Boulder, Colo. — Colorado freshman center David Harrison received a rude awakening in his first Big 12 basketball game Saturday night at Coors Events Center.
"I didn't expect to play an away game," he said after Kansas University defeated the Buffaloes, 97-85, in front of more than a few KU fans. "All week long even in the papers I felt like I was in Lawrence, Kan. I look in the crowd and people were cheering for them. They were louder than our fans. I didn't expect that.
"It's hard to play away games at home. I was wearing a white uniform today, but we should have just come out in black."
The 7-foot center did score 13 points in just 18 foul-plagued minutes of his first conference outing, but he was more impressed by the impact of KU's estimated 3,000 fans in the Buffaloes' first home loss of the season.
"I felt like I was playing in Lawrence, Kan.," Harrison said. "One of the reasons why I committed to this university was because I felt like they had our back. I thought the people in Boulder had our back. Sometimes I felt like I had more people at high school games than I do in there."
When he wasn't being bothered by the lack of fan support, Harrison more than likely was being whistled for a foul for banging around with KU's Nick Collison and Drew Gooden.
After Harrison picked up his fourth foul just 24 seconds into the second half, the Jayhawks responded with a 10-2 run to push their lead to 61-50.
"It was huge," CU coach Ricardo Patton said of the call. "I think he was playing well. He scored at will in the post. We're not deep enough to only have him play 18 minutes in big games."
Harrison, who tossed an errant elbow at Gooden after a rebound and jawed with the KU forward at other times, had a simple explanation for why he was whistled so much.
"I'm stronger than them. I'm stronger than all the post players in the Big 12," Harrison said. "I just can't play as physical as I want to because I'm stronger than most people. Things happen. They flop. They whine to the officials. It felt like I was in high school sometimes."
Afterward, both teams referred to a blossoming rivalry. In addition to the Harrison-Gooden run-ins, Gooden also exchanged not-so-pleasantries with Harrison's older brother, D.J. Harrison, a senior swingman.
The physical play had Colorado crying foul following the game.
"Every tape I saw, there was some extracurricular on them," Patton said of the Jayhawks. "If you look at the Valparaiso tape, you'll see a lot of extracurricular. It's not just when they play us. It just goes on."
If KU's gameplan was to rattle the Buffaloes, it worked. After CU senior Nick Mohr was called for a technical with the score 80-75 and 4:54 remaining, the Jayhawks went on a 10-0 run to all but seal the deal.
"The technical was big," Patton said. "I didn't see exactly what happened and why he received the tech, so I'll have to look back on the film and find out why he received it. But it certainly made a difference."
Colorado (8-3 overall, 0-1 Big 12) next plays Morris Brown on Wednesday night at home.
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