The Buff in the Big Yellow Hat cheers from the C-Unit section as the Buffs take on the Auburn Tigers on Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo. (Kai Casey/CU Independent)
The confetti doesn’t throw itself, the chants don’t spring up out of nowhere and the buffalo chips don’t randomly drop into the 3,000-plus seats behind the south basket at the Coors Event Center. Behind the C-Unit, the beating heart of Colorado basketball, is a team of students dedicated to turning Boulder into the nation’s rowdiest college basketball city.
We caught up with two of the C-Unit leadership members, senior communications major Michelle Fay and senior finance major Matt Klasco, after last week’s win over San Francisco to talk about the atmosphere in the CEC and their plans for Wednesday’s game against Colorado State.
“In-game, it’s all about party atmosphere, keeping it exciting.” Klasco said. “Obviously we’re here to have a good time, and I think we do a better job than most programs at making it a legitimate party in the stands.”
The C-Unit was overflowing for the Buffs’ late-night—or early-morning—win against Auburn, unusual for a game at 11 p.m. against a middling non-conference opponent, and it set a new standard.
“We really wanna make every game at that level,” Fay said. “Like crazy rowdy 30 minutes before tipoff, because it really helps the team.”
The party will turn up even harder when the Rams come to town. Fay and Klasco wouldn’t offer specifics, other than that they are adapting some of the men’s national soccer team supporters’ chants from this past summer’s World Cup, and that they have some new free-throw distractions in the works.
“It’s gotta stay up the sleeve,” Fay said. “Just expect the unexpected.”
“They’re not gonna know what hit them,” Klasco added. “We’ll be able to win that game just by yelling. The sound waves will reverberate and change the ball a little bit. I’m not a scientist, but it seems like it could probably work.”
The CUI will be in the thick of it, and we’ll have much more on the C-Unit, including the rest of our conversation with Fay and Klasco after the Buffs battle the Rams.
Until tipoff this Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m., the C- Unit’s three consistent themes will have to suffice — be loud, be creative, be rowdy.
Contact Men’s Basketball Beat Writer Tommy Wood at thomas.c.wood@colorado.edu.
