After 10 games, freshman Alec Burks, above, ranked third among CU’s greats in their freshmen year. Chauncey Billups (Soc ex’99) had 204 points, Emmett Lewis (A&S ex’79) scored 175, and Burks had 161.

The men’s basketball team went 8-0 at home during the nonconference season, the Buffs’ best start at the Coors Events Center in 27 years. On the flip side, though, CU entered the second half of the season without having won a road game against a Division I opponent since December 2007. That includes a 77-62 defeat at Colorado State in December.

One week into January, the Buffs (9-5 in nonconference play) had matched last season’s overall win total.

Freshman Alec Burks gave CU a spark in the first half of the season, starting every game and scoring in double digits in each nonconference contest. He averaged more than 16 points per game going into Big 12 action.

“His talent is ridiculous,” teammate Cory Higgins noted.

As for the team overall, coach Jeff Bzdelik says. “This year we have more weapons (and) we’re more athletic. But everything is relative. We’ve gotten better, but the league has, too.”

Austin Dufault, a sophomore forward, looks forward to the upcoming basketball season.

Both basketball teams will play in Colorado plenty of times in the early part of the season. Of the women’s first 14 games, 11 will take place at home and another at Colorado State. The men, meanwhile, will be at home for seven of their first dozen games, in addition to playing another contest
at CSU.

The men are looking to rebound after three straight 20-loss seasons.

“One of the coaches said that if we didn’t do anything this off-season we’d still be a better team next year,” sophomore forward Austin Dufault told the Boulder Camera during the summer. “But we’ve been working extremely hard this off-season and hopefully with the new guys coming in, combined with the experience we got last year, we can put it together and have a good year.”

The CU women also hope to bounce back this season, having finished 11-18 in 2008-09.

Cory Higgins led the Buffs in scoring this season.

The men’s basketball team finished with the most losses in a season (22) in program history, which dates back to 1901, and with its second-worst in-conference winning percentage ever. The Buffs went 1-15 against Big 12 opponents in the regular season, placing last in the league.

The Buffs notched a 9-22 record overall — an unprecedented third straight 20-loss season. But since coach Jeffrey Bzdelik’s arrival two years ago, the Buffs have lost 20 of 42 games by only single digits. With the  2008-09 team comprised of one senior and one junior, the offensive firepower for the future provided 72.3 percent of the team scoring, making it the highest of any Buffs team since the Big 12 began play in 1996-97.

Sophomore guard Cory Higgins earned third-team All-Big 12 status and also was named to an all-district team by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He led the Buffs in scoring (17.4 average), rebounding (5.4) and steals (1.9).

As for the women’s basketball team, it finished last in the Big 12 Conference and suffered through a losing season for the third time in Kathy McConnell-Miller’s four seasons as CU’s coach. The 2008-09 Buffs posted an 11-18 record, including 3-13 in the Big 12, losing their last six games.

Playing without point guard Whitney Houston for the entire season due to a knee injury, the Buffs didn’t come close to duplicating the success of the 2007-08 season in which they advanced to the WNIT semifinals.

Sophomore Brittany Spears earned second-team All-Big 12 honors after averaging 18.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game for the season. Spears became the second Buff to score at least 1,000 points by the end of her sophomore season, joining Lisa Van Goor (EPOBio’86).

Sophomore Cory Higgins was named to the Rainbow Classic all-tournament team.

The men’s basketball team finished the nonconference season with an 8-6 record for the second consecutive year under coach Jeff Bzdelik.

The pre-Big 12 portion of the season included a victory over rival Colorado State and a disheartening home loss to Texas Christian in early December.

Bzdelik has tried to keep a long-term perspective when it comes to his young Buffs. The 12-man active roster at the start of 2009 included 10 players who were either freshmen or sophomores.

“We’re just so blasted young and we’re playing against teams that have juniors and seniors,” Bzdelik told the Boulder Camera.

“I’m not disappointed. I’m just realistic.”

On Jan. 5 sophomore guard Cory Higgins set a CU and Big 12 record by making his 40th consecutive free throw. In December, after scoring 33 points against CSU, Higgins became the first CU man in three years to be named Big 12 Player of the Week.