GAME NOTES: One of the bigger snubs in NCAA Tournament history, Colorado State begins play in the first round of the 2015 NIT on Wednesday night against South Dakota State at Moby Arena.

Considered part of the NCAA bracket's "First Four Out," CSU, ranked No. 30 in the RPI heading into Sunday, but became the highest-rated team to be left out of the tournament field since the league expanded the championship in 2011.

Colorado State, which is in the postseason for the fifth time in six years, won a school-record 27 games, but failed to reach the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship game, falling to San Diego State in the semifinals.

Still, the Rams won six of their final seven and eight of their final 10 games to earn a No. 1 seed in the NIT. In fact, their last two losses came to San Diego State, which went on to win the league tourney.

This is Colorado State's first trip to the NIT since 2011 and its eighth appearance in the event overall. The odds, though, are in their favor this year.

Since the NCAA started running the NIT in 2006, only 13 of the 36 teams given No. 1 seeds as the last four out of the NCAA tournament have made it to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals, and only three have gone on to win it - West Virginia in 2007, Ohio State in 2008 and Minnesota last year.

South Dakota State, meanwhile, tied for the Summit League's regular-season crown and advanced to the championship game of the conference tournament before falling to North Dakota State in the final.

The Jackrabbits, who will be making their fifth straight postseason appearance and first in the NIT, had been as hot as any team in the nation heading into the Summit championship, winning 14 of 16 contests on their way to a 23-10 finish.

This will be the first-ever meeting between these schools.

Colorado State's chances in the MWC tournament were hampered by an ankle injury to J.J. Avila, who sat out the semifinal loss to San Diego State. Head coach Larry Eustachy stated that Avila was healthy enough to play, but chose to rest him, thinking his team was a lock for the NCAA tournament.

Avila, who will likely give it a go on Wednesday, ranks as the only player in the nation to average better than 16.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game, while shooting better than 55 percent from the field. He enters the NIT with averages of 16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game, while shooting 55.9 percent.

CSU has won seven consecutive contests at Moby Arena.

SDSU is led offensively by a trio of double-digit scorers in junior guard Deondre Parks (14.1 ppg), senior forward Cody Larson (14.0 ppg) and junior guard George Marshall (13.0 ppg). Larson also leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 7.1 rebounds per contest. As a team, the Jacks average 72.9 points per contest, while allowing just 63.9 points per game.

Colorado State enters this game with something to prove. These things can go either way. Perhaps the Rams have tuned out after the snub. Then again, they could come into this with a chip on their shoulder. Last year, teams like Minnesota, SMU and Florida State used snubs as motivation to get to the Big Apple. Colorado State could do the same.