FORT COLLINS — Obviously stunned, upset and angry, Colorado State men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy emerged from the locker room to speak with the media Sunday, almost an hour after the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed without including the Rams.
Colorado State players and coaches watched the “Selection Sunday” telecast privately. Only Eustachy was made available to reporters. He did not take questions.
Most nationally recognized “bracketologists” had predicted that CSU would receive one of the 36 at-large bids to the 68-team NCAA Tournament. The only thing that mattered Sunday in Fort Collins was that the selection committee left out a Rams team (27-6) that set a school record for victories in a season.
“This is going to be brief,” Eustachy said. “I’m not going to take any questions, because I don’t want to say the wrong thing … something that I’m going to regret.
“The disappointment is that you have 12 players in (the locker room) crying. We’re certainly one of the best 68 teams in the country. Obviously, the committee didn’t feel that way. And our team moves on.”
Later Sunday, CSU received a spot in the 36-team National Invitation Tournament. The Rams will host South Dakota State at 8 p.m. Wednesday in a first-round NIT game.
But, at least immediately, that did not soften the sting of being left out of the big one.
Eustachy apologized for reducing a scheduled news conference to a statement that took less than two minutes.
“But I have a team that I have to console, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “They’re devastated. And they should be. They’re certainly an NCAA Tournament team. But the committee didn’t see it that way.”
Eustachy then departed.
Colorado State sported an impressive 29 RPI, according to ESPN.com‘s calculations. According to Colorado State, the Rams became the first team with an RPI computer power ranking of 30 or better not to receive a spot in the bracket since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011.
Eustachy said Thursday night in Las Vegas after a loss to San Diego State in a Mountain West Tournament semifinal, “We’re in the (NCAA) Tournament.” Eustachy held out star forward J.J. Avila from that game so the senior could heal an ankle sprain for the NCAA Tournament.
Ironically, this year’s chairman of the selection committee is Scott Barnes, who has direct ties to the Mountain West. Barnes is athletic director at Utah State.
Barnes, who under committee rules had to leave the room when Mountain West teams were discussed, said committee members compared Colorado State “there at the end” with fellow Mountain West member Boise State (25-8) for perhaps the final spot among the 36 at-large selections.
Boise State, which earned the top seed in the Mountain West Tournament, will travel to Dayton, Ohio, for a midweek play-in or “First Four” game.
“When you think about Colorado State, their RPI was fairly strong,” Barnes said during a teleconference after the selection show, “but the other metrics that we used weren’t nearly as high in terms of ranking. … (Those) other things hurt them.”
Barnes also referred to Colorado State’s lack of a road victory over a top-100 team in RPI. CSU won at Colorado, a rivalry win that appeared impressive in early December. But the Buffaloes had a disappointing season (15-17) and finished with a 114 RPI.
Two other Mountain West teams will play in the NCAA Tournament. Wyoming (25-9), which earned the league’s automatic bid by winning the conference tournament, is the No. 12 seed in the East Regional. San Diego State (26-8) is the No. 8 seed in the South Regional.
Some may speculate that Wyoming’s victory in the Mountain West Tournament bounced out CSU because the selection committee was not about to take four teams from the Mountain West. The MW is ranked 11th in conference RPI, according to realtimerpi.com.
Barnes said Colorado State also was compared with other teams for the final at-large spots and that conference affiliation is not taken into consideration.
“We’re never talking about how many teams from each conference are in,” Barnes said. “We didn’t even know how many teams from each conference were in until CBS showed us the graphic.”
Tom Kensler: tkensler@denverpost.com or twitter.com/tomkensler