The Colorado State Rams(16-14, 7-9) locked themselves into their best MWC tournament ranking in over 9 years with a 76-67 win over Utah(14-16, 7-9). The Utes will be the 6th seed heading into the MWC tournament. The Rams shot 50% from the field and were led by Travis Franklin's 16 points. Marshall Henderson scored the game high 18 in the losing effort for the Utes. Utah shot 40% from the field and only 5-18 from three point land. Besides the shooting both teams were evenly matched. CSU had 12 turnovers to the Utes 13. The Rams had a slight rebounding edge 29-25.
For the Utes Jay Watkins played very well on both ends of the court. Watkins managed 15 points and 7 rebounds which tied for the game high. His biggest contribution came from slowing down Andy Ogide who had 10 points but 6 of those came from the foul line. All day the Utah big men played good defense down low.
For CSU Travis Busch and Mame Bocar Ba had good senior days. Busch had 12 points and made some good hustle plays, he was limited due to foul trouble though. Ba had a season high 9 points in just 13 minutes and played just as well if not better then Andy Ogide for the Rams. Ba was 4-4 from the floor. Great games for both seniors Moby farewell.
I won't go into detail about the tournament match-ups as the seeds are not set in stone but it looks like CSU will take on SDSU while Utah gets UNLV. For an NIT birth both teams would need to win a few games in the tournament, CSU is around 30 spots higher in the RPI so they have the better chance. If CSU wins two or more games I think an NIT birth is a near lock. For Utah it might be MWC tournament champions or bust, three games would put them on the NIT map though.