Buffs Ready For Gameday, Senior Day, Lax & Blackout
BOULDER-Saturday will be any sports fans dream in Boulder. For more than 16 hours, the college basketball-watching world will have their sights set on the Coors Events Center. It's College GameDay! It's Senior Day! It's a Blackout! And to top it off our newest sport makes its home debut.
CU fans are invited to join ESPN's College GameDay crew Saturday morning as they bring their popular weekly college basketball pregame show to the Events Center for the first time. The show sets the table for that evening's all-important Pac-12 showdown between the Buffs and fourth-ranked Arizona.
The doors to the Coors Events Center will open at 6 a.m. and students and fans are encouraged to start lining up after 5 a.m. The broadcast, which will be hosted by Rece Davis, Jay Williams, Digger Phelps and Jalen Rose, will begin via live SportsCenter look-ins starting at 7 a.m. Then at 8 a.m., the two-hour pre-game show will begin in its entirety, the first hour on ESPNU and the second hour on ESPN.
Fans are encouraged to fill the Events Center early, make their own posters and to show off their CU pride in an effort to showcase to the entire nation that same enthusiastic spirit that has made Boulder home to one of the most electrifying settings for college basketball in recent years.
A morning of giveaways will begin with fans enjoying free breakfast food from Chick-Fil-A and McDonalds, coffee, Mountain Dew Kickstart and other giveaways as they walk in the doors and while supplies last. In addition, free Illegal Pete's burrito cards will be handed out to the first 250 students. There will also be an opportunity to win tickets to that evening's game and one lucky student will even win $1,000 and get a chance to make a half-court shot worth another $18,000.
The event kicks off a day of historic firsts for CU athletics. Shortly after Gameday's initial basketball broadcast from Boulder concludes, Ralphie will lead the women's lacrosse team onto Folsom Field for the program's first-ever home game at Noon. The first 500 fans at Folsom Field will receive a free lacrosse ball.
The main event will conclude the evening as the Buffs and Wildcats tip off at 7 p.m. Fans are asked to help blackout the arena by wearing all-black CU gear as they cheer on a Buffs team that is fighting to reach the NCAA tournament for a third straight year, a feat that is unprecedented in the program's history.
Purchase the official CU GameDay Blackout shirt at CU Bookstore in the UMC. It's also Senior Night for the men's basketball team as the Buffs say good bye to seniors Ben Mills and Beau Gamble.