Rams draw AAC champ Memphis in first round

NCAA TOURNAMENT>> CSU VS. MEMPHIS, NOON ON FRIDAY IN SEATTLE, TBS

Colorado State’s Nique Clifford hoists the MVP trophy after the Rams’ victory over Boise State in the championship game of the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday in Las Vegas. DAVID BECKER — GETTY IMAGES

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By Sean Keeler

skeeler@denverpost.com

FORT COLLINS >> It’s March, so the Rams aren’t looking back. But if you want to know just how close CSU was to missing out on everything on Sunday — the watch party at Canvas Stadium, the celebration, the joy, an NCAA Tournament trip to Seattle — just check out one of the “First Four” schools left out of the 2025 Big Dance.

Specifically, Boise State.

Coach Niko Medved’s Rams beat Boise’s Broncos in the Mountain West championship game on Saturday afternoon, with the buzz being that the winner would not only take home the league tourney title and the automatic berth to the NCAAs, but condemn the loser to the NIT.

Turns out the buzz was right, as the Rams (25-9) will take on Memphis as a No. 12 seed on Friday in Washington, while Boise … isn’t.

“I think what’s helped us — people don’t believe me, but you can ask them — (is that we) never once talked about the bubble,” Medved said Sunday. “We never once talked about our (NCAA) NET rankings. We just talked about getting better and winning. I know they know what was at stake (at the conference tournament), but I think just keeping ourselves laser-focused, that really, really helped us. You can see by the way they performed, they just went out there and they went for it.”

CSU beat Boise in Las Vegas, 69-56, behind 24 points from Nique Clifford and 11 off the bench from Ethan Morton.

Friday’s tussle with fifth-seeded Memphis (29-5) kicks off the third trip to the Big Dance in four seasons for the Rams (25-9), who head into the bracket as one of the hottest teams in the country, having won 10 in a row and 20 of their last 24 contests.

Last March, CSU won its first NCAA Tournament game since 2013, beating fellow 10 seed Virginia during a First Four game in Dayton, 67-42. The Rams then lost to seventh-seeded Texas in a first-round clash in Charlotte, 56-44.

Now they’ll take on a Memphis program that beat them in the NIT semifinals back in 2021.

The Tigers, coached by former All-NBA guard Anfernee Hardaway, won the AAC championship with a narrow 78-77 win over Tulane on Saturday. Memphis has won 15 of its last 16 games and was ranked No. 16 in the latest AP poll.

Memphis went 2-2 against the mighty SEC, including wins over NCAA Tournament selections Missouri and Ole Miss. The Tigers also have nonconference wins over fellow NCAA tourney teams Michigan State, Clemson and UConn.

A comparison of metrics, however, shows a smaller gap between the two teams than their respective seeds or “name” brands. Memphis as of Sunday ranked 50th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, considered one of the leading comparative barometers for selecting and seeding Big Dance schools. CSU ranked 47th. The Tigers were ranked 51st nationally by KenPom.com while the same site rated the Rams 42nd.

“It’s a big moment, but sometimes you can make the moment bigger than that,” Medved said. “You can make the moment bigger than the actual game, you know?

“We’ve got to find a way to get better in practice this week, prepare for Memphis, and have confidence in what we’re doing, and not make it bigger than it is. It’s 40 minutes, it’s a basketball game. And let’s go have some fun doing it.”