Stephens: CSU basketball season will be unfairly remembered

Larry Eustachy grabbed me walking into the McGraw Center one Monday morning last fall. His CSU basketball team was just beginning practices and he was excited.

With his hands on my shoulders he said with a laugh, "we're going to be good."

For 31 games this season, the Rams were. Wednesday was one of the three they were not.

Eustachy has unbearably preached one lesson to since taking over three years ago: mental toughness.

In 101 games at Colorado State University, he's never defined what it means to him. Strong willed? An ability to handle hostile environments? Staying calm when faced with adversity? We can assume a combination.

When it mattered most Wednesday night in a 86-76 loss to South Dakota State at Moby Arena, mental toughness, the one thing Eustachy wants his team to have, was nowhere to be seen.

Down as many as 16, in a game it didn't want to play in, against a team with nothing to lose, CSU showed exactly what mental toughness wasn't, unable to prevail in the opening round of the NIT.

The college basketball world was flabbergasted by the Rams' snub from the NCAA tournament four days ago, and now plenty are thinking the selection committee got it right. The committee didn't – CSU is better than a handful of at-large teams that received berths – but that decision clearly carried over to the NIT.

Twelve 3-pointers by South Dakota State played a part of the outcome, silencing any cheers the crowd of 3,391 could muster. But CSU came out cold. It turned the ball over three times by passing to no one, it missed 15 3-pointers and didn't did form any sort off momentum until the second half.

"We knew what was at stake. We knew these guys were going to come in and try to get a win. After Sunday, we had the option to come in here and play a basketball game or get upset," CSU senior Stanton Kidd said. "Some things don't work out your way all the time."

It would be easy to be call 2014-15 the most disappointing season in CSU history.

That doesn't sound fair -- it's not fair -- but the way it ended makes it feel that way. After all the hype, all the success, a program-record 27 wins, the Rams were left with a series of bad breaks that marred a season that should be cherished.

Sadly, it won't be.

What will be remembered is two losses to Wyoming, Eustachy's technical foul at Boise State that wasn't even his fault, J.J. Avila spraining his ankle against Fresno State and missing the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament, not hearing "CSU" on selection Sunday and a 10-point loss at home to a school from the Summit League.

That's what 1,365 minutes of basketball boils down to when a team's storybook season has a nightmare end.

As you settle in to watch the NCAA tournament over the next three weeks, inevitably upset about a decision made by 10 men that cost the Rams a piece of March Madness, take a deep breath. You could look at this season as a disappointment, because the end product was.

Or you could remember everything that made you once again fall in love with CSU basketball and revive Moby Madness.

"It's not about this last game. It's about the whole nine months. All the hard work this summer, all the memories" Daniel Bejarano said. "That's how we're going to remember this season."

For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.