Boulder, Co. ? Laughing all the way to the bank, the most overpaid man in Colorado sports will do what he does best. With the clock winding down on his time as CU basketball coach, Ricardo Patton will get money for nothing.

You might argue Jose Theodore is no bargain as a goalie for the Avalanche or suggest Dan O’Dowd has yet to prove his worth as general manager of the Rockies. And you would be 100 percent correct.

But for my money, or to be more accurate, well over a half-million bucks of CU’s athletic funds, no local sports figure has given us less bang for the buck for nearly as long as Patton, who did just enough to hold the job since 1996.

“CU is getting killed in basketball. By making the right hire, they could change all that,” said Dana Pump, founder of ChampSearch, one of the more influential consulting firms in the business of big-time college sports. “If I’m the CU athletic director, I go try to hire Larry Brown right now. Now maybe there’s a very slim chance of him taking the job. But at least try.”

So I asked CU athletic director Mike Bohn, who never ducks a tough question and relishes big challenges, if the Buffaloes had serious interest in Brown, the much-traveled, 66-year-old coach who has won NCAA and NBA championships, while also professing a love for the Rocky Mountains.

“If Larry Brown really has a passion for teaching basketball at the college level, he will give us a call,” Bohn said.

For decades, there has been a defeatist attitude regarding college hoops in our state. You cannot consistently win big at CU, as the record shows and the story goes. Patton seemed to believe every word. Bohn refuses to believe basketball is doomed to be a losing proposition at CU. He cannot afford to think becoming a top-25 program is impossible.

Responsible for the bottom-line health of an athletic department that must pinch every penny, Bohn needs basketball to contribute more dough if he wants to turn a healthy profit.

“It’s a missing link in our formula. Clearly,” Bohn said. “That’s why men’s and women’s basketball need to really establish themselves as viable enterprises.”

While Bohn insists it’s highly unlikely he will hire a new coach before the lame-duck Patton waddles away in March, I fear CU has misplaced trust in a coach to keep a program rolling down the same uneven, mediocre road, while he has one eye peeled for his next job. Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

“Ricardo has got the keys to the bus. And we expect him, as does he, to drive the bus with the pedal to the metal,” Bohn said.

Counting all forms of potential income, including base salary, his summer camp, shoe revenue and incentives, the Buffaloes were on the hook for as much as $750,000 per year with Patton. That was stupid money. UCLA pays Ben Howland $900,000. Bill Self takes home approximately $1.2 million annually by Kansas.

With a little more fundraising, a touch of imagination and far smarter investing, the Buffaloes could go buy themselves a real basketball coach.

This is not a job for any old Tom, Joe or Ricardo.

Before CU can win big in basketball, the Buffaloes must be willing to spend money on a big-name coach who is willing to guarantee he can win anywhere.