By Matt Sisneros

I went to high school at Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland, CA. During my four years there, our basketball team went to the State Championship twice. Multiple players went on to play football or basketball at the next level, most notably Brandon Ashley (basketball, Arizona), Junior Longrus (basketball, Washington St), TJ Daniel (football, Oregon), Ivan Rabb (basketball, Cal), Kendall Jackson (basketball, Columbia) and Paris Austin (basketball, Boise St). When I was there, O’Dowd was consistently ranked as a top 25 team in California. Since I have graduated Bishop O’Dowd has been ranked as high as the No. 1 high school basketball team in the nation. I have no idea how it works in Colorado, but in California, the winner of Northern California plays the winner of Southern California for the State title. My sophomore year we lost to a Serra team with Marqise Lee on the roster. Yes that Marqise Lee, and yes I’m still talking basketball. My junior year we lost to Lutheran in heartbreaking fashion. And my senior year we lost to Will Whelan’s Sacred Heart Cathedral in the NorCal final.

I vividly remember listening to the lane violation on the radio my sophomore year committed by my friend Junior. I remember driving through a flooding freeway to Sacramento just to end up watching Kevin Payne of Lutheran drain two from behind the arc in the last minute to seal the win and negate Brandon Ashley’s 26 points, sealing another runner-up for my Dragons.

My point in all this is that while I love Colorado Football, especially with the added benefit of watching Ralphie run and having been able to work with CU Video my senior season, basketball has been my true love when it comes to my personal fandom. The culture I was surrounded by in high school embedded a love and a very personal attachment to my basketball teams. The memories from basketball seasons are stronger than any football game I’ve attended. (I’ve gone back to watch Bishop O’Dowd play in a State Championship my freshman year of college. They fell victim to Stanley Johnson’s Mater Dei team. My Dragons eventually got their elusive State Championship in 2015 lead by Ivan Rabb.) As my time as a student at CU draws to a close and I’ve watched and covered my last Colorado basketball game from the floor, I’d like to look back at those moments, good and bad, that have defined my four years as a student and three years as a member of the media at The University of Colorado.

(Humble beginnings. I shot this with a slide phone in 11th grade at our State Championship game in Sacramento)

(Junior Longrus, who played for Washington State, behind me in class during our Spirit Week. The theme that day was “class switch” and all the seniors dressed as nerdy freshmen. It was actually my birthday this day.)

(TJ Daniel, who plays football for Oregon, and me at graduation. Some real graduation cap hair going on.)

Freshman Year

Sunday, November 19, 2012. Murray State

Sorry, my first memory of CU basketball isn’t of my first game. This isn’t a fairy tale. I never missed a game if I was in Boulder, but I have absolutely no strong memories of that Wofford game. I’ve just gotten home for Thanksgiving break, Buffs are on TV in the final for the Charleston Classic having just beaten No. 16 Baylor in a somewhat revenge game after being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament the previous year by that same team from Waco, Texas. The game is in South Carolina so it starts pretty early for me on the West Coast. I scarfed down my dinner and headed upstairs to my parents room to watch the game, since my family was watching who knows what on TV, probably a recorded American Idol or something.

I watched an afro-rocking Askia Booker drop a career-high, at the time, in points and be awarded MVP of the tournament. My parents came up multiple times inquiring about all the cheering. It was probably looked a little weird that I was so emotionally invested in a team that, a couple months ago, wasn’t even really on my radar. I hadn’t visited Boulder when I decided to come to school here. I’d come to Colorado when I was in fourth or fifth grade to visit some family around Denver and one of my mom’s friends who lives in Louisville. There are photos of my brother and me on the bridge at Scott Carpenter Park on 28th Street, but I have no memories of Boulder until I visited for orientation in August of 2012. That being said, my basketball team was undefeated, had knocked off a ranked Baylor team, and just won a tournament. Life was good. (Most of these stories won’t be this long I swear.)

(Most of these stories won’t be this long I swear.)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012. Texas Southern

How were we ever down 15 as the No. 19 team in the country to Texas Southern? How did Texas Southern take us to 2OT? I don’t know. I just know, by this point, I knew nobody in my dorm out in WillVill was a basketball fan and it looked like I was going to be riding solo to a lot of these games. What casual fan wants to come with me and get to a game an hour early to make sure of a good seat and watch warm ups? To my surprise, not many people!

This game really got me hooked. We were ranked and almost lost to Texas Southern. I got my first taste of an Askia Booker buzzer beater. The drama was just too good.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012. Colorado State

I often hear alumni speak of Nebraska and other Big 12 schools as CU’s rival. But as I learned quickly from the Rocky Mountain Showdown earlier in the semester, CSU was going to be our rival for my four years here. “It sucks, to be, a CSU Ram” will never get old to me. At this time, I was pledging a frat (didn’t last long) and we “had to” show up early to the game to save seats. It was the most raucous basketball game I’d ever been to, so addicting.

I learned why Spencer Dinwiddie was known as “The Mayor” when he dropped 29 points and backed up his “little brother” remarks earlier in the week. Buffs are 7-1. Going to basketball games has become without a doubt my favorite part of the week. I didn’t really like the snow… or the cold… or the classes I was taking. But I loved Colorado Basketball. If the Buffs were awful at basketball this year, honestly, I probably would have transferred. Thank goodness they weren’t.

(My first ever CU-CSU game.)

Thursday, January 3, 2013. @Arizona

It’s the beginning of my last weekend at home before I start my second semester and I’m yelling at the one TV in Buffalo Wild Wings showing the CU game. I’ve become that fan. My friends are looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind. Sabatino got that ball off! Arizona becomes my personal rival for basketball.

Thursday, February 7, 2013. @ No. 19 Oregon

A road win against a ranked opponent. Rare. I distinctly remember watching the game on my laptop in my neighbor’s room during a party. Now I’ve become that fan.

Thursday, February 14, 2013. No. 9 Arizona

No time for Valentine’s Day, there was basketball to be played. Against No. 9 Arizona, who I hate now. There is no girl on CU’s campus that I would have rather gone to dinner with that night and miss this game.

I actually didn’t sit in the student section this game. I also didn’t roll solo to this game. Since I didn’t go by myself, this means I didn’t get to Coors as early as I wanted to. So we had a choice to either sit 40 rows back in the C-Unit or try and find some close seats on the sideline. The sideline was a pretty good decision, if I do say so myself. It was much easier to storm the court with nobody pushing you down the stairs.

There was no controversial buzzer beater this time around. 71-58. The Buffs had achieved justice for Sab. XJ and Dinwiddie played lights out. The highlights sticking out to me being XJ throwing it down off a dime bounce pass from Ski, and then Dinwiddie having a typical Mayor-like performance going 9-9 from the line and having full control of the offense with seven assists. The court storm was unorthodox in the sense it was being planned out with so much time left in the game. Even if it were a 30 points win, Sox Walseth Court was being stormed that night.

(Dinwiddie knocking down a free throw.)

(My first court storming.)

(My ticket as it hangs on my wall at the moment.)

Saturday, February 16, 2013. Arizona State

My mom was in town for the weekend. She initially probably wanted to do something other than go to a CU basketball game with me that night, but she was a good sport and forked over some absurd amount of money to a scalper for a ticket and we sat around midcourt, 20 rows up. Before this game, I never got Buffs related texts from my mom but I think this game made a fan out of her because now they’re a regular occurrence. Buffs were down two with 10 seconds left. Dinwiddie runs the floor, dishes to XJ for a bucket, and we’re tied with zero seconds left in regulation. 

Later, Buffs are up one with eight seconds left in overtime. ASU hits a buzzer-beating layup and dog piles right next to the C-Unit. An absolute heartbreaker of a game and I think that hooked my mom. She knows all the cheers and performs them semi-regularly during games to the point where my dad rolls his eyes.

Thursday, March 7, 2013. No. 19 Oregon

I don’t remember much from this game other than John Elway was there and threw me a ball, I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. Also, some kid had a sign that said: “OREGON GIRLS HAVE THE QUACK.” As a freshman, I  thought that was the funniest thing ever (I know I’m going to get a text from a girl who goes to UO about this). I also wished CU had cool handshakes and hype circles during introductions like the Ducks did. Still do. But that isn’t Tadball. Buffs hit 20 wins. Life is good.

(OREGON GIRLS HAVE THE QUACK)

(John Elway throwing the ball into the student section.)

Friday, March 22, 2013. Illinois

We made the tourney! I’m watching on my laptop in my dorm room because nobody on my floor cares about CU hoops. The game ends up being so incredibly Colorado. Down 37-21 at the half. All hope is lost. Come back and actually take the lead 44-39. Only eight minutes left, we’re going to win a tournament game! Buffs give up an 18-5 run and lose 57-49. Little did I know, this was only going to happen a million more times before I graduated, but, at the time, oh boy, that one really hurt.

Sophomore Year

Sunday, November 10, 2013. Tennessee-Martin

This was the first game I ever shot from the floor and, sadly, the only game Spencer played in that I got to shoot. It wasn’t an exciting game. It was a total rout. CU shot 60-percent. Brett Brady drained a three. My pictures were really bad. It didn’t help that the lights were dim, different colors, and looked like they hadn’t been updated since the 80’s. Or that I was using a $400 camera. But aside from all that, I really had no idea how to shoot indoor sports yet.

(I thought this was a really good shot in my first ever game. I would never submit this today.)

(At least, this one was in focus. What are those shoes, Wes?!)

Thursday, November 21, 2013. UC Santa Barbara

Tip off was at 7 PM and I had a flight back home for Thanksgiving break at 10. I brought my bag with me to the game and left it in the ticket office. Unlucky for me, the Buffs didn’t have a comfortable lead at the half. But I had to make this flight so I had to leave with the Buffs only up two and hop on the bus to get to the airport. By the time I got to the airport, though, I got an ESPN alert letting me know I could relax because the Buffs had won.

Saturday, December 7, 2013. No. 6 Kansas

How funny would it be if I just skipped this game? I won’t, but that’d be kinda funny, right?

I wish I had gotten to cover this game, but I was the lowest man on the totem pole at the time.

I have never had to sit so far back at a CU basketball game. I got in line an hour before doors even opened just to see an absurdly long line filled with people I’ve never seen at a game before. I found an aisle seat on the band side of the student section about 20 rows up. The opening fight song was the loudest I’ve ever heard it. I took a video just because I’d never heard the CEC so loud. It made me tear up a little bit to witness the potential of the CU fanbase for the first time. You could just feel a confident vibe in the building that day.

I’m just going to fast forward to the best moment of definitely my four years and possibly the entire history of CU basketball, but I won’t ignore the stellar game Ben Mills had. Stellar for Ben Mills, at least. When you’re playing an elite team, everyone has to step up and he definitely did with a couple offensive boards and four points over NBA first-round picks that had Coors erupting.

2.9 seconds left. Tied at 72. Inbounding from the left side, from my point of view. Johnson to Booker. Two dribbles. A euro step. A 28-foot runner over Andrew Wiggins. Hands go up all around me. I was recording on my phone. I have no idea what happened to the audio in that video but there is none. If there was audio, though, you’d know that you could hear a pin drop around me. Everyone was holding their breath. That shot was in the air forever. I’m so glad I was in an aisle seat. Some girl fell when we stormed the court and her friend was trying to get us to stop. I just hurdled her. Probably bad karma but I wasn’t going to stop.

If that girl is reading this, I’m sorry. Kinda.

(My ticket pinned to my wall amongst other college mementos such as press passes, autographs, and game tickets.)

(My view of Ski’s shot.)

Sunday, January 12, 2014. @ Washington

If the KU game was a turning point for the program in a good way, this game was the polar opposite. I remember having my laptop up at the dinner table back home, rude I know, streaming this game. I watched Spencer push the pace on a fastbreak and then, with 15 points already under his belt, I watched his left knee just give out. You could just tell it wasn’t good. I don’t really want to reminisce on a harsh moment for too long, but after Dinwiddie went down, the team just fell apart. I remember there was a quote from Tad after the game about Askia, who had to step up and run the point. It was along the lines of “He tried to force things and he’s not good when he tries to force things.” What great foreshadowing for the rest of the year and the following season, am I right?

Saturday, February 22, 2014. No. 4 Arizona

After some rough games on the road without Spencer, CU had still only dropped one game in Boulder to No. 25 UCLA. So when College Gameday came to town with No. 4 Arizona, my optimism for a quality win at home was still there. Hey, they’d done it before. I tried to sleep the night before, but I just couldn’t do it. I got to Coors at the ungodly hour of 3:30 AM. I still wasn’t even close to the front. I was probably 50th in line. The Sochi Olympics were set to close the next day and Bob Costas had been hosting from the studio with pink-eye for much of the Olympics. I thought I’d make a sign that said Arizona guard, Nick Johnson gave Bob Costas pink eye. I still feel like I had the best sign that day. The show was awesome aside from Jay Bilas being out in Krzyzewskiville, broadcasting from a tent, which was lame because it was a dual broadcast. They brought out Tad and Spencer and the crowd erupted in “one more year” chants. I’ll never forget that morning.

I had to get home and nap to prep for the game since I hadn’t slept. I still felt pretty good about our chances against the Wildcats. 10 minutes into the first half my optimism had dwindled because we still hadn’t made a shot from the field. It could have been so much worse. At the half, we were only down six. Aaron Gordon, who I had watched play in high school at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose, decided to play out of his mind that night in the second half, leading Arizona to a 57 point period and wrapping up a rout of the Buffs. I remember three dunks, there might have been more. Two alley oops, one from out of bounds, and then a fast break double clutch, similar to what he did in the 2016 dunk contest. That man is a freak of nature. He has been since high school.

That game just left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. At least, I had a cool sign.

(Digger Phelps guaranteeing a Buffalo win…he was wrong.)

(Spencer crutching off of the court as Tad addresses the fans.)

(My cool sign.)

Thursday, March 20, 2014. Pittsburgh

NCAA Tourney time. From an analytical standpoint, we were an incredibly overrated 8-seed and Pitt was an under-seeded 9-seed. I don’t have the math on me anymore but, I’m pretty sure, analytically, we should have been a 10 and Pitt should have been a 6 or 7. I didn’t even pencil in the Buffs winning this game in my bracket. By the end of the first half, I felt good about my pessimistic decision as the score was 46-18. This season was a bell curve that peaked at the KU game, plateaued, and then came crashing down at the Dinwiddie ACL tear.

Thursday, April 24, 2014. Dinwiddie Declares for Draft

I went into this press conference expecting Dinwiddie to declare for the draft. Why else would he call a press conference? I’m not a “reporter,” I was just there taking photos. But I asked two questions because everyone was asking these super serious questions and I just imagined that’d be lame to have to give out these robotic answers. I asked Spence if he’d rather play with his former teammate Roberson in OKC or with Kobe in LA. He said Kobe, no doubt. And then I asked if No. 25 wasn’t available what number he’d switch to. “Eight. Or 24. One of Kobe’s numbers.” He now wears #8 for the Detroit Pistons.

(Spencer declaring for the draft)

(This was the uninterested face that prompted me to ask him a fun question.)

Junior Year

Tuesday, November 18, 2014. Auburn

11 PM tip off? I love it. Much better than an 11 AM football kick off. I was shooting this game and Bruce Pearl got a little too close for comfort when he decided to stand right above me and chat it up with the C-Unit on his poor choice of attire, a light blue sweater. When I say “chat it up” he literally had a super casual conversation with some students about his outfit. He had sweat through it in the opening minutes.

It seemed as though CU gained strength as the game got deeper and deeper into the night, they put up 52 in the second half. If the Buffs had only scored eight points in the first half, they still would have won 60-59.

(A sweaty Bruce Pearl speaking to the C-Unit)

(I told you he was sweaty!)

(The Twins withstanding a game that tipped at 11 PM and went well into the morning…they’re over 90 years old in this picture by the way.)

Saturday, November 22, 2014. Wyoming

We only scored 33 points in this entire game. Nine points in the entire second half. That is all.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014. San Francisco

This game wasn’t all that memorable aside from Chris Adams’s hairline. Just look at it. So many jokes were made that night. Buffs won. It was the last good memory from this team for over a month.

(LOOK AT THAT HAIRLINE)

Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Colorado State

It sucks to lose to your younger brother. It isn’t supposed to happen. It was worse when you checked the box score and saw you missed seven free throws in a game you lost by two. It was the first basketball game I’d shot where the Buffs had lost. Josh Scott’s back was really hurting by this time and in CU’s first game against CSU without Spencer, they just couldn’t get it done. I remember Spencer’s tweet after the game saying this was the first time he wished he had been back in school. We all wished he was there still, too.

(Xavier Johnson sitting with his head between his knees as CSU celebrated their win in Coors.)

Thursday, January 22, 2015. Washington

Another rough game just summarizing this season. No Josh Scott, again, and neither team shot over 36-percent. If the Buffs would have shot 20-60 instead of 19-60 this game could have ended differently. If Andrew Andrews had gone 2-12 instead of 3-12 it definitely would have ended differently.

I sat in my usual area of the C-Unit. I’d decided after enough games that I liked the right aisle side because the backboard didn’t block your view of the far end basket. I got really close for this game, I was in the third row.

The disadvantage of game-winning buzzer-beaters in Coors Events Center is that if CU is hitting the shot, it’s on the other side of the court. While if the opponent hits the game winner, it’s right in front of you. That’s the only complaint I have about the setup and it’s so minor. Opponents having to run their offense and shoot free throws toward the C-Unit is incredibly difficult. But having to watch Andrew Andrews pull up right in front of me, above the free throw line, and drain a game winner was really deflating.

Thursday, January 29, 2015. @ USC

No Josh Scott, again. However, after two halves and three overtimes you had completely forgotten about his absence and why you ever had possibly spoken poorly of Askia Booker. Maybe you only forgot for that night, but when Ski was good, he was real good. With friends and family in attendance, Booker put up his career-high 43 points.

My roommates don’t really watch sports unless I’m watching and they just happen to be in the room. I’ll come home from games all the time and ask if they saw the game and they’ll ask me, “What game?”

But with Booker trading blows with Reinhardt and Jovanovic over the span of almost an hour of game time, everyone in the apartment was watching Ski play his infamous, inconsistent form of SkiBall to perfection in a gritty win over USC.

Thursday, February 26, 2015. Arizona

This story is going to be a long one and I don’t even really remember the game all too well.

ESPN contacted our media outlet for photos of campus. We compiled some images and my co-editor was supposed to deliver the flash drive to the ESPN truck in the media lot at Coors because he was an engineering student and was headed over there regardless. I get a text the night before saying he forgot he had to stay in the engineering building for a project and he asked if I could deliver it for him. I didn’t have class until the afternoon so I put on my roommate’s boots, because I couldn’t find mine, and trudged through the snow from 11th and University over to Coors to drop off this flash drive. I was looking for someone named Prebin. I walked in the truck and “Prebin’s setting up inside. He’s probably on the court.” Okay, Prebin’s a guy, at least I knew that much now. So I walk inside Coors while Sean Miller’s running practice. I put my headphones in and start scanning for a guy who could possibly look like a Prebin. I see people setting stuff up at the media table and start heading over. Pretty quickly I get a weird feeling that everyone’s looking at me. I look around and pretty much everyone in the arena is, in fact, looking at me. I take my headphones out and Sean Miller is giving me a hard time because I had a CU hoodie on. “What are you doing in here? You spying on our practice??” I honestly couldn’t tell if he was being serious because I thought nobody could really think a spy would spy on practice with a CU hoodie on and do it from the court, but you really couldn’t tell because he was yelling pretty aggressively. I find Prebin and we go to walk back to the truck. On my way, I see my former high school classmate Brandon Ashley in line for a drill they were running. I say what’s up to him and Sean Miller makes him run a lap for “conversing with the spy.” My bad, B-Ash.

Prebin and I get back to the media truck and he checks out the photos and really likes them. They were going to use them as the billboards coming in and out of commercial. He asked if I wanted to hang out in the truck for awhile. I would much rather do that than go to class so yeah, of course I stayed. I’m watching these guys do their pre-production for the game that night and it was all really cool to someone who has never been in a TV truck before. A guy walks in and starts to work on the board with Prebin. He asks about the photos and Prebin shouts me out when he shows them to this new guy. The new guy introduces himself as the producer, Tim Sullivan, and asks if I have my camera on me and if I want to help out with some stuff today. Thankfully I had my camera in my backpack for some reason so, of course, I agree and I follow him outside to an off-white Chevy Tahoe that has just pulled up. Out of the car steps basketball legend Bill Walton. Tim introduces me and says I’m going to be their photographer today. “Hi, I’m Bill,” said the towering figure in front of me. “Oh, I know who you are,” I said as I shook his hand.

I got in the backseat of the car and Tim and Bill start asking me about myself. I told them I was from the Bay Area and they both asked where I went to high school. I told them Bishop O’Dowd and they both knew very-well of my alma mater. Tim had grown up in Marin, just north of San Francisco and Bill just knows everything about everywhere. We drive through campus (on the snowy sidewalk at one point because “this has four wheel drive, it was meant for this”) and over to University Bicycles on Pearl St since Bill is an avid bike rider and, apparently, a friend of the store where we did a photo shoot with the bikes, photos, and trophies. Bill finds a gong hanging up in the store and, of course, needs a video of him hitting that gong. The owner of the store gives us all shirts, I got a dark blue one, and we head to the next destination.

We get back in the car and drive east on Pearl Street to ‘PosterScene’ where, again, apparently Bill was friends with the owner. They swap concert stories in between photos among the posters in the store. The young woman who was working the register asked me who the tall guy was and I discreetly gave her the rundown of what was going on. She took a picture with him because her “dad probably would know who this was.” I did not get a shirt from PosterScene but I still have dozens of stickers I have no idea what to do with.

We get back in the Tahoe and drive to the St. Julian to drop Bill off so he could take a nap. Meanwhile, Tim and I head to the restaurant the valet recommended in walking distance, Yellow Deli. I had never been there because it isn’t really my scene but it’s incredibly Boulder so I guess Tim got his authentic weird Boulder experience. I would have picked the Sink if it were my choice. The food was pretty good though and I swapped stories with Tim during lunch. Tim had attended UC Davis where my parents had met and loved the school so much they actually gave me the middle name “Davis.” To add to the similarities, Tim had worked for the Oakland A’s in college for Dave Rinetti who I also worked for when I was in high school.

Tim drives us back to Coors and just gives me the keys to the car and tells me to go pick up Bill an hour before tip-off. I run back to my apartment to get all my other gear for the game and then head over to pick up Bill. I call his cell and it goes straight to voicemail. I go to the front desk to have them call his room but he’s having all his calls blocked. So they have to send someone upstairs to wake him up. I’m freaking out because this was supposed to be a simple, quick pick up. The girl who went upstairs to wake up Bill tells me he’s going to take a quick shower and be right down. I email the only contact I had at the truck, Prebin, and let him know what’s going on. Bill comes downstairs 45 minutes before tip off and we race over to Coors. Bill gives me his email address and tells me to email him and say “put me on the list.” I had no idea why and didn’t ask any questions… now Bill Walton emails me an inspirational quote every morning.

We haven’t even gotten to the game and honestly, I don’t remember much of the game because it was an ugly loss. Stanley Johnson beat my school in familiar fashion as he had done the year prior against my high school in the state final.

I meet up with Tim and Bill after the game and they ask if I want to join them for dinner. Free dinner? I’m down. We head to Boulder Chophouse with the whole crew, including Dave Pasch. I had to ask if he and Bill actually clash like they do on air. I hate to burst your bubble if you really thought they didn’t get along, but it’s all just an act for television and they’re actually good friends. I also had to ask the girl who makes their on-screen graphics about the week prior during Oregon-USC where Bill had gone on a three or four-minute rant about Bob Dylan and had gone on for so long that they ended up putting up Bob Dylan graphics on-screen. I asked if they had to scramble to make those graphics, but she told me all of those rants are planned out so they have those graphics ready to go. Sorry for taking the magic out of their polarizing broadcasts.

I got the pork chop because it was the cheapest thing on the menu at $30 and I didn’t want to be a burden. The crew asked if I’d be in Vegas for the tournament. I would be. They all said they’d see me there. Bill drove me home and as I was getting out of the car he told me if he could give me any advice it would be, “You don’t want to work anywhere East of where you are right now.” I told him that if you just keep going West, you’ll end up east of Boulder anyway. Just kidding. But I’m sure he would have loved that.

(Bill in PosterScene.)

(Bill with the University Bicycles staff)

(The bike dedicated to Bill.)

(Bill with that girl who didn’t know who he was.)

Wednesday, Mar 11, 2015. Oregon State

CU’s first round matchup in the Pac-12 tournament was against Gary Payton II and the OSU Beavers. Gary Payton Sr. was sitting courtside to my right just yelling at his son and looking slightly disappointed the entire game. Maybe that’s why GPII had such an absurd stat line the entire next year. CU won the game and went on to fall to Oregon in the next round.

I eventually did meet up with the ESPN guys and got some Vegas shots for their broadcasts. The crew remembered my name which was awesome for me, and Bill asked me to grab dinner again but I was so swamped with work I just couldn’t. He respected my work ethic and said he’ll see me down the road. I didn’t get finished with work that night until 1:30 AM and my co-editor wasn’t dressed to go out (rookie mistake) so I went and shot around on the court in the MGM. It was pretty surreal to shoot in a big empty stadium like that by yourself.

(Gary Payton yelling at GP2.)

(Walking out to play on the MGM court at 2 AM.)

(Joe Young on a breakaway dunk.)

(Askia Booker walks off the court as a Buff for the final time.)

(My old classmate and 2015 Pac-12 Tournament MVP, Brandon Ashley and me.)

Senior Year

Sunday, December 6, 2015. Colorado State

I would have shot this game, but I was in Breckenridge with my girlfriend for the weekend and actually just followed this game on Twitter on the drive back. I hadn’t felt out this edition of the Buffs yet. They were given trouble by an Omaha team at home but they overcame a 15-point deficit on the road at Auburn. So when the Buffs went down 13 in Ft Collins at the half I didn’t know how to feel. I might have still been scarred from the poor road performances of the year prior. I was pleasantly surprised to watch my timeline update with pro-Buff tweets until the deficit had been wiped away in under four minutes. Not only that, but the Buffs held the lead for the rest of the game. I got home and, to my surprise, even one of my roommates had watched the game!

Friday, January 1, 2016. @ Cal

I was home for winter break and CU just happened to be on their Bay Area road trip. This was my first road game experience. It was really cool to experience shooting a game in a different environment other than Coors. You really learn how awful of a Pac-12 arena The Keg is when you visit other arenas. I visited my friends up at Gonzaga in Spokane and technology-wise it wasn’t that much different than Coors. They’ve been doing lights off intros for awhile, while we had just started this year but that was the only noticeable difference. Taking a step back though, that’s a much smaller school than Colorado is. When sized up to a public university in a power conference like Cal, the difference was incredibly noticeable. The lights are nice and bright for photos, they have a massive four-sided video board above halfcourt. There aren’t any sound issues. We lost the game and it wasn’t even close. It was nice to see Ivan Rabb play again, though. I snuck into Cal Memorial Stadium before the game. That was the highlight of my day.

(Inside and the view from Cal’s Memorial Stadium.)

Sunday, January 3, 2016. @ Stanford

My second road game experience went better than my first. Buffs won. I won a free pizza for guessing the halftime score. Cal’s football stadium is way cooler than Stanford’s. Neither are as cool as Folsom, Cal’s basketball SID told me so.

(Inside and the view from Stanford Stadium.)

Sunday, January 17, 2016. Oregon

If you want to see one hell of a game flow chart, I can almost assure you this one is just two lines that never find much separation. Neither team ever led by double digits. This was just one of those games that had so much tension due to how evenly matched these teams were that night that I just started to shoot the bench reactions instead of the game action. I really feel like this win is discredited nationally because Oregon wasn’t ranked at the time, yet they ended up being the best team in the conference.

(Dwayne Benjamin whining about a call against him.)

(When you’re about to beat the Ducks.)

Thursday, February 11, 2016. Washington State

Somehow, Washington State gives the Buffs a run for their money even though they’re consistently at the bottom of the conference. Took CU to overtime the game before the Dinwiddie ACL tear and then this one, at home nonetheless, went to double overtime! With Josh Scott out with an ankle injury, everyone had to step up, George King stepped up all over the floor. My friend from high school, Junior Longrus who plays for Wazzu texted me after the game saying “Man that guy had God on his side or somethin’. He hit a fadeaway three, moving to his right, over a guy. That was cold blooded.”

It was absolutely nasty and sent the game to double overtime where CU finally took care of business and grabbed a W.

(My former classmate Junior Longrus during the first OT.)

(George King pulling up to force 2OT.)

(George King with The Twins after the game.)

Saturday, February 13, 2016. Washington

Flashbacks to the year prior were all I could see when I saw the ball in Andrew Andrews’s hands in a potential game-winning situation. It looked exactly the same as the year prior except I was on the other end of the floor, shooting this game, and Andrews was on the right elbow instead of the left. Oh, and he missed. Buffs win back to back near heart attack-inducing games. Two, almost three, double-doubles (Fortune had 13/9) were needed for the Buffs to pull this win off. If you want to see the quintessential game flow chart of when Tad Boyle pulls out of his offense just a little too early, this would be it.

(Andrew Andrews scaring the crap out of me and everyone in the C-Unit.)

Wednesday, February 24, 2016. No. 9 Arizona

I ran into Bill on campus. He remembered my name! The old man still has his memory.

“Hey! My buddy Matt! How you doing? You want to work with us again tonight?” Prebin and Tim are both right behind him. Prebin was extra friendly and came in for the full on hug. I’m not sure if Tim remembered my name because he just calling me “buddy” whenever I saw him, but he remembered who I was. I’ll take it. These guys meet a lot of people.

I didn’t really work with the guys this time because it was already close-ish to game time. Also didn’t get to grab dinner because they were working the Cal game the next day. Anyways, there was a game that night in Boulder. A big one.

Coming off a brutal week in LA, dropping a heartbreaker at USC and a blowout loss at UCLA, the No. 9 Wildcats were in Boulder. Oh, how similar to Freshman year. The last two times Arizona was in Boulder, they provided Buffalo slaughters. The fan base had hope coming into this game knowing the capability of this team but nobody really expected much. Everyone was hoping to snag just one of the last three games of the season, most likely against ASU.

Josh Scott had different plans. The man was on a mission taking a beating and scoring through uncalled fouls in the paint to have one of, if not the, best game of his illustrious career in Black & Gold. Even with Josh’s heroic performance, I still damn near had a heart attack. I’m always that photographer way too invested in the game. They tell you when you start out covering sports that you’re supposed to be impartial, but I’ve never really followed that rule. I may or may not be shooting and yelling at the ref simultaneously… if they’re being typical Pac-12 refs.

I finally got to shoot a court storming. I might have jumped the gun too. Once Collier rebounded that ball I was on the court. There was probably half a second still left on the clock by the time I had both feet inbounds. I presented this idea of an article to RK a couple nights before this game and had my games pretty much picked out. He told me he liked the idea and that maybe they’ll give me a couple more memories before it’s all said and done. I had very low expectations of that happening but hey, it’s the Buffs. You never know what’s going to happen.

(My view of my third court storming.)

(Me in the court storming. I’ve never been very unbiased…)

Sunday, February 28, 2016. Arizona State

My last game inside Coors Events Center. It wasn’t much of a game. It wasn’t supposed to be. The Buffs won by 10. The spread was Buffs by nine.

I decided to shoot mostly things that weren’t necessarily the game. This day was memorable because it was my senior day too, and I feel as though I shot really well in the sense that I hit my goal and captured more than just the game. I also went and did some things I’m pretty sure aren’t allowed or are at least frowned upon because what were they going to do? Tell me I couldn’t shoot the next game?

(The Twins cheer on the seniors.)

(Josh is introduced on Senior Day.)

(Not sure if I’m allowed on the floor during introductions. Nobody yelled at me, though.)

(Tad introduces J40.)

(Josh laughing during his standing ovation .)

(Josh headed back to the locker room after the Senior Day speeches.)

(Josh leaves Coors after a game for the last time.)

Thursday, March 10, 2016. No. 15 Arizona

I got to use a 1D X for this game (!!!) which, for the non-photo people out there, is Canon’s top of the line body. I don’t know if the person who let me use their camera is reading this, but thank you. That was tight. It’s really funny to look back at my first game where I was shooting with a crummy first generation 5D and my t3i and then, in my last game ever, I was using top of the line gear. That was really special.

Buffs decided to flip the script and instead of take a big lead and blow it, they dug themselves in a hole in the first half and then came out and scored 58 points in the second half which just wasn’t enough.

Even though the Buffs lost, I shot my best basketball, probably my best sports in general on that trip to Vegas. All-around, I had a great trip meeting all of the CU fans I’d interacted with on Twitter but never actually met. The 2016 Pac-12 Tournament will absolutely go down as a top-five moment in my four years at CU, due to the people I got to spend it with while doing my favorite thing, covering Pac-12 hoops.

(Jake, Bill, and I during halftime of UCLA-USC.)

(Oregon’s Dillon Brooks waiting to be introduced.)

(My former classmate, Ivan Rabb is introduced.)

(Me after the Ducks had cut down the nets.)

Thursday, March 17, 2016. UConn

My last CU game as a student. It was a tale of two halves, as many of this year’s games were. Up double digits, late collapse, Buffs lose in the first round of the Tourney again. I never got to celebrate a Buffaloes tourney win as a student.

I’m being selfish. Thousands of people have never even seen their team make it to The Big Dance. But it would have been nice. Especially this year with our first round matchup falling on St Patty’s Day. If CU does one thing well, it’s glorified drinking holidays.

I skipped my morning classes because, well, it’s March Madness. No tests? Multiple high profile games on TV? Sports wins every time. I get to Half Fast around 10 AM. First game doesn’t start until 10:15. There is literally nobody in Half Fast aside from the employees. Buffs tip at 11:30.

11:15 rolls around. There still aren’t many people inside Half Fast. At this point, it’s snowing outside and I’m sticking inside but I text Ryan anyways just to confirm that, “Best place to watch the game in walking distance from my apt? Half fast?” RK hits me with a “Yee” so I’m feeling reassured. In typical Buffs fashion, 11:25 rolls around and with it about 100 or so Buffs fans come pouring into Half Fast. I saw people I had met all throughout my four years here, including some athletes I’d grown to know recently. They said the key to the Strong Island tasting better was Red Bull which they happened to have a can of in their backpack, they weren’t wrong, that needs to be added to the recipe. We know how this story ends, but the collective cheers throughout the game left nothing more to be desired from the fan base that showed up that day. They were loud, proud and even through the pain of defeat, “I said it sucks, to be, a CSU Ram,” rang loudly through Half Fast as the final buzzer went off. A fitting end to my time as a student media member/fan of the Colorado Buffaloes.

I don’t really know how to wrap this up outside of thanking everyone who helped me grow over the last four years.

Thank you to my biochemistry and molecular biology professors for failing me. If it weren’t for you, I would have had a high enough GPA to transfer back home. I also would have never transferred into the Journalism School which, say what you will about the J-School at CU, ended up being a great fit for me.

Thank you, Sean Hodrick, for pushing me to go buy my first camera.

Thank you, Rob Denton, my first Editor In Chief. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know if I would have stayed with it and kept doing this.

Thank you, Kai Casey and Nate Bruzdzinski, for showing me the ropes of shooting sports and how to be professional on the court/field.

Thank you, Andrew Haubner and Jordyn Siemens, for encouraging creativity and following through on ideas.

Thank you, Ryan Koenigsberg, for supporting my idea, expanding my audience, allowing me the free range to do whatever I wanted creatively and showing me how to grind.

No way he reads this but thank you, Bill Walton, for sound life advice every time I see you.

Thank you to the entire photo staff at The Daily Emerald for setting the bar high and constantly challenging me. I’ve always looked to you guys as a benchmark for myself and my staff.

Thank you, John Snelson and Jaime Guy, for bringing me aboard CU Video. It goes without saying that that’s the coolest job in the world, I’d recommend it to everyone.

Thank you to everyone on #BuffsTwitter, for the encouragement, support, and ideas. I didn’t know how much you guys would like the gifs when I downloaded Photoshop this summer.

Thank you, Taylor Wilder, for being an example of how to execute an idea, be efficient, and the importance of taking the extra step when working.

And finally, thank you to my parents for one, allowing me to go to school here and meet all of these great people and two, always having a camera in the house.