Eric Prisbell

USA TODAY Sports

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Larry Eustachy's biggest vice these days is the Diet Coke in his right hand. All day he nurses one after another. He craves them; he needs them. In a single day, his wife says, don't be surprised to see him down 20, maybe more.

It beats the alternative.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Lana Eustachy, his wife of four years and, like her husband, a recovering alcoholic. "But I tell him, 'I'm glad you do that instead of drinking alcohol.' "

Eustachy, the third-year Colorado State coach with a personality as distinct as his back story, has returned to college basketball's national conversation. The Rams (10-0) are one of nine undefeated teams in the country. This week's USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll has Colorado State three spots from the top 25.

Quick to unleash quips or barbs, the grizzled Eustachy, 59, is still usually the most entertaining guy in a room. But he says he has long given up his go-to move of ordering two beers at a time. No more screwdriver cocktails after locker room speeches.

He knows he no longer has to worry about waking up after a night of hard drinking and worrying about what he might have done or said during a hard-charging night of debauchery.

"I don't miss wondering what's on the other end of the phone every morning," said Eustachy, the only division I men's basketball coach to win 20 games with five programs.

The décor of his midsize office — as bare and nondescript as any division I head coach — features few mementos except for the 2000 Associated Press national coach of the year award. That year marked the apex of Eustachy's coaching career to date. His Iowa State team lost an epic Elite Eight matchup with Michigan State in what many consider to be that season's de facto national title game.

Three years later Eustachy was ousted at Iowa State after the infamous photos emerged depicting Eustachy drinking with college students. He was living the life of a functioning alcoholic. His marriage already ruined, he knows he ultimately would have likely destroyed himself.

"What goes up must come down," Eustachy said. "I just changed."

He says he has been sober ever since 2003. And he says this is the happiest and most comfortable he has ever been in his coaching career.

To pry himself from the grip of alcohol was arduous. He found comfort in excess and, as he calls it "abnormalcy." He never would drink during the day — "I did my job" — but after the job was done, or after games, he drank, and drank hard.

"People said, 'What the [expletive]? Just stop,'" Eustachy said. "Oh, really. You would rather have other diseases than this disease. It is constant maintenance. You drink to escape. My ex-mother-in-law told me that I could have stopped anytime. Really? That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard."

Eustachy met Lana seven years ago while he was coaching at Southern Mississippi, where he worked from 2004 to 2012. They married three years later. Their relationship can be cathartic because they understand their daily challenges and their flawed pasts.

At her worst, Lana would look at a bottle of wine and want the bottle, not a single glass. Larry would be just getting started after two beers.

They are both involved with Alcoholics Anonymous and have sponsors. Eustachy also has a strong network of friends who have dealt with their own hardships.

Instead of drinking after games, Eustachy and Lana might have a nice dinner with friends or simply retreat home to watch Criminal Minds. More than anything, he stays busy.

"When you are an alcoholic, idle time is horrible for you, just horrible," Lana Eustachy said. "Idle time would be the worst thing for Larry or Lana Eustachy."

He golfs, he fishes, he reads. He empathizes with one particular character in a book he's currently reading.

"People don't understand how this guy (in the book) could be in jail for six months, been in rehab for a year and, three weeks later, he drives by a crack house and he stops," Eustachy said. "It is a grind unless you are in the right place. My whole lifestyle is different now."

He rides his Harley in the mountains. And he flies. It was nearly impossible for him to bring himself to fly before he quit drinking. At Iowa State, he would leave for road games early, with endless hours spent on highways en route to distant then-Big 12 stops in Austin and Boulder.

He found too much anxiety in flying. There were panic attacks that he attributes to drinking. It was so bad that, while preparing for a game in Anchorage while coaching at Idaho from 1990-93, Eustachy grabbed a map and contemplated driving through Canada to Alaska.

"I was John Madden," Eustachy said, referring to the former NFL coach and analyst who was long averse to flying. "I missed out on so much. Since I stopped drinking, I fly everywhere."

Eustachy describes his life as more tranquil, more humble. He says he possesses more grace. In the moments before Colorado State's victory against Colorado in Boulder last week — CSU's first there since 2006 — Eustachy approached Colorado coach Tad Boyle to express empathy about the Buffaloes' recent struggles. In the old days, he knows he never would have talked to someone he would in the past view as "the enemy."

"He is very comfortable now in his skin," Lana Eustachy said.

And his program is thriving. It is a program that Eustachy says he is modeling after Mountain West Conference heavyweight San Diego State. It took some time, but coach Steve Fisher signed transfers, had success, attracted the attention of a dormant fan base. And now the Aztecs are one of the nation's best West Coast teams.

"He is my idol," Eustachy said.

The transfer formula — seven of his top nine players have transferred from four-year school or a junior college — appeals to Eustachy for another reason. Like him, they often have dealt with some form of personal hardship. And they understand that he has not run from his past. He's owned it. He's real with players. And they respect it.

Eustachy says he heard that he'd never again be able to walk into a prospect's home and recruit because of his past. But he believes the opposite is true because so many families deal with alcohol or addiction issues.

"We all have our battles, we all have gone through stuff," said Colorado State senior Daniel Bejarano, a transfer from Arizona. "We are not getting respect. He's not getting respect. It brings us closer knowing we both have gone through stuff. It is just a different type of relationship."

His marriage is a little different, too. The Eustachys don't avoid social functions. Instead, they attend and encourage friends to drink if they wish. Larry and Lana would feel more uncomfortable if friends didn't act normally.

And Larry Eustachy doesn't have to avoid the topic of drinking. Asked about a popular windowless bar in Moscow, Idaho, where he coached more than two decades ago, Eustachy recalled its features.

"You can name any bar, I've been in there," Eustachy says. "It was fun while it lasted."

But this he wants to make clear: Life is more fun now. He vows to one day retire at Colorado State, once he's had enough coaching — and winning.

One Diet Coke at a time.