KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brittany Spears arrived here thinking about the remarkable journey of twists and turns leading to her final Big 12 Tournament. For the Colorado senior forward, the significance goes far beyond college basketball and becoming only the second women’s player in school history to reach 2,000 career points.
Back home in Pasadena, Calif., Spears calls it simply “the park.” In effect, the basketball court became her safe harbor, her refuge, her second home.
“When I’d go to the park to play basketball, it was kind of a release,” said Spears, who Monday was named first-team all-Big 12. “I didn’t have to think about all that was going on at home.”
Spears’ mother died of breast cancer when Brittany was 4. Her father wasn’t in the picture, so Brittany and her brothers were taken in by their grandmother, who resided nearby. But just four years later, Spears’ grandmother died of a heart attack.
If it wasn’t for a loving aunt having some extra space (despite having three children of her own), Spears doesn’t know what she would have done or where she would have lived. Fortunately, she was always within walking distance of the park.
Spears would head there almost every day, making sure to not break her aunt’s rule of returning home before dusk, before the street lights came on. She learned basketball the hard way. Against boys.
“You don’t see many girls playing basketball at the park,” Spears said. “But there would be one random girl there, and a lot of times it would be me.
“I had to get good because boys are ball hogs. They won’t pass you the ball. But if they see you have skill, they’ll pass the ball to you because they want to win.”
Spears, 6-f00t-1 and nimble enough to play anywhere on the court, will lead the charge for No. 9 seed Colorado (15-14, 6-10 Big 12) in today’s 10 a.m. Big 12 Tournament opener against No. 8 seed Kansas (19-11, 6-10) at Municipal Auditorium.
Colorado has a good chance of being invited to the Women’s NIT next week. In the meantime, Spears hopes the Buffaloes can make some noise in the Big 12 Tournament. She finished the regular season ranked fifth among Big 12 players in scoring (18.0) and fourth in rebounding (8.0), parlaying a bruising style of ball she learned in the park into a stellar collegiate career.
“I have so much respect for ‘Spearsy’ because of what she has gone through,” first-year Colorado coach Linda Lappe said. “She has had a tough life. She has had a lot of people come in and out of her life. She has had to really, really persevere.
“Everything that she’s gotten, she’s had to work hard for. That jump shot just didn’t come. She spent so many hours working on it. And school is not easy for her.”
Now more vocal leader
Spears initially signed with then CU coach Kathy McConnell-Miller for the 2006-07 season. But Spears fell shy of qualifying academically and needed a year at a prep school in New England before arriving in Boulder.
She is on track to earn a degree in sociology in August. Hearing of her story almost brought tears to Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, who took time to talk with Spears after the No. 3-ranked Bears defeated Colorado 81-59 on Saturday despite Spears’ 23 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
“The most impressive things about Brittany Spears have nothing to do with basketball,” Mulkey said. “The kid’s graduating. The tragedies in her life … knowing how she fought against adversity … I told her: ‘I don’t know you. But I respect you.’ “
Shy by nature, Spears hardly said a word to teammates during her first three years at Colorado, except, perhaps, to tell an almost daily joke that she thought up. This season, Spears knew she had to be a leader, as a senior and as the team’s best player. It didn’t come easy.
“But I have a good support group on the team,” Spears said. “They told me if I said something, they’d listen.”
Name issue “really old”
While Brittany will likely never become chatty on or off the court, the fact that she has started to open up is viewed as a remarkable transformation among those who know her best.
“She tells us what to do on the court. She has even given us speeches,” said Britney Blythe, a senior guard. “It’s good to see.”
Finally, after four years, Brittany Spears is known around campus for something other than sharing a similar name to that of the recording artist.
Most of the time, anyway.
“Some people will still come up and tell me they like one of my songs,” Spears said. “I usually play along with it, but it’s not funny anymore because she (Britney Spears) has no new songs.
“So I tell them, ‘That’s old, that’s really old.’ “
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
First-rate stats
Colorado forward Brittany Spears goes into today’s Big 12 Tournament with a career resume built on toughness. A look at the senior’s numbers through the years:
• Her 2,054 career points are second all time on CU’s scoring list. She trails only Lisa Van Goor (2,067 points from 1980-85).
• She has scored in double digits in 27-of-29 games this season.
• Her 148 career blocks are third all time on CU’s list.
• She ranks fifth in the Big 12 in scoring this season with 18 points per game.
• She is the active leading career scorer in the Big 12 and is ninth on the all-time list.
