Northern Colorado eyeing ‘Starch Madness’ title, first NCAA Tournament bid since 2011
Mar 12, 2025, 1:45 PM | Updated: 1:53 pm
While the Colorado State Rams have been fighting through the Mountain West in hopes of an at-large bid, and the Colorado Buffaloes have been putting together a lackluster season, the Northern Colorado Bears have been putting together one of the best seasons in program history.
The Bears are 25-8 on the season and are the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Conference Tournament, better known as Starch Madness. After barely losing in double overtime to Colorado in November, it was clear that this team was no pushover.
The Bears are led by Isaiah Hawthorne and Langston Reynolds, a product of Denver East High School. While they have lost to other power conference opponents like Texas Tech and Washington State, they have dominated Big Sky play with a 15-3 record en route to earning the top seed for the tournament.
Tonight, they play the Montana Grizzlies in the Big Sky Championship Game, who they have split the season series with. The first matchup was a UNC route on the road in January, while Montana rebounded and pulled off a road win of their own against the Bears in February.
Northern Colorado has made it to March Madness just once since moving up to Division 1 in 2006. After winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament in 2011 (which was later vacated), the Bears were a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost to the No. 2 San Diego State Aztecs, 68-50.
Since being in Division 1, the Bears have played in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) once and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) three times. They reached the semifinals of the CBI in 2022 and won the CIT in 2018.
Tonight’s Big Sky Championship Game tips off from Boise at 9:30 p.m. MT as the Bears seek to be the first, and probably only, college basketball team in the state of Colorado into the field of 68.
