GREELEY, Colo.—During its selection party, Northern Colorado’s president set the tone for the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance.
“It’s been a great run for us,” said Kay Norton minutes before the Bears’ first-round opponent had been announced. “But it isn’t over.”
Northern Colorado will be a 15th seed and play Mountain West tournament champion and No. 2 West seed San Diego State on Thursday in Tucson, Ariz.
Some 500 alumni, boosters and residents were on hand to watch players pound their chests and raise their fists into the air at Butler Hancock Pavilion for the festive, small-town gathering. The group cheered as loudly for the announcement as when the team’s four seniors raised the Big Sky championship banner.
“We aren’t just glad to be here,” said Northern Colorado guard Devon Beitzel, the Big Sky tournament and regular-season MVP. “We don’t want this to stop. We’ve reached some of our goals this year, and we just want to keep it going.”
The Bears won their first regular-season championship. They followed it up by beating Montana 65-60 for their first Big Sky tournament championship.
“Now we want to be the first team at Northern Colorado to get an NCAA tournament win,” Beitzel said.
“This is a veteran group with a lot of experience in big-time venues,” first-year coach B.J. Hill said. “There is no pressure on us. There have been only four teams that have done it as No. 15 seeds, and we just want to go and play.”
This from a program that played at the Division I level for the first time in 2006-07 and was first eligible for tournament play in 2007-08. And a team that went just 4-24 in 2006-07.
Northern Colorado has only four postseason victories since 1994, one of which came when it was a member of the Division II Northern Central Conference.
“We’ve had some rough years,” said Mike Deutcher, who played on the 1966-67 Northern Colorado team that lost to North Dakota and Phil Jackson in the Division II regional finals. “It’s unbelievable that this is finally happening to us.”
Northern Colorado is familiar with San Diego State. Beitzel, Neal Kingman, Taylor Montgomery and Chris Kaba were on the team that played home and home against the Aztecs.
Beitzel had 15 points when the Bears won 65-56 at San Diego State on Jan. 9, 2008. The Bears lost 73-62 the next year in Greeley.
“We know them and know they have four or five NBA players on that team,” Hill said. “We’ll have to bring a toughness to be able to compete with them for 40 minutes.
“So the odds aren’t on our side, but I will take these guys anywhere against anybody.”
