The next time former Colorado basketball greats Chauncey Billups, Cliff Meely, Jay Humphries or even Richard Roby visit the Coors Events Center, they might not recognize the place.

The latest piece of an improvement project taking place in the building is well underway as workers from El Paso Floor Company of Colorado Springs install a new state-of-the-art basketball floor. The $200,000 maple playing surface is being permanently attached to the concrete foundation through a sub-floor and a layer of cushion produced from old, ground up Nike shoes.

"It should help us with shin splints, injuries and wear and tear on our athletes," athletic director Mike Bohn said.

The old court was a rectangle temporarily placed on the oval arena floor, leaving areas of concrete exposed. The new surface will cover the concrete entirely from the lip of stairs on the west side to the lip of stairs on the east side. The sub-floor system will allow wires for television and radio broadcasts to be routed beneath the floor. Workers began the installation several weeks ago and won't complete the project until the third week of August.

"There is a lot that goes into this one," said Brian Weikal, an installer with a decade of experience buildingbasketball floors. " It's got a lot of pieces and parts."

The old floor will be moved to Balch Fieldhouse wear the basketball teams can use it during the fall semester when practice times often conflict with volleyball practices and classes held in the Coors Events Center. The new floor will appear almost white because it uses the highest grade maple available. It will also feature a much larger Buffalo at center court, stretching from one 3-point line to the other.

The floor is one of several improvements made this year that will benefit both men's and women's basketball programs. Both programs also recently moved into new offices in the building from their former outposts at Folsom Field.

The men will enjoy a new locker room this year featuring a study hall, kitchen, eight or nine flat screen televisions and hookups for cell phones and iPods in every locker. Coaches will use a new video system with a telestrater allowing them to diagram plays and teach by drawing directly on the screen then wiping it away by pushing a button.

Workers have gutted a second floor room once used for postgame press conferences in advance of other crews that will begin building a new weight room there later this fall. Once the weight room is complete, basketball players will no longer have to trudge a half-mile across campus after practices on January evenings to lift weights or get something to eat in the Dal Ward Center.

Bonus for Wetmore

Bohn said CU cross country and track and field coach Mark Wetmore and his assistant coaches received bonus payments for winning Big 12 championships in men's cross country and men's outdoor track. The 2007-08 school year was one of the most successful for the men's teams under Wetmore's direction

The bonuses come as part of athletic department policy to reward coaches who lead their teams to conference titles or national championships. The bonuses usually amount to either two week's or one month's salary per coach, per team championship.

Trading places

When the athletic department completed new offices for men's and women's basketball coaches in the Coors Events Center earlier this year, it set in motion a series of moves within the department, most of which are taking place this summer.

Wetmore and his assistants will enjoy expanded office space with longtime sports information director Dave Plati and his assistants moving to offices located at Gate One in Folsom Field. The business office has moved into the old men's basketball offices and CU Foundation athletics representatives have moved into the former women's basketball offices, all in Folsom Field.

Talking with CSU

CU, Colorado State, Invesco Field and Denver Metro Sports Commission officials continue to discuss the future of the CU-CSU football series and continuing to play the game in Denver. CU has proposed moving the 2009 game to Folsom Field because the Buffs' 2009 schedule features just five true home games. Bohn has pledged to CU fans that the Buffs will have at least six games in Folsom Field every year.

In exchange for moving the 2009 game to Boulder, Colorado is offering to extend the series beyond the current contract which runs through the 2010 season. Under the current deal, CU must inform CSU before this season's game where it intends to play next season's game. The Buffs are the home team this season and in 2009.

"We're still exploring all our options and trying to get as much information as possible," Bohn said.