Will DU men’s basketball (11-20, 5-11) ever get their “One Shining Moment” with a trip to the NCAA Tournament? It’s been 86 seasons, yet, strangely enough, this may be one of DU’s better chances under uncertain circumstances. Plagued by season-long injuries, a key departure, and a head coach mysteriously “on leave” with no public answers forthcoming, a wobbly DU program travels to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Thursday against an equally fragile conference with no powerhouse team(s). You can argue that nearly any Summit League team can win the tournament and the conference’s autobid this season – including DU.

On the plus side, DU has their best three-guard rotation in the modern Division I era with all of them scoring in double-digits. Both 7’0″ centers, Abdulai Fanta Kabba and Isaiah Carr, have returned from injury and provide a strong defensive presence in the middle. Five freshmen are contributing significant minutes and contributions as the season has progressed. Three veterans are adding stability with seniors Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente, Ben Bowen, and grad student Isaiah Addo-Ankrah. Finally, Denver’s swarming, pesky defense is clicking in the final quarter of the season.

On the negative side of the ledger, DU must win three games in a row – a feat they have not accomplished all season. Plus, Sioux Falls will be a road environment, especially against foes from the Dakotas. The Pioneers lost Polish power-forward 6’9″ Tymo Sternicki, who left the team early in the season. With Sternicki’s exit, Denver lost a back-to-the-basket power forward to take up space, absorb fouls, score easy buckets, and defend the paint. That exposed DU’s pivot tandem, who must cover more ground and take more fouls, frequently getting into foul trouble. If Denver faces a whistle-happy officiating crew, foul calls may plague DU in the conference tournament, especially against local foes.

Then, there is the unknown impact of Head Coach Jeff Wulbrun and his loss from the sideline via a shadowy, vague statement from the Athletic Department with no follow-up explanation in the days and weeks since. Shammond Williams, elevated from assistant coach the past two games, will be at the helm. No doubt he is extremely capable and well-respected but how will the players, all recruited and tutored by Wulbrun, respond to a coaching change in an intense conference tournament environment? Will the team rally? We just don’t know nor can we fairly speculate.

Denver started playing organized basketball in 1906. The Pioneers were in D1 in its initial incarnation in 1948, left the classification in 1980, and then returned to D1 in 1999. The NCAA Tournament started with a 1939 tournament featuring eight teams. In 1951, the field doubled to 16 teams, kept expanding over the next few decades until 1985, when the modern format of a 64-team tournament began. In 2001, after the Mountain West Conference joined Division I and received an automatic bid, pushing the total teams to 65, a single play-in game was added prior to the first round. In 2011, three more teams were added, and with them, three more games to round out the First Four.

Matching DU’s futility are the other longest-tenured members of the Never-Made-the-Tournament Club: Army, St. Francis of New York, William & Mary, and The Citadel, which have been eligible every year since the formation of the NCAA Tournament, yet failed to go dancing.

DU, of course, is part of the 38-team Never-Made-the-Tournament Club. Utah Tech, Tarleton State, and Bellarmine are eligible for the first time this season. DU’s conference mate St. Thomas joins East Texas A&M, Le Moyne, Lindenwood, Mercyhurst, Queens, Southern Indiana, Stonehill, and West Georgia – all ineligible for the 2025 tournament, as they are still completing their transition into DI.

It is not easy being a Denver basketball fan when losses are the norm, and even wins can be bittersweet. This season provides all of the above. Ultimately, whatever happens in Sioux Falls will be the result of student-athletes on the court – not the adults, however few they are these days, in the room. For the DU players who have given their all this season for the Crimson and Gold – we will watch, hope, and cheer for the end of the ignominious streak in what is surely one of the most challenging DU seasons in modern memory.