Why the Colorado State men's basketball team must beat Boise State and Wyoming

The CSU men’s basketball team is on a seven-game winning streak, are 1-0 in Mountain West play, are currently slated as a 14-seed in Joe Lunardi of ESPN’s latest bracket projection for the NCAA Tournament and hold an RPI of 22.

But after looking a little deeper you see that CSU needs these games Tuesday at home vs. Boise State and Saturday on the road against Wyoming.

They simply can’t afford to lose them.

After the Wyoming game CSU faces its toughest week of the season.

From Jan. 25 to Feb. 1 the Rams play at New Mexico, home vs. San Diego State and at UNLV.

If they go into these games on a nine-game win streak they will be in a position that even if they lose all three, the season won’t be lost.

But if CSU was to lose one or both of its games this week, they would be in a position of needing marquee wins, and lots of them.

As it is, the Rams likely need to win a few games against the top of the conference.

While CSU’s RPI looks nice right now, it is a little misleading.

Their high RPI is based mostly on teams they have lost two, such as Duke and Southern Miss. It’s better to have lost to teams like them than lower ranked teams.

But CSU’s only win against a team that was in the top-50 in RPI is when the Rams beat the University of Denver, who was ranked No. 47 at the time.

But they will get a chance to get those big wins. Any victory over UNLV, SDSU or New Mexico, at home or on the road, will help CSU boost its resume.

The bottom line, though, is that CSU loses games it is supposed to, like the ones this week, it will make the road to the NCAA Tournament much more difficult than it already is.

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