When the Colorado State men’s basketball team gathered in a hotel ballroom in Las Vegas last March to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show on CBS, they were nervously awaiting to see whether their name would be called. It was — just not the way they had hoped. Instead of being announced as part of the field of 68, the Rams were revealed as the No. 2 team left out of the bracket. The near-miss was especially painful considering that the field had shrunk by two spots the day before when Georgetown and Oregon State, who would not have been given at-large bids, won their respective...
