CSU basketball unveils new 'state-pride' uniforms

The "state-pride" uniforms are back.

This time, for basketball.

CSU and Under Armour unveiled the basketball versions Monday of the popular “state-pride” uniforms worn last fall by the Rams’ football team.

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And, like the football uniforms, the uniforms are in the colors of Colorado’s state flag. The white jerseys have blue numbers trimmed in red and the words “Colorado State” printed above the numbers across the chest.

The white shorts have the Colorado state flag, with a gold circle inside a red “C,” on the outside of each leg near the bottom. A blue band wraps around each leg at the bottom.

“When I first saw them, I was full of joy,” said J.D. Paige, a junior guard from Aurora and one of four players who modeled the new uniforms for photos and a video released Monday. “It’s a symbol of where I’m from and what the state is about.”

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The CSU women’s team will wear the new uniforms for a home game Saturday against New Mexico. The men’s team will wear them Jan. 31 for a home game against Border War rival Wyoming.

Paige said he had hoped they would be broken out for a Dec. 2 home game against the University of Colorado, which CSU won. But wearing them for the Border War game, he said, is the next-best option.

Guard Prentiss Nixon, sidelined with an ankle sprain, said the new uniforms should be a hit with prospective recruits, just like they were in football. Several of the players who signed with the CSU football team Dec. 20 posed for pictures wearing the “state-pride” uniforms during their recruiting visits.

Others posed in the orange jerseys the football team wears for its annual Ag Day games. CSU’s men’s basketball team wore its orange jerseys Saturday in a home game loss against UNLV. The Rams’ usual basketball uniforms are white jerseys and white shorts, with green lettering and numbers trimmed in gold, for home games and green jerseys and shorts, with white lettering and numbers trimmed in gold, for road games.

“Kids at 17 and 18 years old, like seeing that, shoes, uniforms,” Nixon said. “If you’ve got five different uniforms, kids will go crazy out of high school.”

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Retail outlets licensed to carry the “state-pride” apparel, including Scheel’s, Dicks Sporting Goods, the CSU Bookstore and Ram Zone locations in Fort Collins and Denver, have been selling T-shirts, polo shirts, pull-overs, sweatshirts, hats and other gear in the product line since October, when the football team’s version was unveiled. The football team wore the uniforms for a Nov. 11 loss at home against Boise State.

The apparel can also be purchased online through CSU’s athletic’s website, CSURams.com.

Under Armour designed and made the uniforms as part of its contract with CSU to be the school’s official provider of uniforms and apparel. Under Armour has previously provided the Rams’ men’s basketball team with a gray uniform and has provided the women’s basketball team with uniforms for its annual “Orange Out” and “Pink Out” games.

CSU and Under Armour each receive a portion of the sales of each CSU-branded item sold, said Chris Ferris, the school’s senior associate athletic director for sales, marketing and communications.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310) and 10:45 a.m. Saturdays on Denver’s ESPN radio (AM 1600).