FORT COLLINS — All the money in the NBA couldn’t buy the smile on Colorado State guard Wes Eikmeier’s face when his Rams escaped with a 65-64 victory against in-state rival Colorado.
This was hoops with heart.
This was college students with no shirts and green letters painted on bare chests storming the court to celebrate.
This is what David Stern and LeBron James don’t get, because the NBA routinely fails to give us the passion that’s only fueled by a pep band rocking the walls with the school fight song.
After beating the Buffs, happy Colorado State players were body surfing on a big wave of emotional undergraduates taking a study break by pogoing at midcourt.
And they say college basketball doesn’t matter in Colorado.
Well, they didn’t hear more than 6,000 spectators gasp as CU guard Nate Tomlinson let fly a long jumper at the buzzer. I swear the basketball went down halfway through the rim only to back out.
“If we lost this game, we would’ve heard about it,” said Colorado State junior Dorian Green, whose layup with nine seconds remaining provided the winning margin.
The Rams survived with the slimmest, shakiest victory imaginable.
Bragging rights are not measured by points, but volume.
“When you go down to Denver,” Rams coach Tim Miles said, “they ask you one question: ‘Did you beat CU this year?’ Well, we can tell them for the next 300 and whatever days that we beat them. And we’re going to tell them.”
When’s the last time the crowd at an NBA game stormed the court? All CU coach Tad Boyle could do was duck out of the way and say: “Good for them. That’s the exciting part of college basketball. If that’s what they want to do, I have no problem with it. I want it to inspire our guys.”
Scrappy is raised to an art form by this Colorado State basketball team.
With their largest player in the starting lineup standing 6-foot-6, the Rams aren’t exactly imposing.
I suggested they were ankle- biters.
“Well,” Eikmeier replied, “those are annoying.”
Scrappy is beautiful to Colorado State, even if it is a crude art form. Mud on canvas. Skin on the court. Clutching and grabbing.
Bumping and grinding. If this were a middle-school dance, everybody on the Rams would get booted for too much body contact.
“We play what we call GATA basketball,” Miles said. “That’s G-A-T-A. Which is: Get after their . . . ahem . . . behinds. And we pride ourselves on that.”
Playing hard is the only way the Rams can compete. But paying customers dig them. Opposing coaches admire them. These guys just want to have fun.
This game was not to be mistaken for Duke vs. North Carolina. Dick Vitale wasn’t shouting himself hoarse in Moby Arena.
Neither the Buffs nor the Rams appear to be a serious candidate to receive an invitation from the NCAA Tournament.
While NBA players and owners were off arguing about money, they should have been taking notes regarding the college game.
What the Buffs and Rams gave was everything they had. It’s the antidote to what drove NBA fans nuts when they paid big bucks to watch former Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony approach defense like a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
It’s doubtful a single athlete who suited up for the Rams or Buffs will ever make a dollar in the NBA, although CU freshman Spencer Dinwiddie just might grow into a prospect worthy of debate by pro scouts.
Eikmeier, who scored 19 points, is the best college player currently working in the state, and he works relentlessly.
But was this game pretty? Only if you consider finger-painting a masterpiece.
All night long, Colorado made free throws look painful. CSU panicked down the stretch, nearly blowing a seven-point advantage in the game’s final 86 seconds.
It’s not about the money, though.
The passion was priceless.
Or as Miles put it: “You can never beat CU enough.”
Remind me again: Why did we miss the NBA?
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
