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  • Renck: With his salary, CU’s Deion Sanders doesn’t have luxury of rebuilding. This mess is his to fix

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    BOULDER — Leave it to Deion Sanders to refer to a Brazilian butt lift when trying to explain how his team got its (bleep) kicked last weekend.

    He was citing society’s obsession with instant gratification — pizza with a phone call, dinner dashed to our doorstep. You know, how nobody has patience anymore.

    It is fair after watching what unfolded Saturday night if that patience is starting to wear thin with Coach Prime.

    He was the most celebrated hire in school history. He made CU relevant, attracting TV networks to the games, NFL Hall of Famers to the sidelines.

    Three years into this experiment, the reality no longer matches the hype. The Buffs are a laughingstock again.

    And let’s be honest, in the current college landscape, coaches making $10.8 million per year don’t get the luxury of rebuilding seasons or failing to qualify for a bowl — even a bad one. CU requires victories in its final three games at West Virginia, against Arizona State and on the road versus Kansas State to be eligible for the postseason.

    Good luck.

    Arizona mauled the Buffs, 52-17, on a chilly night before 48,223 fans at Folsom Field. The first smattering of boos cascaded down after CU’s second offensive play. Half of those in attendance never wandered back to their seats after halftime.

    It is getting harder to see the whippings as an aberration. When a team gets outscored 81-7 in the first half in back-to-back weeks, it seems like what is happening on the field is a symptom of larger dysfunction. The Buffs have one conference win. Only Oklahoma State, which canned legendary coach Mike Gundy in September, is worse.

    Coach Prime handpicked this coaching staff and this overhauled roster. And the Buffs have done nothing well over the past two games. They fall behind, they miss tackles, they turn the ball over, and they lack discipline, which spawns visible anger and on-field arguments.

    “Don’t attack the players, come at me. Don’t attack the coordinators, come at me,” Sanders said, opening his news conference with a directive and announcing no players would be made available to talk.

    OK? So what went wrong?

    “I have no idea,” Sanders said, before hinting he was holding back his thoughts. “If I knew where the disconnect was, I would tell you.”

    At halftime, CU trailed by 31 and had more penalties (nine) than points (seven).

    A loss like this, it goes looking for people to blame, and it does not go wanting. The only hard part is where to start. A sequence in the second quarter captured problems that go far beyond the personnel to the leadership of the program.

    Quarterback Kaidon Salter, who was mercifully benched, delivered a 75-yard scoring strike to Sincere Brown when CU still had hope. The touchdown, and assumed point after, would have cut the deficit to 24-14. But a scan of the field showed as much yellow as black and gold.
    Omarion Miller was ruled an ineligible receiver downfield, suggesting he lined up wrong since, well, he is a receiver. How does that happen?

    Worse, the Buffs were pushed back another 15 yards for offensive lineman Yahya Attia “brandishing a weapon” while taunting an Arizona player. Finger guns? Really?

    Arizona wide receiver Tre Spivey runs for a touchdown after catching a pass as Colorado defensive end Arden Walker pursues in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

    The offense was terrible, collecting 117 yards in the first half while receiving a Bronx cheer when it made its initial first down.

    Coordinator Pat Shurmur has been something less than competent for years, so we really should not start the finger-pointing there.

    What about Salter? He has been a disappointment since the season opener and stayed true to form. As did backup Ryan Staub, whose first two passes were interceptions.

    Those who stuck around in the second half witnessed five-star prospect Julian Lewis connect on a 59-yard strike to Miller for the first touchdown of his career. But, even that created questions — namely, is he going to play the final three games and burn his redshirt season? If so, why?

    “Common sense,” Sanders said. “I don’t know his thought process or his parents’. I just can control what we can control. I am for the kids. If (a redshirt) is what he wants, that is what he will get.”

    Defensive boss Robert Livingston must be held accountable for his unit’s shortcomings. He lacks beef up front, a trademark of all of the teams under Coach Prime, leaving CU susceptible to any team that likes to run the ball. But the poor tackling, the lack of physicality, the bad angles, the blown assignments, remain jarring.

    All of the improvement Livingston fostered last season seemed like a long time ago when Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita stepped up into a pressure-free pocket and found Javin Whatley streaking wide open for a touchdown with 21 seconds left in the half. The referee on the goal line shrugged and slowly raised his arms in the air, unsure if he was inbounds. It is always best to assume the worst against this defense.

    No, this loss wasn’t the fault of Shurmur, Livingston, Salter, Staub, or any forgettable defender. It is on the man who hired them, recruited them and coaches them.

    Sanders talks about practice more than Allen Iverson. He promised things would change after getting walloped 53-7 by Utah. He was right. The Buffs got worse.

    Sanders brought in the latest gold jacket to campus this week with Ray Lewis questioning the players — “If you guys don’t believe in each other, how do you win?” — and pleading for them to improve communication and take their preparation seriously.

    Lewis was not wrong. But eventually, the message is just background noise in a lost season.

    Colorado safety John Slaughter, left, upends Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita after a short gain in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
    Colorado safety John Slaughter, left, upends Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita after a short gain in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

    The sobering truth is that these are not the good old days — like 2024, when Coach Prime could stack the roster with skill players, notably his son Shedeur and Heisman Trophy-winner Travis Hunter, and deliver a winning record.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Keeler: CU Buffs’ Travis Hunter is an NFL wideout playing cornerback, scouts say. “Receiver is where he can make the biggest impact”

    Keeler: CU Buffs’ Travis Hunter is an NFL wideout playing cornerback, scouts say. “Receiver is where he can make the biggest impact”

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    BOULDER — Jon Cooper figured he was out of the unicorn hunting game when Travis Hunter picked off his heart and ran it all the way back to 1981.

    “Roy Green was an outstanding nickel safety for the Cardinals,” Cooper, the longtime pro scout, associate GM and senior draft analyst with Ourlads.com, told me recently. “And went both ways before they decided he was too valuable as a receiver to do anything but (play offense).”

    Cooper was at a St. Louis Cardinals game 43 years ago when Green, a speedy return ace who’d recently been turned into a two-way threat at wideout and defensive back, became the first NFL player since 1957 to intercept a pass and catch another in the same game.

    “(Green) wasn’t as big as (CU football coach) Deion (Sanders) or Hunter,” the scout sighed. “He only did it for a season, or a season-and-a-half.”

    With an old Jim Hart and a young Neil Lomax at quarterback, then-Cards coach Jim Hanifan didn’t mess around when it came to what side of the ball mattered more. Once the coaching staff saw Green, a former track star, rack up 708 receiving yards and lead the Redbirds in touchdown catches (four) while re-learning the position on the fly in 1981, his days as an NFL defensive back were numbered.

    The whole experiment worked so well, Roy moved to offense full-time starting in 1982, eventually leading the NFL in touchdown catches in ’83 and in receiving yards in ’84, notching Pro Bowl berths in both seasons.

    “There are certain guys you want to throw to, guys you know will hang on to the ball,” Hart told Sports Illustrated in December 1981. “Roy’s one of those guys.”

    Hart might as well be describing No. 12, whose superhuman combination of hand-eye coordination, ball skills, agility and IQ have Buffs alums already calling him the best football player to ever don CU black and gold.

    “He’s got a great head on his shoulder as well. He’s tough. He’s smart,” Dave Syvertsen, Ourlads’ senior draft analyst and scout, said of Hunter, the cornerback/wide receiver whose 5-2 Buffs host 5-2 Cincinnati on Saturday night at Folsom Field. “I think he’s got great contest-catch numbers, too.

    “Great possession and ball skills. He has superstar potential.”

    Syvertsen grades the junior out as a first-rounder at both wideout and cornerback in the ’25 NFL draft. But like Cooper, he has a feeling front offices will look to pigeonhole Hunter into one side of the ball in order to preserve his long-term health.

    And like Roy Green two generations ago, they expect that side to be offense — with a sprinkling of defensive appearances, primarily as a nickel back or a slot corner, peppered in.

    “I think he could be a great corner,” Cooper said. “(But) there’s something to be said for guys playing some slot corner and also playing on offense. Deion did it himself.

    “I think it’s going to depend on the team. I could see him playing in sub packages on defense, because he’s so skilled … eventually, I think, he will be one or the other. I think receiver is probably where he can make the biggest impact long-term. The jury might be out as to whether he can go two ways initially or one way all the time. Unique, unique player.”

    The afternoon after CU hosts the Bearcats, the Carolina Panthers, 1-6 and going nowhere fast, visit the Broncos (4-3) at Empower Field. Tankathon.com’s 2025 NFL mock draft as of Tuesday afternoon pegged Hunter going to the Patriots with the No. 1 overall pick and Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders being taken by Carolina with the second selection. Longtime ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper recently ranked Hunter as the No. 1 overall pick on his big board.

    For a team that needs everything, including marketable, charismatic stars, Hunter ticks every box. That said, even Buffs icons such as Michael Westbrook, the greatest wideout in CU history, would suggest to Hunter that he lean on offense primarily at the next level.

    “I would use him as a wide receiver,” Westbrook told me, echoing the scouts’ sentiments. “I would sparingly put him in (with) nickel packages, dime packages. Anytime they’ve got four wideouts on the field, Travis goes in.”

    Defense may win championships, but touchdowns pay the bills. Unlike in Green’s era, limitation on contact with receivers, combined with rules that discourage quarterback hits, have made the NFL more of a passing league than ever.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary vs. Baylor was “better” than Kordell Stewart’s “Miracle at Michigan?” Michael Westbrook says yes. And no.

    Keeler: CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders’ Hail Mary vs. Baylor was “better” than Kordell Stewart’s “Miracle at Michigan?” Michael Westbrook says yes. And no.

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    Michael Westbrook has a new second-favorite miracle.

    “Our Hail Mary won the game,” the iconic former CU wide receiver told me by phone Monday when I asked to compare his 1994 Miracle at Michigan catch — which turns 30 on Tuesday — to Shedeur Sanders’ Mile High Miracle, the Baylor Blessing, in the Buffs’ bonkers overtime win this past weekend.

    “Theirs prevented them from losing the game. Ours won the game.”

    With that, he laughed.

    “You’ve got to remember who you’re talking to. I’m still Michael Westbrook. I’m still going to talk smack. Even though those are my Buffs.”

    He’s loving those 3-1 Buffs, by the way. And he loves wideout LaJohntay Wester’s sliding catch in the rain, the grab that brought Folsom Field to its feet and sent fans outside scurrying back to their seats as time expired.

    “Kordell (Stewart) had all the time in the world (in 1994),” Westbrook continued. “Shedeur running was the complete opposite. He’s getting tackled while he releases the ball. It was a stark contrast.

    “And (Stewart) is back there waiting for a tip with my 43-inch vertical, just sitting back there waiting. Theirs was a far more difficult play. Ours was very easy. We literally practiced that play every week. Every Friday we practiced that Hail Mary. (Shedeur’s) was a more skilled play, from their perspective.”

    Still: Two similar touchdowns, the last one happening three days from the 30th anniversary of the first? Who says the football gods don’t have a sense of humor?

    “It’s a huge blessing to have been a part of something like that,” Westbrook continued. “And then (30 years) later, to have something similar transpire … No. 10 throwing the ball in 1994 to No. 10 (Wester) actually catching it in 2024. My last name is Westbrook, his last name is Wester … it’s almost surreal.”

    It’s almost poetry. While Shedeur Sanders swung for the fences, Stewart was watching at home, clutching a pitching wedge nervously.

    “It’s one of those ‘moments,’ right?” the ex-Buffs QB told me Monday. “I’m like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ Mind you, the (FOX Sports) broadcast had just shown my Hail Mary pass from 1994, right before Shedeur threw that pass.

    “I don’t know if you call it fate. But history has a chance to repeat itself sometimes, in the same way, in the same capacity. I didn’t jump up. I was just like, ‘Wow, are you freaking kidding me?’ …  I had a moment. I just remembered how it was for us.”

    It was pandemonium. It was chaos. It was glorious.

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) and teammate Travis Hunter (12) celebrate Wester’s touchdown to force overtime against the Baylor Bears in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. Baylor Bears safety Devyn Bobby (3) walks toward the sideline. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    On Sept. 24, 1994, the unbeaten and seventh-ranked Buffs trailed 26-14 to start the fourth quarter at fellow unbeaten and No. 4 Michigan. Staring at a 26-21 deficit with six seconds left, Stewart, the Buffs QB, had driven CU to its own 36. After a spike stopped the clock, then-Buffs coach Bill McCartney called for “Rocket Left,” in which Westbrook, Blake Anderson and Rae Carruth lined up on the left side of the formation and James Kidd lined up wide right.

    The rest is college football history, still regarded as one of the wildest endings of any NCAA contest played over the last 50 years. Stewart dropped back to about his own 27 and fired a deep ball as time expired. The lob had enough juice to carry it past the Michigan 1-yard line, where a mass jump-ball situation ensued.

    Anderson tipped the rock high and behind him, where the 6-foot-3 Westbrook, tracking the ball with his eyes, leaped up and cradled it as he rolled to the turf, stunning more than 100,000 Wolverines faithful in the process. Ralphie 27, Big Blue 26.

    “There are no flags on the field,” the legendary Keith Jackson said on the broadcast. “Only despair for the Maize and Blue.”

    Westbrook’s No. 1 Hail Mary was always going to be a beast to beat. Especially given the context. And the opponent. And the beatified building it silenced.

    “The one thing I was jealous of, was when (Wester) caught the ball, the reaction was a complete, stark contrast (to mine),” Westbrook reflected. “It was complete and total, utter silence, versus the decibels being high enough (at Folsom) to pop your eardrums. And it was so awesome to see that.

    “I was jealous and I was very proud of them. And very happy.”

    The closest Big No. 81 ever came to that kind of maelstrom in Boulder was in September 1993. He’d tipped a Stewart Hail Mary to teammate Charles Johson for a TD against Baylor just before halftime, giving CU a 35-0 cushion at the break. The Buffs went on to maul the Bears, 45-21.

    “(The Miracle at Michigan) was on the road, we overcame the adversity of 100,000 fans, we just overcame 10 penalties. We came back and won,” Westbrook continued. “(The ’24 Buffs) came back and won, too …

    “It was a great play. I’m not going to take that away from them. To put that ball where (Sanders) put it and for (Wester) to catch it like he caught it, that was a better play. That play was better than our play.”

    Another laugh.

    “But that play, in the grand scheme of things, was not a better play.”

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) makes a catch in the end zone for a touchdown against Baylor Bears safety Corey Gordon Jr. (24) to force overtime, after the extra point, in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The Buffs went on to win 38-31. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver LaJohntay Wester (10) makes a catch in the end zone for a touchdown against Baylor Bears safety Corey Gordon Jr. (24) to force overtime, after the extra point, in the fourth quarter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The Buffs went on to win 38-31. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: CSU players, including QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, need to stop writing checks Rams football can’t cash

    Keeler: CSU players, including QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, need to stop writing checks Rams football can’t cash

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    FORT COLLINS — Surely, Kansas State wasn’t allegedly offering CSU quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi $600,000 in NIL money just to hand off and get the heck out of the way.

    “I have slowed the game down on offense a little bit,” Rams football coach Jay Norvell explained Monday at Canvas Stadium, “because we were playing some really talented people these first three weeks and I felt like, to give our defense a chance, I needed to slow down the game a little bit and run it a little bit more.”

    The problem isn’t that the Rams are fighting Shedeur Sanders. The problem is that they look as if they’re fighting themselves.

    Air Raid? Smash-mouth? None of the above? Hey, it’s good to be multiple. But over the last 11 months or so, the Rams offense has often looked downright schizophrenic.

    Consider: In the first four series of a bonkers 2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown last September, CSU threw it 11 times. In the first four series of a boring first half this past weekend in the ’24 Showdown, a 28-9 CU victory, the Rams aired it out just five times, officially.

    At home. Against one of the two schools your alums want desperately to beat most. In front of a rocking, ravenous and rare sellout at Canvas Stadium.

    And yeah, we know — personnel played a factor. Last year’s Rams took on CU and the Sanders family with Dallin Holker at tight end, wideout Louis Brown IV and a healthy Tory Horton. CSU this past weekend had no Holker, no Brown and Horton (groin) toughing it out on basically one good leg.

    But when you’ve been touting your QB1 as a Power 4-level signal-caller, and then can’t trust him to air it out against a Power 4 defense, red flags start popping up everywhere. Everybody’s credibility suffers.

    “(We) need to get our playmakers involved, we need to get it going offensively,” Norvell continued. “And we’ve got talent. We can score. And we need to respond to that.”

    “Are you saying you’re going to take a more aggressive approach from here on out with how you attack teams?” the coach was asked.

    “No, I’m telling you that I think we had hard matchups, and I don’t think we matched up very well,” Norvell replied. “And I was trying to minimize that — and that’s what head coaches do.”

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) and CU cornerback DJ McKinney (8) bring down Colorado State Rams running back Justin Marshall (29) in the first quarter at Canvas Stadium in Ft. Collins, Colorado Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    Fortunately, there’s all kinds of time left, nine games, with which to hammer out a new narrative. The Mountain West looks top-heavy, and CSU won’t play two of the three programs — UNLV and Boise State, Fresno State being the other — expected to vie for the league crown.

    More hope: The Rams have already faced the two most talented two rosters they’ll see all year in No. 1 Texas and CU. Although if the point was to save some arrows in the quiver for league play, after last Saturday, it might be good for Norvell to start firing off a few.

    “We’ve got a lot of season left,” the coach said, “and we’ve got all of our goals in front of us that we want to accomplish in our conference and in the remaining nine games.”

    All true. But assuming this weekend’s visit from 0-3 UTEP gets the Rams (1-2) back to .500, it’s also not crazy to wonder if a visit to future league rival Oregon State (Oct. 5) and a home test with San Jose State (Oct. 12) leaves CSU at 2-4 heading into a tussle at rebuilding Air Force (1-2). It’s not unreasonable to wonder whether the CSU administration, after that CU stinker, will have everybody’s back if — if — the Rams are somehow 2-5 with three winnable home games (New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah State) left on the docket.

    Norvell knows the score. He’s got a president and athletic director who didn’t hire him, and the former isn’t messing around.

    The Pac-12, or what’s left of it, awaits.

    “I’ve felt pressure since the day I started being a coach,” Norvell said. “I mean, that’s just part of it.”

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CU Buffs grind past Boise State in NCAA Tournament First Four, advance to face Florida

    CU Buffs grind past Boise State in NCAA Tournament First Four, advance to face Florida

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    DAYTON, Ohio — The iron was unkind to CU almost all night long. But in March, an ugly win with a ticket to the next round of the Big Dance beats a pretty flight home to Boulder any day of the week.

    Thanks to a double-double from guard KJ Simpson and clutch buckets by forward Tristan da Silva, the Buffs advanced out of the NCAA Tournament’s First Four with a 60-53 win over Boise State at UD Arena.

    CU (25-10) will meet Florida  (24-11) on Friday in a first-round matchup in Indianapolis.

    It was the third NCAA tourney win for the Buffs under Tad Boyle since 2012 and the program’s second since 2021.

    With CU trailing 49-45, the Buffs’ Big Two of Simpson and da Silva brought their squad up off the mat, and extended a wild, roller-coaster season in the process.

    The latter’s trey from the corner made it a 49-48 game, and Simpson scored the next four points — via two free throws and a runner in the lane — to put CU up three. Center Eddie Lampkin Jr.’s soft follow with 32.8 seconds left, released just before the shot clock expired, gave the Buffs a 54-49 cushion.

    Wednesday was CU’s fourth game in seven days, and late in the tilt, the Buffs’ legs appeared to show some wear. Jumpers off the fingers of Simpson that he normally swishes trended short, and 50-50 rebounds near the rim on Boise misses were more often snagged by the scrappier Broncos in the second half.

    The Buffs opened the second stanza on a 9-4 run that also served as one of their best stretches of play to that point. Simpson accounted for four of those points, and the point guard’s layup with 15:58 left in the game elevated the CU lead to 35-28.

    But for much of the evening, anytime the Buffs started to build up breathing room, Boise found a way to claw right back into the fight. Broncos forward Cam Martin’s layup with 12:58 left capped a 9-3 Boise run.

    Martin’s putback with 9:11 to go, the culmination of a da Silva turnover and a mad scramble the other way, knotted the score at 43-all.

    While the Buffs’ offense stalled, O’Mar Stanley’s layup with 7:11 left put the Broncos up 45-43. Roddie Anderson III missed an open bunny on a backdoor cut, but Tyson Degenhart’s high-arcing follow was true, extending that Boise cushion to 47-43 and forcing Boyle to call a timeout.

    If you liked your basketball games to resemble a rock fight, the first half of Buffs-Broncos was for you.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Women’s basketball: No. 13 CU Buffs hold off Washington to snap losing skid

    Women’s basketball: No. 13 CU Buffs hold off Washington to snap losing skid

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    Fast break

    Why the Buffs won: They kept their composure late, played solid defense throughout the night and hit some big shots when needed.

    Three stars:

    1. CU’s Maddie Nolan: Had a season-high 20 points, including six 3-pointers.

    2. CU’s Aaronette Vonleh: Finished with only 10 points offensively, but had seven rebounds and a steal.

    3. Washington’s Lauren Schwartz: Scored 18 points and hit all four 3-point attempts.

    Up next: CU will host Washington State on Saturday at 1 p.m. (Pac-12 Network).

    Colorado didn’t dominate in its return home, but the No. 13 Buffaloes found something it had been sorely missing: a victory.

    Maddie Nolan got hot from 3-point range early and the Buffs had just enough in the tank late to hold off Washington 68-62 on Thursday night at the CU Events Center.

    CU (21-7, 11-6 Pac-12) snapped a four-game losing streak and kept slim hopes alive for a top-four seed – and first-round bye – for next week’s Pac-12 Tournament.

    “I was just really excited to win again,” said Nolan, who went 6-of-7 from beyond the arc and had a season-high 20 points. “After the game, I was jumping around and I was like, ‘Guys, we won!’ The season is so long and you get so caught up in different things and then the losses, it can be hard, but just remembering to celebrate every win, whether it’s against a top-five team or whoever. So just excited to be back in the win column, for sure.”

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    Brian Howell

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