08-09 level, when he placed fifth in the conference in scoring?

4)       Who else steps up for the Buffaloes?

5)       Will the Buffaloes improve upon last season's 1-15 conference record?

Check back tomorrow when we will ask Five Question For... Iowa State basketball.
Also check out Five Questions For... Missouri, Kansas

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BOULDER – Former University of Colorado basketball and baseball student-athlete Ron "Wrigs" Wrigley passed away on Sunday, Sept. 27 after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 55.

Wrigley played for CU on the varsity basketball team for three seasons from 1972-1975 where he was a standout post-player under legendary head coach Sox Walseth.

Although he only averaged 1.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 22 games as a sophomore, Wrigley played a contributing role during his junior and senior seasons, playing in all 26 games both years.  He averaged 5.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game as a junior in 1973-74.

It was his senior season where he shined, finishing third in team scoring averaging 11.3 points per game and leading the Buffaloes in rebounding with a 7.2 clip.  In his last collegiate game, Wrigley recorded a 21-point and 11-rebound performance in CU’s 106-97 victory over Missouri on March 8, 1975.

During his freshman season, Wrigley averaged 12.7 points per game.

An outstanding baseball player as well, Wrigley, also lettered for CU in 1974.

Prior to enrolling at CU, Wrigley earned basketball and baseball letters at St. Augustine High in San Diego, Calif.  He was also awarded All-City honors in both sports.

Wrigley was once selected by the San Diego Padres in the baseball draft, however opted to attend college first. 

"Ron was much-loved by the entire CU community and was successful in every sense of the word," said longtime friend and college roommate Ed Shoen, who lettered at CU in football from 1972 through 1974.

Wrigley is survived by his daughter, Alex, who lives in Phoenix. (CU SID)

Could Ralphie be soon roaming the sidelines during Mountain West Conference games? (Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

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By Evan Pfaff, Big12Hoops.com Missouri Beat Writer

The cover story of last week's Newsweek was entitled "The Case For Killing Granny." The article talks about the high cost of health care and whether "Killing Granny" is better in the long run, economically, socially and emotionally.

Reading it, I started thinking about the need to resuscitate some struggling Big 12 schools.  There are some programs out there who seem content just going through the motions... not making waves of any sort. One of these programs is the University of Colorado.

Would it be the worst thing to "let" CU move away from the Big 12 and in to, say, the Mountain West Conference?

I know this is a basketball blog, but briefly let me first discuss football that underscores the larger argument, well at least the brand that CU claims to be football.

In the years 2006-2008 CU has won a total of eight conference football games, out of a possible 24.  This year they lost at home to in-state rival Colorado State and then at Toledo.  They did beat Wyoming at home, but that is the same Wyoming team that squeaked by Weber State in the first game of the season (former Mizzou offensive coordinator, Dave Christensen, we know better times are ahead for you and the Cowboys).

On the hardwood, CU hasn't fared any better. Over the same time frame, CU basketball brings with them a 25% conference winning percentage, having won 16 of the 64 conference games they have played since the start of 2005-06 season.  And last year they saw an average of 4,262 come out to sit in the 11,064 seat Coors Event Center, ranking them last in the Big 12 in attendance.

CU doesn't field a baseball team and isn't particularly competitive at any non-running sport.  To its credit though, CU has brought home 9 conference championships since the start of the 2004 academic year, registering 8 in cross country and one in men's outdoor track.

Geographically, Boulder is the outpost of the conference.  It remains the only Big 12 school in the Mountain time zone and the closest Big 12 city to "The People's Republic of Boulder" lies in Lincoln, Nebraska, some 7 hours drive away.

Conversely, there are six Mountain West schools that are within an 8-hour drive of Boulder, two of which reside in the state of Colorado. Colorado State University in Fort Collins and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs are 1 and 1.5 hour drives, respectively, from Boulder.  The University of Wyoming, the University of New Mexico, BYU and the University of Utah also all fall within the 8-hour drive.

And just because CU would transfer to a non-BCS conference doesn't mean they would be the big, bad bully.  As shown already this year, CU couldn't defeat MWC middling CSU on the grid iron in the "Rocky Mountain Showdown."  They probably wouldn't fare any better against national powerhouses in BYU, TCU or the Utah Utes.

In terms of MWC league basketball, CU would face the tough challenge of having to face Utah, UNLV and BYU on a regular basis.  Other schools may give CU stiff competition, however those are the preeminent MWC hoops powerhouses.

So what now?  Would there be another mis-numbered conference (yeah, I ‘m looking at you, Big Ten)?  Nonsense!

Right now the MWC has 9 teams, CU would even them out to ten.  The logical step is to accept the University of Arkansas into the conference.  Arkansas is a sub 4-hour drive to either Oklahoma school and already has a rival in Austin.  Hell, I had a groomsman in my wedding from the city that would relish the rivalry most, Texarkana.

Sharing a border with Missouri also brings another rival. In fact Arkansas and Mizzou have a storied history of battling over recruits and despising each other's existence.  (One of the best stories from the Mizzou heckling group, the Antlers, involves dangling a hog's head off a fishing pole in front of the Arkansas team bus as they pulled into the Hearnes Center for a 1992 match-up.)

Now, realistically this would never happen because of fiduciary concerns.  CU is already in a tough spot because of nearly $13 million in cuts in state funding, so the loss of Big 12 money would devastate an already tight financial plan.

Not being in a BCS conference means a substantial loss of money.  The 2009 BCS bowls paid out $17.5M to each conference.  Since the Big 12 is a BCS conference, they are guaranteed to land at least one of these slots (they got two in 2009).  The MWC, however, isn't guaranteed and needs substantial help to get a coveted slot.  Besides the BCS games, the Big 12 has football contracts that could put up to 8 teams into bowls.  The MWC doesn't have this luxury.

And in terms of hoops, the Big 12 generally gets about half its members into March Madness each year.  The MWC generally sends two teams.  Again, less money to be split amongst conference schools.

So like everything else in sports (and in the world) the decision to keep CU in the Big 12 will come down to the all mighty dollar.... which is good news for any Big 12 team looking for an easy W.

Follow Evan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MizzouHoops/

Junior college transfer Marcus Relphorde, who played at St. Louis as a freshman, has a modest goal for his first season at Colorado -- to be the Newcomer of the Year in the Big 12.

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COLORADO 2009-2010 PROSPECTUS

Written by Paul Lee
Paul.Lee@big12hoops.com

IMPACT LOSSES
F-Jermyl Jackson-Wilson
F-Toby Veal
G-Ryan Kelley

IMPACT NEWCOMERS
PG-Shannon Sharpe
SG-Alec Burks                                                                    
SG-Keegan Hornbuckle                                                               
PF-Shane Harris-Tunks
PF-Marcus Relphorde

PROJECTED STARTERS
PG-Dwight Thorne
SG-Cory Higgins
SF-Austin Dufault
PF-Casey Crawford
PF/C-Marcus Relphorde

THE NEWCOMERS
There's much to be excited about with CU's incoming freshmen. 

Although there doesn't seem to be a national, blue-chip recruit that can revitalize a program, ala Chauncey Billups, the incoming players are a well-rounded group with a few potential stars. 

The two shooting guards, Alec Burks and Keegan Hornbuckle show much promise. Burks is a dynamic scorer that is versatile enough to play at the one through three positions, and he has the swagger to match his huge upside. 

Hornbuckle, who spurned Arizona amongst other schools from the power conferences, also has a great shot that can extend a defense.  Along with Shannon Sharpe, who attended a prep institute for a year after high school, and Marcus Relphorde, an energetic post presence from the JUCO ranks, these two should see consistent minutes in their first year as Buffaloes. 

Harris-Tunks is an Australian big-man that needs much time in the weight room before he's ready to bang around the post in the Big 12.

Aside from the Maui Invitational, the non-conference schedule is not intimidating, allowing the young squad to potentially generate momentum going into conference play. Overall, the Buffs are a promising team that could surprise many and fight their way to an NIT bid.

OUTLOOK
Last year was a struggle as the Buffs only won nine games overall with only one win in the Big 12. However, expectations were low last year, as many of their players were incoming freshmen.

This year, expectations are a little higher. Most of the Buffs' hopes rest on the steady shoulders of Cory Higgins, an All-Big 12 performer that seems to do everything for the team.  He led the team in points (17.4 ppg), rebounds (5.4 rpg), and steals.  Helping with the scoring load will be Austin Dufault, an emerging sophomore that showed promise last season.  With a year under his belt and better conditioning, Dufault could emerge as a solid second scoring option.

The question marks with this team are at the point guard and in the post.  Dwight Thorne and Nate Tomlinson shared the point duties last season, but neither really took control of the position. Tomlinson was just a freshman though, and like Dufault, has promise. Both players will be pushed hard by Sharpe, who is the most athletic of the three.

In the post, the Buffs will struggle. Last year, Trey Eckloff showed decent effort, but he clearly did not have the tools necessary to man the post as a freshman.  He will be counted on though, as will Trent Beckley and Casey Crawford. Crawford was a disappointment last year, as there was hype about his ability to stretch a defense from the power spot.  He struggled with his shot however, and he did not have the muscle or swagger for playing inside.  The energetic Jackson-Wilson will be missed, but Relphorde should be an adequate replacement.

Overall, the Buffs are a promising team that could surprise many and fight their way to an NIT bid.  They didn't lose too many players (only one that contributed significant minutes), and bring in some talented freshmen. Even though the record doesn't show it, Coach Bzdelik is a solid coach, who even garnered some NBA interest over the summer.  There is a glaring lack of a true post presence, and although that might draw some concerns for a team playing in the physical Big 12, Coach Bzdelik's system does not rely on a true post presence. 

Not having a physical force inside will hurt, but the Buffs should be competitive with heady play from the wings. 
Higgins, Dufault, Burks and Hornbuckle all can shoot and pass, and if the incoming freshman grasp Bzdelik's basketball philosophy quickly, the Buffs may surprise some teams.  Aside from the Maui Invitational, the non-conference schedule is not intimidating, allowing the young squad to potentially generate momentum going into conference play.

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