We have reached that point in the year when the field for March Madness begins to fill. Will any team from Colorado be among the 68?
The CU Buffaloes, last in the 16-team Big Eight, have no shot, and Colorado State is a longshot.
The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, thus, would seem to have the best chance.
The Bears of coach Steve Smiley finished with the same record as Montana in the Big Sky Conference (15-3), which means they share the regular-season championship and are the top two seeds.
The Big Sky tournament begins Saturday in Boise, with the title game and automatic berth in Madness to be decided next Wednesday. UNC must win three games to earn a spot in the NCAA bracket, and likely will have to beat Montana to advance.
These two are the class of the league. Each has beaten the other once in two regular-season matchups—both winning on the road—so a rubber game would be a fitting conclusion.
If there’s an upset-maker to be acknowledged, that would be Portland State. The Vikings finished third in the Big Sky and split with both Northern Colorado and Montana, winning at home.
Significantly, 10 of their 12 losses, came in road games, and they’re not hosting the tournament.
This will be Northern Colorado’s second March Madness, if it happens. In their first try, the 2010-11 Bears lost 68-50 to second-seeded San Diego State in a first-round West Regional game played in Tucson.
Their 23 wins are third in team history, and their .742 winning percentage second-best all-time.
Only Tad Boyle’s last Greeley squad did better, finishing at .758 (25-8) in 2009-10.
That milestone mark landed him the job in Boulder, but at 12-4 his Bears finished second in the Big Sky. They were upset by eventual champion Montana in their first game of the Big Sky tournament, ending their season.
This season’s dismal record is only the second losing season in Boyle’s 15 as CU’s head coach. His Buffs have won 21 or more games 10 times and 309 of 510 through last Sunday’s loss at Kansas State (.606). They’ve appeared in six NCAA tournaments.
Steve Smiley is Northern Colorado’s third head basketball coach since Boyle. In five seasons he is 87-69 with three seasons of 20-plus victories.
A Denver native, he was a four-year starter at Pomona, twice all-state and his class’s valedictorian. Before succeeding Jeff Linder, he was associate head coach in charge of defense. During that time, he saw UNC win 80 and lose 50.
The current Bears are led by 6-foot-4 Langston Reynolds, who played for Denver East; 6-8 Isaiah Hawthorne from Tracy, California; Australian Jaron Rillie, a 6-3 guard; and 6-9 forward Brock Wisne from Thornton’s Horizon High. Together they average 68 percent of Northern Colorado’s 81.7 points per game.
Among Smiley’s 23 wins so far this season, he’s 4-1 against in-state opponents. He beat Air Force, Denver, Colorado College and Colorado Christian, losing only to Boyle and CU—in double overtime.
Colorado State’s 21-9 overall record is decent, and the Rams are second in the Mountain West with a pivotal regular season-ending game at Boise State Friday night that will determine seeding for the MWC tournament that starts next Thursday.
CSU lost twice to New Mexico, by a combined 30 points, and split with San Diego State and Utah State (with 2-0 or 1-1 against Boise to be determined Friday night). Those three are all candidates for at-large selections to the Dance—ahead of Colorado State in the estimation of most bracketologists.)
Nique Clifford, a 6-6 senior from Colorado Springs, leads CSU in both scoring (17.9 points per game) and rebounding (10), despite playing guard. He gets help from 10 teammates who average between 1.4 and 11.5 per game.
The Rams started off slowly, losing six of their first 13 games. But since New Year’s Eve, they’re 14-3 with that game in Boise to go.
UNC and CSU are roughly 49 minutes apart. Yet the last time they’ve played each other is November 14, 2023, when Colorado State romped 83-64.
Since their first meeting on January 25, 1902, the Rams have won 70 times and the Bears 38.
It would be an unexpected treat if they both were to make the March Madness field and were to play each other.
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Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published in late June. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.