After getting two teams into March Madness two years ago (Colorado and Colorado State) and one last year (CSU), it’s going to be an upset if the state of Colorado is represented in the NCAA men’s tournament this March. The Colorado Buffaloes are going to finish the regular season with a losing conference record, mired near the bottom of the rugged Big 12. And after a hot start, the CSU Rams – while having a winning record overall – have also landed in the lower half of the not-all-that-rugged Mountain West. While neither the Rams nor the Buffs appear to be a threat in their respective league postseason tournaments either, that doesn’t mean that another Colorado men’s college basketball program might not sneak in and bring the state flag with them.
The UNC Bears and the Denver Pioneers still have games to play – and something to play for.
If we’re going by head-to-head results, the Pios can lay the best claim to being “state champions” for this season. DU has beaten both CSU and UNC on the road already this season, and are 4-0 in Colorado this year, having beaten both Colorado Christian and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, too. But the Pioneers are still under .500 overall and in Summit League play, so if they want to reach the tournament out of the one-bid Summit League, they’re going to have to make a near-miraculous postseason tournament run.
UNC has also defeated in-state competitors Colorado, CCU, Colorado College, Regis and Air Force. And while they did lose a home game to the Pioneers, Northern Colorado did beat Tad Boyle (that’s Greeley native and former Bears coach Tad Boyle) and the Buffs in Boulder. These Bears, after a puzzling mid-season slump, have rebounded after ending a seven-game losing streak to rattle off six wins in a row. They’re now within striking distance of a top-four seed in the upcoming Big Sky Conference tournament. Win that event, and the Bears are off to March Madness for the first time since 2011. They’re currently 17-10 overall and with four games left have a legit shot at a 20-win regular season.
So you’re saying there’s a chance…
Head coach Steve Smiley’s Bears are led by a pair of seniors, guard Quinn Denker and 6’9” forward Brock Wisne. This is the same program that produced current Los Angeles Laker Dalton Knecht, who began his college career at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling before moving to UNC for two seasons and then transferring to Tennessee for what can be presumed to be a nice NIL check. It’s unusual for players as talented as Denker and Wisne to stay at a mid-major program for their senior seasons when there’s a lot of NIL dollars out there to be chased.
But maybe what they’re chasing isn’t a quick paycheck as much as it is a chance for Colorado basketball immortality. That’s certainly what they would end up with if their team ends up going to the Big Dance, especially in a year when the state’s two marquee programs seemed to have misplaced their invitations.
