RIGHT HEADLINE CSU RECORD BOOK 1 CSU BASKETBALL HISTORY Grant returned as head coach in 1988 to lead the Rams to a third-place NIT finish and back-to-back conference championships and NCAA ap- pearances. In 26 seasons, Williams put the program on college basketball’s map. The Rams won 352 games and played in the NCAA tournament four times and the NIT twice. Williams’ teams played 635 games under his watch - almost 30 percent of the school’s total entering the 2009-10 season. In 1969, he guided Colorado State to the final eight of the NCAA tour- nament. Following a first-round victory over Dayton, the Rams defeat- ed in-state rival Colorado, 64-56, in the regional semifinals in Manhat- tan, Kan. Two days later, the team narrowly missed a chance to make the school’s first-ever Final Four trip, losing to Drake, 84-77. During his career, Williams guided Colorado State to four NCAA and two NIT appearances, including the glorious ‘69 season. He won Lonnie Wright more games, 352, than any college basketball coach at any level in state history. COLORADO STATE RICH IN TRADITION Rams basketball history can be traced from A to Z: Donald Abbot to Williams’ career at Colorado State wasn’t simply about wins and loss- Robert Zimdahl. From Boyd Grant, the only player in school history to es. It was about building a program, as he served as athletic director later serve as the Rams’ head coach, to Lonnie Wright, an all-star guard when the school began construction of Hughes Stadium and Moby for the Rams in the 1960s who competed for a spot on the Olympic Arena. Team. Names like Chuck Newcomb, Stan Albert, Mike Childress, Gary Wright was the first athlete in history to compete in professional foot- Rhoades, Rudy Carey, Eddie Hughes, Tim Hall, Rick Fisher, Cliff She- ball (Denver Broncos, AFL) and professional basketball (Denver Rock- gogg, and the Kerr twins, Lloyd and Floyd, all bring to mind the many ets, ABA) simultaneously. who etched their names among the prominent figures in Rams history. Then there is the legend of Bill Green, the school’s first basketball Let it be noted that Williams stood toe-to-toe with UCLA’s blossoming All-American, who concluded his playing career in 1963 and was a first- basketball program and its coach, John Wooden. Colorado State at- round draft choice by the Boston Celtics. Green, who despised air trav- tracted national attention with the challenging schedules Williams put el, passed on a pro career to chase his educational dreams. He earned before his team, including annual dates with UCLA. a master’s degree, then a doctorate and was a decorated teacher and administrator. Until his death in 1994, Green was regarded as one of the nation’s foremost educators in his position at a middle school in The Bronx, N.Y. IN THE BEGINNING... Any and all discussions involving Rams basketball history begin with legendary coach Jim Williams. For 26 seasons, Williams roamed the sidelines at Colorado State. Depending on the need and the case, Williams coddled, coerced, shoved, pushed, forced and massaged the school’s basketball pro- gram into one of the finest in the nation. Williams was an innovator, a basketball devotee, when he arrived in Fort Collins in time for the 1954-55 season. Williams followed Bill Strannigan, who left for Iowa State after having guided Colorado State to its first-ever NCAA berth in 1954. Williams had finished a stint in the military when he moved to Ephraim, Utah, as a football and basketball coach. He stayed there until coming over the Rockies to take control of Colorado State’s program. One of the players who joined him in Fort Collins was a slender, tal- ented scoring guard named Boyd Grant. After helping the Rams suc- ceed as a player, Grant stayed on as an assistant to Williams for several years. Jim Williams 2 CSU BASKETBALL HISTORY GRANT MAKES A RETURN... For 35 years, Boyd Grant’s heart had been in Fort Collins. Grant followed his heart back to Fort Collins in 1988 to rejuvenate the Rams’ basketball fortunes. He wasted little time in restoring the pride, tradition, and excellence that had existed during his previous time with the program. Grant in 1988 guided the Rams to 23 wins and a third-place finish in the NIT. It was the first time in two decades that Colorado State had been involved in postseason competition. The Rams simply didn’t finish the season with 23 victories. Grant and the Rams brought the madness back to Moby. Once invited to the NIT, the Rams played three home games before overflow crowds in Moby Arena and then traveled to New York City and Madison Square Garden for the semifinals. Following a last-sec- ond loss to Ohio State in the semifinals, the Rams defeated Boston College, finishing with a 22-13 record. In 1989, Grant and the Rams, behind the play of all-star forward Pat Durham and shooting ace Joel Tribelhorn, won a school-record 11 con- Dean Smith (L) and Boyd Grant secutive games and, in the process, Colorado State’s first-ever WAC Grant won 81 games in four seasons, averaging more than 20 victories title. per season in returning Colorado State’s program to elite status. A week later, the journey continued when the Rams routed Florida of He was followed along the sidelines by Stew Morrill, who in seven the SEC, 68-48, in the first round of the NCAA tournament before los- seasons won 20 games twice and guided Colorado State to a pair of ing to Syracuse, a squad featuring five future NBA players in the start- NIT appearances. Morrill and his staff helped continue the resurgence ing lineup. The Rams finished with a 23-10 record, setting a record for of Colorado State’s program that began with Grant’s return to Moby most wins in a season in school history. Arena. Grant and the Rams weren’t finished. Their encore included another BACK TO THE FUTURE... WAC title in 1990 and a trip to the NCAA tournament. Alabama de- Dale Layer took over the Colorado State program in 2001, intent on feated the Rams in the first round, but not before Colorado State had nurturing growth and respecting the history that has embodied the enjoyed a third consecutive 20-win season with a 21-9 final record.\ program for a century. Layer was no stranger to Colorado State’s program, having spent two seasons as an assistant during a time the Rams won 37 games - 24 in Moby Arena - and achieved an NIT final eight berth. In 1999, Colorado State shocked the basketball world by winning 19 games with a team returning only two seniors and one starter. The Rams advanced to the final eight of the NIT behind the play of senior leaders Milt Palacio and Andre McKanstry. Palacio turned in his Colo- rado State jersey for a career in the NBA. The Rams, in the postseason for the second year in a row and fourth time in a decade, dispatched Mississippi State, 69-56, to advance to the second round. Colorado State faced in-state rival Colorado before a capacity crowd in Moby Arena. Shaking off a double-digit first-half deficit, the Rams moved to the final eight of the tournament with a convincing 86-76 vic- tory in one of the most emotional games in school history. The rivals, separated by only 50 miles, met in the postseason for the first time since the 1969 classic in the NCAA tournament. A year later, the Rams won 18 games led by the stalwart play of Ceedric Goodwyn. He was the only player in the Mountain West Conference to score in double figures every game, and like Palacio, was destined Bill Green for a professional career. Twice during the season the Rams defeated 3 CSU BASKETBALL HISTORY 18/21 New Mexico and No. 17/17 UNLV impressing the NCAA tourna- ment committee, and launching the Rams back into the national post- season tournament for the first time in nine seasons. THE NEXT ERA… Head coach Larry Eustachy, a two-time national coach of the year, un- shered in a new era for Colorado State men’s basketball. With Eustachy at the helm, the Rams returned to the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season in his first year, 2012-13, leading the Rams to a program-record 26-9 mark that included a second-place finish in the Mountain West. The Rams once again returned to the postseason in 2014-15, Eu- stachy’s third at CSU, opening with a program-best 14-0 record to start the season, and again eclipsing the school’s all-time wins mark to fin- ish with a 27-7 record, a third plac finish in the Mountain West and a trip to the NIT, the Rams’ fifth postseason appearance in six seasons since dating back to the 2010 CBI. During the 2012-13 season the Rams cracked the Associate Press Top- 25 for the first time since 1954 as Eustachy guided the Rams to an eight-seed in NCAA Touranment. CSU captured a second-round vic- tory over the ninth-seeded Missouri Tigers before falling to the even- tual national champions. The Rams once again returned to the top-25 rankings again in 2014- 15, spending two more weeks rated in the Associated Press poll. Jason Smith nationally ranked teams, including UCLA and Utah, and at one point MEDVED RETURNS..