Seen & Heard in Boulder: Brent Brennan supports Cats, family; Kylan Boswell ditches tape

BOULDER, Colo. — New Arizona football coach Brent Brennan took in another Wildcats basketball game Saturday, but this time he appeared to have some family roots tugging the other way a little.

Brennan’s daughters, Blake and Casey, both attend Colorado. According to their LinkedIn bios, Blake is a junior who is majoring in sociology with a sports media minor while Casey is a freshman majoring in psychology.

“I grew up in a sports family, which only ignited my growing love for college and professional athletics,” Blake’s bio says.

Brennan traveled with a dozen or so UA boosters on the trip and arrived in his seats a few minutes before the game. The boosters and UA team traveling party were scheduled to take a Sun Country charter flight out of nearby Broomfield after the game, with a scheduled return at about 1:45 a.m.

Good to go

Guard Kylan Boswell initially had black therapeutic tape over his injured left shoulder Saturday but took it off in the first half.

Arizona Colorado Basketball — Arizona guard Kylan Boswell, right, knocks the ball away from Colorado guard J’Vonne Hadley during the first half of their game Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, in Boulder, Colo.
David Zalubowski, Associated Press

“KT Tape,” accor ding to its website, is intended to lift the skin, so as to temporarily increase local blood flow and reduce muscle soreness.

Mile-high hoops

Along the cement corridor that takes players from the bus loading docks at CU Events Center is a friendly warning of sorts that was painted over a cement wall..

“WELCOME TO BOULDER,” it said. “ALTITUDE 5,345.”

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said before the Wildcats left for their trip through Utah and Colorado this week that he wasn’t going to overthink whatever effects there were, saying he would make adjustments on the fly as necessary. Colorado coach Tad Boyle spoke of one particular fact.

“It’s the (reduced) lung capacity of oxygen,” Boyle said Friday, noting how the actions of former UA coach Sean Miller acknowledged it.

“When Sean was at Arizona they substituted differently,” Boyle said. “That’s what happens when teams are coming up versus going down. Theoretically, when we go on the road to L.A. or Arizona we shouldn’t have to substitute as much because there’s more oxygen and we’re training at altitude.”

Small price to pay

Like students at so many schools with high-level basketball programs, Colorado students had to wait outside the CU Events Center for a crack at the best seats along the south baseline.

Except the line started forming only about an hour before the doors opened, and the first 500 students were given free Colorado basketball T-shirts.

That made things easier for Jacob Flood, a junior from nearby Erie, who managed to snag a seat in the front row almost directly behind the basket that Arizona shot from in the second half.

“This is our biggest game of the year,” Flood said. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

The C-Unit section eventually did fill, as did the rest of the CU Events Center.

Keeping it clean

Instead of the usual “dirt” sheet distributed to student fans before the game, so as to give them ideas about how to heckle the Wildcats, the C-Unit student section simply had four sheets of mostly traditions and games to play..

The “C-Unit Spectator” featured a blaring headline that said “The Road to March Begins,” including the history of Colorado’s fight song, instructions for various free throw chants and some team history.

Conveniently, the Spectator also included a QR code to download the “Buffs Mobile” app, which contains instructions to be part of the Events Center lights show — and, while students wait for the game to start, a word search game, a maze and a “Ralphie Logo History.”

Once the game starts, however, the Spectator is to be no more.

“Hold it up. Rip it up. Toss it up ... GO BUFFS!” it said.

C-gear

Instead of the usual T-shirt giveaways to all fans, Colorado gave out a more locally suited form of gear Saturday: Knit pom winter hats, with a CU logo on one side and a law firm logo on the other.

If that wasn’t enough, there was plenty of local flavor for purchase at the CU souvenir shop. There, fans can buy white-and-gold cowboy hats, stuffed “Ralphie” buffaloes and, of course, T-shirts and hoodies with the CU Buffalo logo and the word PRIME under it, a nod to football coach Deion Sanders.