The Rams got snubbed again.
For the second time in six years, Selection Sunday offered more March Sadness than March Madness for CSU players, coaches, administrators and fans.
The 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket was announced late Sunday afternoon, and CSU — despite 18 wins overall and a program-high 14 wins in Mountain West Conference play — did not make the cut.
Instead, the Rams were one of the last four out, meaning they could enter the tourney if two teams are eliminated due to COVID-19 protocol. If that doesn’t happen, they have an NIT bid in hand as a No. 1 seed, with a game against No. 4 seed Buffalo (16-8) set for 6 p.m. Friday in Dallas-Forth Worth.
The NCAA snub had an eerily similar feeling to Selection Sunday 2015, when then-coach Larry Eustachy’s Rams were among the first four teams passed over for that year’s bracket, even though CSU had compiled a 27-6 record and toted a Ratings Percentage Index rank of No. 29 nationally.
CSU’s regular season ended Friday with a 62-50 loss to Utah State in the semifinals of the Mountain West’s conference tournament. The setback was considered by some national pundits to be an “elimination” game of sorts between a pair of rival league programs on the NCAA tourney bubble.
The Rams (18-6) have in recent weeks been considered among the dozen or so teams vying for one of the final at-large slots in the field, a group that also included Louisville (13-7), Maryland (16-13), Ole Miss (16-11), Saint Louis (14-6), St. Bonaventure (16-4), Syracuse (16-9), UCLA (17-9), VCU (19-7), Xavier (13-8), Memphis (16-8), Drake (25-4), as well as Mountain West compatriots Utah State (20-8) and Boise State (18-8).
A half-hour before the Selection Show, the nation’s two leading Bracketologists both projected the Rams to be squarely on the NCAA selection committee’s fence. But they disagreed as to CSU’s ultimate fate.
As of 3:30 p.m. Denver time on Sunday, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm listed the Rams as one of his last teams in, slotted as an 11 seed in a First Four matchup against the Pac-12’s Bruins, with the winner facing sixth-seeded Clemson. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi listed CSU as one of his last two teams out of the field after Wichita State (16-5).
As with six years ago, the Rams’ March resume for at-large consideration was solid, but not a slam dunk. CSU on Sunday morning ranked No. 51 nationally in the NCAA’s NET ranking component, one of the critical criteria used by the committee to evaluate and compare programs.
The challenges presented by the coronavirus and the struggles among the bottom half of the Mountain West also limited the amount of quality opponents on the CSU schedule. The Rams finished the regular season with a 2-4 record against Quad 1 opponents and were 1-2 vs. those in Quad 2. More than half of CSU’s 18 wins — 10 — were against Quad 4 competition (10-0).
While CSU’s profile lacked any so-called “bad losses,” it also lacked some of the signature wins of those Power 5 peers against whom they were compared. The Rams’ Strength of Schedule (SOS) ranked 106th in the country as of Sunday afternoon; their non-conference SOS ranked 143rd.
NOTE: This is an ongoing story and will updated.
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March 15, 2021 at 06:37AM
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CSU Rams snubbed for NCAA Tournament again - The Denver Post
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