Colorado State departing athletic director Mark Driscoll on Thursday repeated he will not fire men’s basketball coach Dale Layer after a 16-15 season and a third straight No. 8 seed in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
“It’s certainly not appropriate (to make a change) when three weeks from now I’ll have a different job,” said Driscoll, who is returning to the banking industry.
Driscoll sharply rebutted the suggestion that one of his reasons for leaving CSU was a reluctance to pull the trigger on his friend Layer.
“That’s absolutely false,” Driscoll said. “Jobs like this (president of First National Bank in Fort Collins) don’t come along every day. That’s an insult.”
Driscoll said he agreed with Layer’s assertion that the program had improved in the past year.
“We had more wins, we’ll have all our starters back and we have quality players,” Driscoll said.
He also expected CSU will avoid finishing with a deficit when the fiscal year ends in July.
Smith undecided
CSU first-team all-MWC center Jason Smith said he hadn’t decided whether to test the NBA waters at the predraft camp in Orlando, Fla., in early June. Underclassmen are permitted to attend the NBA’s version of the NFL combine and then return to school if they don’t hire an agent. If an underclassman goes to the NBA camp a second time, he cannot return to school.
“It will be whatever my coaches want me to do,” Smith said. “It would be a great opportunity.”
CSTV update
CSTV, which takes over the MWC television rights this fall, held a reception at the Pepsi Center. Co-founder and president Chris Bevilacqua said exposure for the relatively new cable network will increase dramatically this month through cross-promotion on CBS during the NCAA Tournament. CBS purchased CSTV last fall.
Bevilacqua said CSTV will retain rights to the Colorado-Colorado State football game.
Bevilacqua said CSTV will broadcast basketball games at times fans want to watch, a departure from recent seasons’ 10 p.m. tipoffs on ESPN.
Footnotes
The CSU-San Diego State and New Mexico-UNLV afternoon session drew 5,625 fans, nearly 2,000 fewer than the first sessions of the past two years. Not many CSU fans skipped out on work for the noon tipoff, as green-clad fans occupied only parts of two seating sections.
The San Diego State fans filled part of one section.
