Colorado State's NCAA Tournament hopes just got slimmer with their 75-71 loss to TCU Saturday night.
The Rams, now 15-8 overall and 4-4 in-conference, had to beat the now 14-10 Horned Frogs and other teams below them in the standings while hoping to steal a win against one of the three powerhouse schools.
After starting the game down, CSU battled back and took a five point lead into halftime. And in the second half, the two teams fought a close battle down to the end of the game.
With 36.4 seconds on the clock, the Rams had the ball down 71-69. Tim Miles decided to not take his final timeout and what resulted was Wes Eikmeier trying to do too much and having the ball stolen away.
CSU fell to 2-7 on the road and their RPI dropped to 30 according to CBSSports.com. The team will likely need 20 wins to to be considered as an at-large bid, meaning they will have to go 5-1 to finish the regular season.
That means beating Boise State in Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico at home, stealing a win at SDSU or home against UNLV and defeating Air Force in Colorado Springs to finish the season.
That's a mighty big mountain for the Rams to climb.
And even if they can put together a miracle finish, it's unlikely the selection committee will put three at-large bids from the Mountain West, despite the conference being it's best ever.
It's more probable that Colorado State, who started the year 13-4, will have to win the MWC Tournament to go dancing this year as they've gone 2-4 since.
Still, this Rams team has already shown heart, and there's no doubt they are hanging onto those hopes of making the NCAA tourney, no matter how slim they now seem.
CSU's remaining schedule
- @ Boise State 2/15 8 p.m. tip
- Vs. Wyoming 2/18 7 p.m. tip
- Vs. New Mexico 2/21 8 p.m. tip
- @ San Diego State 2/25 8 p.m. tip
- Vs. UNLV 2/28 8 p.m. tip
- @ Air Force 3/3 2 p.m. tip
Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist actively seeking a career in journalism. Along with being your CSU Rams Examiner, Kurtzman is also the Denver Broncos Examiner and writes for Blake Street Bulletin, Stadium Journey, Bleacher Report, and Mile High Hoops.
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