FORT COLLINS — Colorado State’s nine-year NCAA Tournament drought is over. The Rams are dancing.
CSU is back in the NCAA Tournament, it was revealed today during the tournament selection show. The Rams are the No. 11 seed and will face No. 6 Murray State on Thursday in the West Regional of the tournament. The game is in Louisville, Ky., at 10:15 a.m. and is the first game of the day.
It is Colorado State’s eighth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a long time coming for CSU and their comedian coach, Tim Miles, who is nevertheless nothing but serious about building a program and a winner. It has taken five seasons to resurrect a downtrodden program and bring it back to tournament status.
And now his team is in. Colorado State finished 20-11 this season and demolished TCU in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament, winning by 21 points before falling to San Diego State in the semifinals.
“It’s a great day for our program. I’m thrilled for our players,” Miles said. “They’re the guys in the arena with their face full of mud, competing, giving up their heart and soul. It’s just been something that’s been a long time coming. We’ve spilled a lot of blood here, from 2007 on.
“To have this group put it all together and come through in the clutch like they have, it’s really a cool day for CSU Rams basketball.”
All season long the Rams have had a good RPI and strong strength of schedule. They added marquee wins along the way in conference play.
And CSU did it with size deficiencies on many nights and with a roster that fluctuated among seven and 10 available players on any given night due to numerous injuries. In many respects, CSU’s even getting to the point where it was in the tournament conversation is as remarkable a tale as there is in college basketball.
CSU was matched up against Duke in 2003, and nearly walked away winners in that game. The Rams have won three NCAA Tournament games in their history, the last coming in 1989 — 68-46 win over Florida.
The Rams will have forward Greg Smith back for the tournament game. He missed the MW Tournament because of a sprained ankle. In fact, the entire roster should be as healthy going into the Murray State game as it has been all season long.
One of Murray State’s top players, guard Donte Poole, was a CSU signee in 2007 but was academically ineligible and transferred to Murray State. He is averaging 14.2 points and has a team-high 62 steals.
Murray State is about a four-hour drive to Louisville, so the Racers will be well-represented at the second-round game against the Rams.
CSU ticket order forms are available at and need to be submitted by 5 p.m. Monday. Tickets for non-students will be distributed based on Ram Club membership. Those fans will have first priority based on a point system, then current men’s basketball season-ticket holders and finally general public ticket requests will be considered in the order in which they were received.
Fans will be notified by noon Tuesday if they will get ticket.
CSU in the NCAA Tournament
1954: Santa Clara 73, CSU 50; Idaho State 62, CSU 57 (regional consolation game)
1963: Oklahoma City 70, CSU 67
1965: Oklahoma City 78, CSU 70
1966: Houston 82, CSU 76
1969: CSU 52, Dayton 50; CSU 64, CU 56 (second round); Drake 84, CSU 77 (regional final)
1989: CSU 68, Florida 46; Syracuse 65, CSU 50 (second round)
1990: Alabama 71, CSU 54
2003: Duke 67, CSU 57
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
