Eight years ago today, on Dec. 7, 2013, Colorado took down No. 6 Kansas in thrilling fashion, 75-72, with a buzzer beating three-pointer by then-junior guard Askia Booker handing CU the victory at the Coors Events Center.
Booker's game winner against KU remains one of the defining moments of the Tad Boyle era at Colorado.
On its anniversary and in general, Buffs fanatics love to reminisce about the game and Booker's dramatic game-ending basket.
George King, a second-round NBA Draft pick by Phoenix in 2018, who is currently with the NBA G League Agua Caliente Clippers, was a true freshman at Colorado in 2013-14.
By the time his CU career had ended, he had started 127 games for the Buffs, while King's 40.1% make rate from deep ranked second all-time in program history.
King played two minutes on Dec. 7, 2013, against the sixth-ranked Jayhawks, recording a pair of rebounds in the process.
While his recollections of the game came primarily from CU's bench, they proved to be photographic.
“It’s crazy, it’s been eight years, huh? Jeez," King said. "...I just remember the game being anticipated — from the entire city of Boulder. It’s not often that Kansas comes to Boulder. The team that they had — Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins was the projected No. 1 pick overall, Frank Mason was their point guard, Tarik Black was one of the centers and another guy named (Jamari) Traylor — another big."
"You know how Kansas recruits and how they get guys in every year? There was no shortage of that this particular year in the 2013-14 season."
The five Buffs to take the court for tipoff were juniors Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie, sophomores Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott, while freshman Jaron Hopkins rounded out the starting lineup.
KU led, 7-0, less than two minutes into the game and would go on to hold multiple nine-point leads in the first half.
But back-to-back buckets by senior Ben Mills with about five minutes left before halftime gave the Buffs their first lead of the game.
In a fitting preview for what was to come, Booker drained a three-pointer with three seconds left in the first half, with the Buffaloes taking a 33-30 halftime lead.
As the second half went on, Colorado managed to stay in front of Kansas.
A Dinwiddie three-pointer put CU up by eight with 13:20 to play while shortly thereafter, freshman Tre'Shaun Fletcher made his mark on the game.
"I remember Tre’Shaun Fletcher, my roommate, had a great steal and had a fast break dunk on Andrew Wiggins, which really brought the house down," King said. "It was a big momentum shift because Kansas was winning early in the game. I think that dunk only reassured everyone that we were going to win this game."
By that point, the Buffs had their biggest lead of the night, 53-44 over Kansas, with 11:30 to play.
However, KU managed to go on a 9-0 run following Fletcher's dunk and the game was tied, 53-53, at the 8:41 mark or the final half.
The Jayhawks shot 15-of-25 (60%) from the floor in the second half, and although the Buffaloes remained in the lead down the stretch, KU was never far behind, always threatening, refusing to go down quietly.
Another three-pointer by Booker saw CU's lead balloon to six with a bit under four minutes to play, while a pair of Dinwiddie free throws at the 1:44 mark also put the Buffs up by six again.
As the game clock went under 60 seconds remaining, KU aimed to keep things within a basket while also forcing the Buffs to build on their slim lead via the free throw line.
Booker and Dinwiddie both missed key free throws in the final 18 seconds and with only four seconds remaining, Kansas' Perry Ellis hit a layup to tie the game at 72, almost certainly setting the stage for overtime.
Overtime, of course, was not required as Booker drained an improbable three-pointer, his third of the game, as time expired, lifting the Buffaloes over their visiting top 10 foe.
"I remember watching from the bench and Ski racing up the court," King recalled. "(KU’s Frank Mason) was standing in front of him and (Booker) had picked up his dribble, so he couldn’t dribble around him. But Ski is an extremely crafty and creative ball player. This man Eurosteps the guy (laughs) — Eurosteps usually happen under the basket, alright, nobody Eurosteps so far out from the basket, but Askia Booker does it, Eurosteps this man and it works. Goes off one foot — his left foot — jumps in the air and fires a jumper."
"Ski, the whole time I'm watching him, he’s confident in the whole situation. I’m staring at the basket trying to get the angle to see it go in and sure enough, Ski raises up, shoots the basket, landing somewhere around 30 feet out. Basket good. Buzzer goes off, and no one needs to even go and check because it’s obviously good."
Booker and Dinwiddie both tied for the team lead in points with 15, while Johnson and Scott scored 14 apiece.
The broadcast of Booker's shot falling shows the instantaneous response by the Coors Events Center crowd of 11,113, many of whom rushed the court afterwards looking to celebrate the win.
"It got so damn hot and there were so many people all in one confined space," King said. "It was basically a mosh pit. I remember the smell of alcohol on all the students who had indulged before the game — I could smell it on their breath and as they were yelling."
The 2013-14 Buffaloes went 23-12 (10-8 Pac-12), losing to Pittsburgh in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
For Dinwiddie, who went on to tear his ACL in January of 2014, his CU career would soon come to an end, as he declared for the 2014 NBA Draft, where he was eventually selected in the second round by Detroit.
Dinwiddie played a pair of seasons for the Pistons before joining the Brooklyn Nets, where he spent the next five seasons, averaging a career-best 20.6 points per game in 64 games played for the 2019-20 campaign.
He was traded to the Washington Wizards in 2021, where he continues to play guard.
As for Booker, he has enjoyed a standout international career, first in Spain and currently in China for the Shenzhen Aviators, averaging 26.2 points per game in 2020-21.
King continues to navigate his own professional career, as well, as he's in his second NBA G League stint after playing overseas in Italy, Poland and Germany the past few years.
Eight years to the day after taking down Kansas, the memory of such a wild game still ranks up there for countless CU fans, while the same could be said for King.
"We were led by Spencer Dinwiddie that year and by Askia Booker," King said. "The Coors Events Center was rocking, too. Everyone there was present, loud, assertive — you know how important that can get and that was a peak in terms of my four years there. We just played to win and it was a fight for 40 minutes."
"That’s a memory that I will never forget. The moment. The feeling and emotions — that was a rollercoaster rise, emotions-wise. Ski in his career hit a lot of clutch jumpers but that for sure is the most memorable one in my opinion."
