All I need is a miracle, all I need is CSU
By Mike Donovan

For the Colorado State University Ram athletic program, it has been a rough couple of years. A "bombing" incident among female basketball players. A bank card fraud involving football players. A shooting incident involving two men's basketball players. And that doesn't even bring up the on-the-field woes of the Rams.

The men's and women's basketball teams both had historic losing streaks this season, not to mention the football team's worst season in more than two decades. Then came the butchering that was Sonny Lubick leaving CSU. All-in-all, it would take a miracle for CSU fans to forget this pile of misery. Luckily for Ram fans, the women's basketball team delivered that miracle.

When Jen Warden's squad took the court against the 12th ranked Utah Utes in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament on March 12, not much was expected from the Rammies.

After all, they finished the regular season 2-27 overall and 0-16 in conference play. The team did defeat UNLV, however, in the play-in game, to bring its win total to three on the season.

If those numbers weren't daunting enough, the Utes came into the game undefeated in conference (16-0) and riding a 22 game winning streak, which was good for longest in the nation in men's or women's basketball. Not only that, Utah's record of 27-3 was an exact inverse of the Rams, 3-27.

For the Rams to beat the Lady Utes all they needed was a miracle, all they needed was you, I mean win. Somehow, CSU summoned their inner Mike and the Mechanics and delivered that miracle.  

To say the Rams defied the odds is an understatement. Defying the odds is beating the house at Blackjack. What the Rams did was an once-in-a-lifetime moment. I doubt there will ever be a greater upset in a postseason tournament in terms of difference in record at any level.

In all honesty, this has to be the second greatest upset in college women's basketball history behind 16-seeded Harvard defeating one seed Stanford in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament. But Harvard entered that game 22-4. It was like the 80th best team in the country beating the fifth ranked team.

The match up at the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday was a little different. CSU came in with an RPI rating of 312 while Utah was ranked 12th in the nation. A difference of 300 spots in the rankings!

To give men's basketball fans an idea of how big a gap that is. The teams that ended the regular season in those spots were St Francis (NY) and Louisville. Louisville finished tied for second in the Big East, while St Francis finished tied for last in the Northeast Conference.

Not only did the upset make national news, it gave CSU fans a reason to cheer, something that had been long absent from Moby Maniacs.

It's amazing how one game played by a group of inspired Rams could change the fortunes of so many fans.
Simply put, it's a miracle.