CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was a hell of a ride but the Rams ran out of gas on Thursday night.
Coming off of Tuesday’s First Four victory over Virginia, Colorado State fell 56-44 to Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After scoring just 11 points in the first half and going down by 16, the hole was simply too big to climb out of for a team that fought valiantly but was already running on fumes.
Although a disappointing end to what’s been an extremely memorable season — especially because the Longhorns were certainly beatable in this one — it’s important to keep perspective of how unique this year really was.
CSU was in the top 25 for nine weeks. They beat more high major opponents than any Rams team this century, including the highest ranked win since 1984. They beat Colorado and each of the five Mountain West teams that qualified for March Madness. And although it was a bit frustrating to receive a play-in game, CSU won just its fifth NCAA Tournament game in program history.
“When you look back on it, this is a historic season,” Niko Medved said postgame.
“We got to our highest ranking in school history. We spent as much time as we ever have in the top 25 poll. We sold out the arena multiple times. We got to the NCAA Tournament, and we won when we got here. If you look at the history of Colorado State basketball, that doesn’t happen a whole lot.”
It’s easy to go negative during a situation like this. The emotions are raw and quite frankly, feelings are hurt. With how good this team looked, particularly in the non-conference slate, expectations were raised to what in hindsight were probably unrealistic standards.
When you beat down a top 10 team the way the Rams did on Thanksgiving, it’s easy to start dreaming big. That’s what makes all of this so fun, the hope that your team will do something miraculous. And we had tangible proof that CSU, at its peak, could hang with anybody in the country.
The fans were not wrong when they deemed this group special. They also are not wrong now if they feel let down with the way that the Rams went out. Scoring 11 first-half points and turning the ball over 19 times is not a pleasurable viewing experience.
But if you are in the camp that believes this season is somehow a failure, respectfully, you simply do not understand the history of this program or how challenging this gauntlet has been. The league was not just a little bit better than usual, it was on a completely different level. Not to mention that of all the teams in the Mountain West, nobody drew a more unfavorable schedule than the Green & Gold.
After going through all of that, and then playing three games in three days in Las Vegas, the Rams got back to Fort Collins around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. By Monday afternoon they were on the other side of the country for a late-night matchup with Virginia on Tuesday. And then they hit the road once again, arriving in Charlotte around 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game.
It doesn’t take all of the sting away and I know that. But there is no doubt that the travel schedule impacted CSU’s chances of beating a highly athletic Texas team. How could it not?
Losses like this always hurt the most in the moment. What that means, though, is this was a team worth emotionally investing in. If they sucked then you would not even bother letting the guard down. There’s no point.
As the days go by and it becomes a little easier to gain perspective, I do hope that Ram Nation recognizes what this season was. I hope they can look back at the epic Moby Arena crowds and all of the Isaiah Stevens chants, and I hope they realize this year would not have happened for most teams.
To be a squad composed of multiple players from lower levels, a transfer from a rival looking for a fresh start and perhaps the rarest of all, a loyal superstar in the NIL era, and to go and quite literally make history, that’s freaking cool.
This was a ride to remember. I’m thankful to have been along for it.
