DENVER – Dallas Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie is abuzz about all the buzz surrounding his alma mater – the University of Colorado
Buffaloes.
As of now, the Buffaloes are all the rage in college football, ranked 16th in the nation with an impressive 8-2 record and are winners in their last four games. The buzz took on even more life Thursday when the No. 2 high school recruit in the country — quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis of Carrollton High School in Carrollton, GA — announced that he’s going to sign with Colorado so he can play for Buffs coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders.
“Coach Prime has breathed life into Boulder (Colorado) athletics right now,” Dinwiddie told Mavs.com following Friday morning’s shootaround at Ball Arena. “I know they just got a commitment from the No. 1 quarterback in the country (in Lewis).
“Coach Prime is on 
fire. He’s got Boulder rocking, and obviously the basketball team has always been pretty solid.”
With all the success of the Buffaloes, there’s been so much discussion about whether Sanders will depart for a job as a head coach in the National Football League
after this season. Dinwiddie doesn’t believe that’s going to happen.
“Not with (Sanders) getting a commitment from the No. 1 quarterback,” Dinwiddie said, referring to Lewis. “(Sanders) said college is the place for him, so I believe him.”
If Sanders does leave Colorado to coach elsewhere, Dinwiddie said: “It’ll probably be for something crazy like the (Dallas) Cowboys, or someth
ing like that. In which case, can you blame him for it?”
Dinwiddie was a star basketball player for the University of Colorado from 2011 until 2014, when he declared for the ’14 NBA Draft after his junior season and was the 38thoverall pick by the Detroit Pistons. He said the national attention the football program is receiving now – with sellouts no matter where they play, and with celebrities often on the sidelines during games – was non-existent during his college days in Boulder.
“We had other good programs,” Dinwiddie said. “But in terms of national (attention), it was just men’s basketball and football were the only two.”
The arrival of Sanders in Colorado prior to last season jump-started the nationwide attention the Buffaloes have received in less than two years. And this year, with Colorado having an excellent chance of getting into the College Football Playoffs – the top 12 teams will receive those prestigious automatic invitations — everyone around Boulder and beyond are going bonkers about the Buffs.
“Half the battle 
is just talent,” Dinwiddie said. “You can be the greatest coach in the world, but if you got a team full of fifth graders, you’re not going to beat any NBA players — I don’t care how bad their coaches are. Once (Sanders) was able to get talent, then it came down to the X’s and O’s.
“And if you look around his staff, he’s got a bunch of NFL stars who really played the game. So, he’s going to have the respect and ear, and all those young kids are going to get to buy in and they’re going to be ready to run through a wall for him just because of who he is and the credibility he brings to the game. And (Sanders’) knowledge that he has is going to be second to none.”
Dinwiddie also said the knowledge of Colorado two-way superstar Travis Hunter is second to none. As a wide receiver and cornerback, Hunter, one of the leading Heisman Trophy candidates, rarely comes out of a game and basically is on the field for over 100 plays.
“With my own two eyes, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dinwiddie said. “You hear stories about Desmond Howard and Prime, but with my own two eyes I’ve never seen it.
“You look at someone like Travis Hunter, who else can coach him better than somebody (like Sanders) that was the 1.0 version of him? It all makes sense. He’s big-time, and I hope he has the best of success.”
Dinwiddie said it also makes sense for anyone to predict that Sanders’ son – Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders – will be the first quarterback chosen in the next NFL Draft.
“Of course I’m going to rock with a Buff,” Dinwiddie said. “I think his ability to make plays on schedule, like an NFL quarterback, is amazing. It shows a lot of maturity beyond his years.
“And then you also see sometimes when he improvises and scrambles out, he does some special stuff in terms of his arm talent as well. So, I think he’s primed to be the first quarterback taken.”
KIDD ON WESTBROOK: Mavs coach Jason Kidd paid homage to Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook, who collected his 200th career triple-double during a 122-110 win over the Memphis Grizzlies this past Tuesday when he finished the game with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.
“That’s incredible when you talk about what Russ is doing,” Kidd said. “To be able to get 200 is incredible. Just his energy level and the impact that he has at this point of his career is incredible.
“It’s cool to watch. Not to be on the other side of it, though. It’s not fun. But you can tell that he loves to play the game.”
Westbrook is first on the NBA’s all-time triple-double list, followed by Oscar Robertson (181), Magic Johnson (138), Nikola Jokic (136), LeBron James (117) and Kidd (107).
Kidd said he probably could have registered more triple-doubles had he been much of a scorer.
“Sometimes at the end of the games when guys — your teammates or someone — will say you need a rebound, mine were more points,” Kidd said. “It wasn’t the rebound or assist. It was more that I needed to find a way to put the ball in the basket.
“But when you’re playing, you’re playing to win. You’re not trying to get a triple-double. You’re trying to affect the game or have an impact on the game to help the team win.”
Kidd said he wasn’t worried about scoring, because he said: “My teammates loved to score, so I did whatever it took to win. Until the end when guys would say you need six points. I’d say, ‘I would have to start at the beginning of the game to get those six points because I just wasn’t a scorer.’ “
Scoring wasn’t a problem for Westbrook. Neither was playing the game at 100 miles per hour.
“He comes with that energy each time he takes the floor,” Kidd said. “He understands how to fill up the stat sheet and find a way to win.
“He’s a winner. To be able to get 200 (triple-doubles) is incredible.”
X: @DwainPrice
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