The Rocky Mountain Showdown they call it. It’s the first out-of-conference rivalry to arrive in the Pac-12 and it goes down tonight.

It may not be the best game on tonight – that would be #7 Wisconsin visiting #5 North Carolina – but, as rivalries go, this should be a good one.

This is a historically football driven rivalry but hate is hate and the two schools began competing in 1893, battling for the Centennial Cup. Getting back to hoops, CU has beat CSU more times than they’ve lost. The all-time round ball record between the two schools is 86-35, rather one-sided to date, but a rivalry nonetheless.

In their last 10 meetings, CU has won seven of the games but they’ve been close. The average point differential over that period has been just 4.6 points, the average score being 79-75. These teams can score a little so it should be fun to watch them get up and down the floor. Last season, when CSU visited Boulder to take on the Buffs best team in some time, the Rams took the game to overtime on a last second layup before faltering, 90-83.

The Buffaloes haven’t been great but they’ve played alright. Sitting at 4-2 they’ve been more competitive than their fellow preseason Pac-12 non-favorites, Utah. The Utes are a woeful 1-5 with their lone victory coming against San Diego Christian who I won’t bother to expand upon. But I’ve digressed. The Buffs run a deep lineup and, as coach Tad Boyle wants, they’re fluid and guard heavy.

If for nothing else, tune in because Andre Roberson is playing and he does stuff like this: