They're in: CU and CSU in NCAA Tournament as No. 11 seeds

Colorado and Colorado State will play in the NCAA Tournament, for the first time since 2003, both as No. 11 seeds, it was announced Sunday.

Colorado (23-11) will play sixth-seeded UNLV (26-8) in the South Regional opener on Thursday in Albuquerque. Colorado State (20-11) will play Thursday against No. 6-seed Murray State (30-1) in the West Regional in Louisville, Ky.

CU earned an automatic bid after winning the Pac-12 Conference tournament championship Saturday with a victory over Arizona.

"It's good that we're close," CU coach Tad Boyle said. "Our fans will be able to travel. The elevation is great for us. UNLV is a very high-quality, talented team. It's going to be a challenge."

The South Regional included the tournament's No. 1 overall seed Kentucky. The CU-UNLV winner will play Saturday against the Baylor-South Dakota State winner.

The CSU-Murray State winner will play Saturday against No. 3-seed Marquette or the play-in game winner, BYU or Iona.

"It's a great day for our program. I'm thrilled for our players," CSU coach Tim Miles said. Adding, "to have this group put it all together and come through in the clutch like they have, it's really a cool day for CSU Rams basketball."

No. 11 seeds are 42-86 (32.8 percent) against No. 6 seeds all-time. And overall, the No. 11 team is 64-128 (33.3 percent).

Colorado State, which lost in the semifinals to San Diego State in the Mountain West tournament, got in as an at-large bid from the NCAA selection committee. CSU's favorable RPI ranking got the Rams in the field. It is their first at-large bid since 1990.

Colorado last year missed a chance at an at-large bid after what some said was a snub by the selection committee. The Buffs went on to make the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament.

CU was a 10th seed in 2003 when it lost to No. 7-seeded Michigan State in the first round, 79-64.

Colorado State last played in the NCAA Tournament in 2003 after they won the Mountain West tournament and were a 14th seed, losing to third-seeded Duke 67-57.

Tickets for the CU game against UNLV are available now on cubuffs.com via the New Mexico athletics website.

CSU ticket order forms are available at csurams.com and need to be submitted by 5 p.m. Monday. Tickets for non-students will be distributed based on Ram Club membership. Those fans will have first priority based on a point system, then current men's basketball season-ticket holders and finally general public ticket requests will be considered in the order in which they were received.

Fans will be notified by noon Tuesday if they will get ticket.

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_20151717/cu-and-csu-ncaa-tournament-no-11-seeds?source=rss

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