New Colorado State basketball coach Larry Eustachy has compiled a career record of 402-298 in 21 seasons. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

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FORT COLLINS — The photographs of drunken stupidity that nearly killed the coaching career of Larry Eustachy actually saved his life. "Have you seen the pictures?" a Colorado State booster asked friends as they sat in folding chairs on the basketball arena floor, waiting for Eustachy, who walked into Moby Arena and boldly declared the goal for his Rams would be nothing less than the Final Four.

The dozen photos are from nine years ago, but they live forever, the ugly stuff of Internet legend. There's Eustachy palming a cheap beer. Click. See Eustachy planting a sloppy kiss on the cheek of a coed less than half his age? Gotcha. Stare at the old image of an out-of-control Iowa State coach partying on the road, as a clock on the wall shows 2:03 a.m.

"I was just getting started at that time of night," Eustachy told me Thursday. "Just stretching."

The heavy drinking flushed him straight down the river of regret.

On a January evening in 2003, after his Cyclones lost a road game at Missouri, Eustachy's addiction made him one of the first celebrities to take a big, drunken pratfall into cyberspace infamy. It cost a man once proclaimed the best college coach in America his job. The disgrace forced him to Alcoholics Anonymous. Eustachy humbly crawled back across the shards of his shattered life. The photographs, however, never go away. His hiring at CSU will promote a 1,000 more clicks from inquiring minds who view one man's humiliation as their snickering entertainment.

But when was the last time Eustachy looked at the photos of the bleary-eyed, inebriated basketball coach he used to be?

"I've never looked at the photos. Never," confessed Eustachy, now 56 years old and proudly sober for nearly a decade.

There could be no resurrection without the downfall. It began in Columbia, Mo., during the winter of 2003, after a 64-59 loss by Iowa State to the Mizzou Tigers. Eustachy went to a local tavern to wash away the frustration of defeat.

"It's an interesting story. The person who invited me to the party was Josh Kroenke. He's a great guy. We met in a bar near campus, and it went from there," Eustachy said. "Down a little way from the bar was this apartment."

At the time Kroenke was a 22-year-old junior guard for the Tigers. Eyewitnesses at the party attended by students told a local newspaper that the Mizzou athlete left shortly after he and Eustachy arrived. Kroenke grew up to oversee the Denver Nuggets of the NBA and Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, in the same state where Eustachy now insists will be his last coaching stop. What a long, strange journey it has been.

Iowa State fired Eustachy after party pix snapped by a Missouri undergraduate were published in The Des Moines Register. A coach who had foolishly mistaken his image in the mirror for a rock star saw the mirror shatter. Putting the pieces back together was messy.

Eustachy found work at Southern Mississippi. He began in 2004, and shortly thereafter destruction from Hurricane Katrina forced him to work in a makeshift office that was a trailer. He didn't mind the humble digs. It was the hitch on the trailer that caused Eustachy to worry about job security.

On the way to nailing down an NCAA Tournament bid, Southern Miss won 25 games last season, one of those victories the lone home loss suffered by Colorado State. While in Fort Collins, Lana Wilson dreamed of living in the Rocky Mountains. Hey, the coach owns the whistle. The coach's wife, however, controls the real power. No need to ask how aggressively Eustachy pursued the CSU vacancy when Tim Miles departed for Nebraska.

"She has a dress on," said Eustachy, nodding at his spouse. "But she wears the pants."

In any upcoming season that Colorado State qualifies for the NCAA tourney, the salary of Eustachy will be a hefty $1 million, with another $100,000 bonus should the Rams advance to the Sweet 16. He inherits a talented team fully capable of winning the Mountain West Conference.

If you believe in second and third chances, then Eustachy was not a controversial hire for Colorado State so much as the smart thing to do.

If you believe in miracles, then you shake your head in wonder as Eustachy looks Rams Nation squarely in the eye and dares to say: "My plans are to take this program to the Final Four."

I needed to know: Has Eustachy given John Calipari of Kentucky or Duke's Mike Krzyzewski proper warning to watch out for Colorado State?

"We're coming," Eustachy said. "If it can happen at VCU, if it can happen at Butler, it can happen at Colorado State."

Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com