Eustachy: CSU struggles to build NCAA-worthy schedule

As much as coach Larry Eustachy would like to remedy the situation, there’s no guarantee his CSU men’s basketball team won’t again be hurt by its nonconference schedule at the end of the season.

Eustachy said as much Wednesday, noting how difficult it is to get top teams to play the Rams.

So instead of playing teams like Minnesota and Stanford, who both came to Moby Arena for games during the 2008-09 season, the Rams’ best nonconference home games this season other than the University of Colorado are against the likes of Loyola Marymount and Long Beach State. The rest of the slate consists of Oakland, Abilene Christian, Arkansas-Fort Smith, South Carolina Upstate and Regis.

Eustachy knows those aren’t the kind of marquee opponents fans want to come see the Rams play. But there aren’t many options, either, he said. CSU is 45-9 at home in Eustachy’s three seasons as coach.

“Nobody wants to play us,” Eustachy said. “Our teams have always been tough to beat at home. Our fans would love to see UCLA come in here, for example, Duke come in here. If they can get them to do that, we’d sign the contract yesterday.

“… We do the best that we can under the circumstances.”

That was the case last season, too, when CSU won all 14 of its nonconference games, went 27-7 overall and 13-5 in the Mountain West. The Rams were at No. 29 in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index yet didn’t get into the 68-team NCAA tournament, becoming the first top-30 RPI team left out since the field was expanded to 68 in 2011 and only the second ever.

Scott Barnes, the Utah State athletic director at the time and head of the NCAA Selection Committee, said the Rams didn’t fare as well in other ratings systems that were taken into consideration because of a weak nonconference schedule.

Eustachy said he’s “still in the dark” about how teams are supposed to schedule their nonconference games, given that the only metric talked about by Mountain West coaches at their annual meetings was the RPI. Barnes, he said, declined an invitation to explain the selection criteria to the coaches.

“We really don’t know what is best to build a NCAA resume,” Eustachy said.

He still believes it’s better to play non-Division I teams that don’t figure into the RPI than schools below 250 in the RPI. That’s why the Rams scheduled home games against Division II schools Arkansas-Fort Smith and Regis this season, he said.

There are some other good nonconference teams on the Rams’ schedule this year, but they’ve got to travel to play those games. They’re at Northern Iowa in the Nov. 14 season-opener as part of the Mountain West/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge, and they’ve got a Dec. 19 game against Kansas State in Wichita, Kansas.

They’ll also could play games against UTEP or Southern Illinois or both in the final two rounds of the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic on Nov. 27-28.

Eustachy and assistant coach Steve Barnes, who is in charge of building CSU’s schedule, said they’re always trying to strike a balance between having a strong enough schedule to make the NCAA tournament when they’ve got a good team and not breaking the spirit of a young squad by scheduling games they have little chance to win.

It’s not easy, they said.

Schools in the five power conferences don’t want to come to Fort Collins, even in 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 deals, Eustachy said.

“There’s not a big pool if we want home games,” Eustachy said. “If you’re out there listening and you’re a Colorado State fan, get Kansas to come in here, and we’ll throw in a bonus for you. Get those schools to come here. We’ll play Kansas 3 for 1, we’ll go there 5 for 1.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

2015-16 CSU men’s basketball schedule

Times TBA

Date Opponent

NOV. 7 CSU-PUEBLO

Nov. 14 at Northern Iowa

NOV. 19 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT

NOV. 22 OAKLAND

NOV. 24 ABILENE CHRISTIAN

Nov. 27-28 at Corpus Christi Classic

DEC. 3 LONG BEACH STATE

DEC. 6 COLORADO

DEC. 9 ARKANSAS-FORT SMITH

Dec. 13 at Northern Colorado

Dec. 19 vs. Kansas State (in Wichita)

DEC. 21 S. CAROLINA UPSTATE

DEC. 29 REGIS

Jan. 2 at Boise State

JAN. 6 UNLV

Jan. 9 at San Jose State

JAN. 13 SAN DIEGO STATE

JAN. 16 UTAH STATE

Jan. 20 at Air Force

JAN. 27 SAN JOSE STATE

Jan. 30 at Wyoming

Feb. 3 at San Diego State

FEB. 6 NEVADA

FEB. 10 BOISE STATE

Feb. 13 at UNLV

Feb. 17 at Utah State

FEB. 20 WYOMING

FEB. 24 NEW MEXICO

Feb. 28 at Nevada

March 2 at Fresno State

MARCH 5 AIR FORCE

MARCH 9-12 at MW Tournament (Las Vegas)