Coaches: Coming and Going
Linda Lappe (Mktg’02) stepped down as women’s basketball coach after six seasons. The Buffs most recently went 7-23 (2-16 in the Pac-12). Overall CU was 105-92 under Lappe, with one NCAA Tournament appearance. JR Payne of Santa Clara University was named coach. Santa Clara was 23-9 last season.
Rodney Billups left CU men’s basketball to become head coach at his alma mater, the University of Denver. Bill Grier, a former head coach at San Diego, succeeds him.
The football team also has some new faces, and familiar ones in new roles. Former CU quarterback Darian Hagan (Soc’01) was named running backs coach. Klayton Adams will manage the offensive line, and Gary Bernardi will oversee tight ends and fullbacks.
Nikki Marshall (Soc’10) joined women’s soccer as a volunteer assistant coach. She played four seasons at CU (2006-09), scoring 42 goals. She holds CU records for goals and points –– as well as shot attempts (261), game-winning goals (18) and goals per game (0.49).
Stroem Sweeps
In March, junior Mads Stroem (Econ, Fin’17) became the sixth Buff skier to win both Nordic titles at the NCAA Championships. He won the men’s 10K freestyle race in 22 minutes, 6.8 seconds and the 20K classical race.
The Buffs finished second to DU in the team standings, failing to repeat as national champions. But a historical trend may favor CU next year: The Buffs have won the championship in all three odd years of the decade so far (2011, 2013, 2015), and each of those competitions was in New England. In 2017 the NCAA Championships take place in Franconia, N.H.
Buff Bits
CU men’s basketball heads to New York in November to play in the 2016 Legends Classic, a tournament that also includes Texas, Notre Dame and Northwestern, and culminates at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. … CU and Georgia Tech, which split the 1990 national football championship in the polls but have never met on the field, will play a home-and-home series. The first game is scheduled for 2025 at CU; the second for 2026 in Atlanta. CU Coach MacIntyre is a Georgia Tech alum who lettered twice as a free safety and punt returner for the Yellow Jackets. … Basketball forward Josh Scott (Soc’16) was named to the 2016 All-Pac-12 Conference First Team and forward Wesley Gordon (Anth’17) earned an honorable mention. On the women’s side, point guard Kennedy Leonard (A&S’19) was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
