FORT COLLINS — Only time will tell how this season’s Colorado State men’s basketball team is defined.
With four games still to go in the regular season, the Rams’ 2016-17 campaign has long exceeded the number of storylines that typically shape the way a team is remembered.
With the conference tournament still to go, and a postseason tournament perhaps to follow, the first-place Rams (18-9, 10-4 MW) have already dealt with the following off-court issues:
• A nine-game suspension to its best player, , to start the season
• Reintroducing Clavell back in the lineup midway through the season when it seemed the Rams had found ways to move on without him
• Academic ineligibility to three key reserves soon after the start of league play, leaving the team with just seven scholarship players
• Numerous verbal altercations with players and coaches from New Mexico before, during and after their matchup Jan. 14 in Fort Collins, culminating with a heated exchange in the Moby Arena parking lot after the game
• And the latest: a story from the Fort Collins Coloradoan published last week that reports coach Larry Eustachy was investigated by the university three years ago for emotionally abusing players, an investigation that reportedly placed Eustachy on a personal improvement plan.
That’s more headlines than most programs deal with over the course of several seasons let alone one — and there’s still at least three weeks to go.
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