C-unit brings buzz to Boulder.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: SPORTS biz - University of Colorado

YEARS AGO A FRIEND CONVINCED ME to go in on season tickets to the University of Colorado men's basketball program. There was a promising new perimeter guard on the team named Chauncey Billups. and coach Ricardo Patton seemed like he knew what he was doing, so what the hell. We made the trek up U.S. 3G from Denver about every other week through a frigid Colorado winter, hurrying from the parking lot to the Coors Events Center in the frosty cold on Tuesday nights.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

And when we got inside, you'd have thought they were hosting a funeral.

With attendance rarely lopping 4,000, few students in sight and the ambience as flat as a warm beer, college basketball in Boulder was a deflating experience. And it staved that wav for a long lime.

But now something amazing is going on. Basketball at the Coors Events Center is a happening. Basketball at the Coors Events Center is. well, like the college basketball you see on ESPN at places like Duke and Syracuse: crazy kids festooned with fact: paint, constant noise, mania with every three-pointer (hat goes swish.

Welcome to the big time. CU.

It's hard to overstate (hr transformation. As satisfying as it was to see Colorado win the Par-12 championship and earn an invitation to the NCAA tournament last month, the bigger, more enduring story will transcend the glory of a single season. Tad Boyle's Buffs have accomplished something I never thought we'd see: They've brought bona-fide, NCAA-quality hoops mania to Boulder.

An arena that was as sober as a library for years now rocks hard enough that GU fans made the list of eight finalists for the national Naismith Student Section of the Year Award putting them in the company of renowned rooters from places like Kansas, Gonzaga and Indiana.

Seriously? CU? A finalist for The Naismith award? Who woulda thunk?

The change at Coors Events Center is mostly a product of winning, of course. In the regular season this year, the Buffaloes treated fans to a 11-2 record, including frenzied finishes against Arizona and Oregon that sent the place into the stratosphere. Average attendance topped 7.580 a heady 63 percent higher than it was in...