By the end of February, the regular season of the Western Conference was over, and Colorado State had not been able to overtake the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Tulsa to remain in third place in the Mountain Division, which meant that they would face San Jose State University in the first round of the League Championship in sixth place in the Pacific Division.

As a sixth-place player in one of the divisions in the minor leagues, San Jose State is mediocre and has no star players. However, like Colorado State, they also play mainly team basketball, and four players on the team averaged double-doubles per game during the regular season, but none of them scored more than 15 points.

In contrast, the overall strength of Colorado State is much higher than them, and captain Palesio has become an average scorer of 18.3 points per game under Chang Wei's tutelage, which is a figure even in the entire NCAA. Goodwin is also averaging over 15 points per game to 16.1 points, while also contributing the second-best team-high 6.3 rebounds per game, making him impeccable as a player swinging up from the No. 3 position.

In addition to Palesio and Goodwin, there are four players on the team who average double-doubles per game. However, the most striking thing is not this, but the team has five players who average more than 3 assists per game, which is a very scary statistic, and the number of assists means that the players love to share the ball, and it also proves that their teamwork ability is not ordinarily strong.

The first round of the league tournament officially kicked off on March 2, and in addition to Colorado State vs. San Jose State, the other three games were Rice University vs. Brigham Young University, Texas Christian University vs. University of Texas at El Paso, and Southern Methodist University vs. Fresno State University, all three of which were also held on the same day.

Facing San Jose State, which is not as strong as it is overall, Colorado State has the upper hand at the beginning of the game. San Jose State coach Jackson was horrified to find his opponents' physical prowess, tirelessly running, cutting, shifting and then throwing the ball in unguarded spaces. On the defensive end, there was a full-court press that would make any team look uncomfortable, and it was the first time Jackson had seen a team use full-court pressing at the beginning of the first half.

McKay's strategy is simple, which is to seize the opportunity to break the opponent in the shortest possible time. Chang Wei's special training is his reliance, after all, the specially trained players are like perpetual motion machines running back and forth on the field, often able to drag the opponent down in the first ten minutes of the first half, and most importantly, when the opponent is out of breath, they still act as if nothing happened.

This time they ran even more frantically, and they started to bring the San Jose state to a rhythm that they were completely unfamiliar with. Although Jackson jumped on the sidelines and even interrupted the rhythm of Colorado's offense by calling a timeout, it didn't help, and the difference between the two teams was quickly widened. Halfway through the first half, San Jose State was already trailing by more than 15 points, which also made Jackson, who had hoped for the next game, blush.

Originally, he thought that the opponent would be a little more restrained in the second half, after all, the whole game was running like crazy for 40 minutes, and no player could stand it. But he soon realized that he was wrong, and after halftime, McKay still put the starting five on the court, and then began a new round of indiscriminate bombardment under the desperate gaze of the San Jose state players. After the difference between the two sides exceeded 30 points, McKay was finally willing to replace the substitute and waste the remaining garbage time.

The four games in the first round ended almost together, with Colorado State advancing to the quarterfinals along with Southern Methodist University, Brigham Young University and Texas Christian University. In the quarterfinals draw ceremony on the morning of the 3rd, the University of Colorado was lucky to have its familiar opponent, the University of Tulsa, also from the Mountain Division, and the other three groups were Brigham Young University VS University of Utah, Southern Methodist University VS University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Texas Christian University VS University of New Mexico.

In fact, the University of Tulsa players are not as good as Colorado State's first-round opponent San Jose State in terms of statistics, they only have three players in double figures in the team, and the team's scoring champion is Brandon Kurtz, who averages 11.9 points per game, the reason why they can surpass Colorado State to become the second in the Mountain Division and avoid the first round of the league championship is because they hit the killer ball in many games, and the victory or defeat of the game does not indicate the strength of the team itself.

McKay certainly knows that Tulsa is very good at throwing shut-in, so the best way to do that is not to give the opponent a chance to shoot the smash-and-shoot. I have to admit that the University of Tulsa is very resilient, and they once beat the University of Colorado in the regular season, and they have a certain psychological advantage, and the two teams actually tied the team in the first half.

McKay was furious in the dressing room at half-time, and in his opinion the score of the first half was completely unacceptable. After a burst of snort, he left a sentence: "Think about how we lost to them in the regular season, and if you don't want to try again, give me a second half to fight on the court!" ”

McKay's words became a shot in the arm for the Colorado players, and the Tulsa players felt something was wrong at the beginning of the second half, and the opponent showed a completely different spirit than in the first half, and all of them seemed to have a grudge against their father, and physical confrontation filled every round of the game.

While improving the fitness of the players, Chang Wei also increased their speed and strength, and when Colorado deliberately pursued physical confrontation, the University of Tulsa was powerless to fight back. At the same time, Colorado State's outside three-pointers were also opened, Palesio hit three three-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, McCans added two, and their pressing defense forced Tulsa to score only six points in this time, and the difference between the two sides was opened in the blink of an eye, and Tulsa head coach Serv had no time to call a timeout.

In the end, the University of Colorado easily defeated the University of Tulsa 87-70 with a wave of scoring at the beginning of the second half, advancing to the semifinals and avenging the defeat by the opponent in the regular season. The other three spots in the semifinals are occupied by the University of Utah, Southern Methodist University of Technology and University of New Mexico, and the semifinals are the University of Colorado vs. the University of Utah and the University of New Mexico.