Colorado's NCAA Tournament Hopes Now Lie With Selection Committee

If there is any team that knows how tough Selection Sunday can be for a team that’s NCAA Tournament tournament hopes are in the air, it’s Colorado.

Two seasons ago Colorado was on the tournament bubble and believed that they did enough to get into the Big Dance but were undeservedly snubbed. This year they will have to suffer through the same waiting game that they did in 2011, leaving their fate in the hands of the selection committee, but the result should be more favorable this time around.

“Yes.” That’s all head coach Tad Boyle had to say in reply to a question about whether Colorado deserved to be in the field of 68 after their loss in the Pac 12 tournament quarterfinals to Arizona. Boyle was simple and to the point about Colorado’s tournament hopes but he didn’t mince words when it came to making their case to be invited.

“I think when you look at it, our strength of schedule, non-conference, obviously we played in a heck of a league” Boyle proclaimed after the loss to Arizona. “We came up a little bit short here in this tournament… but we’re one of the top 37 at large in my mind. But that’s not for us to decide.”

Junior forward Andre Roberson, who returned this week from a viral illness to play in the conference tournament, echoes Boyle’s thoughts about where Colorado stands.

“We battled throughout the whole season. We took a couple of tough losses but I feel like we definitely have some quality wins under our belt so I feel like we did enough.”

Colorado does have a pretty good resume heading into Selection Sunday, RPI of 31 and strength of schedule 19, and they just look like a tournament caliber team. Anybody who watched the Colorado-Arizona game on Thursday would tell you the same thing and that’s something that the tournament committee should recognize.

Plain and simple, Colorado deserves to be an at-large in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll all see on Sunday whether or not the committee agrees with that sentiment but there’s a good chance that they will realize the right thing to do.

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David LaRose is a College Basketball writer for Rant Sports covering the Pac 12 and the University of Colorado. He’s also a member of the USBWA. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Facebook page.