After one week of play, Colorado State men’s basketball has started their season a perfect 2-0.
In the season tip-off, they invited Louisiana Tech to Moby Arena and after a second half comeback, the Rams were victorious 81-73. On Friday night, it was Wright State in Fort Collins for the first time to face the green and gold. Niko Medved’s team put together two great halves and blew out the Raiders 105-77.
And while it’s still early in the year, we’re already starting to see some trends emerge from how the Rams are playing hoops.
4 Colorado State starters in double-digits
The first trend is great news: CSU is sharing the rock and four starters have scored in double-digits in each game.
We knew Isaiah Stevens was going to ball out. This is his last season with the Rams, and he was named Preseason Mountain West Player of the Year by the conference. Through two games, he’s averaging a team-leading 18.5 points per game. In fact, he’s averaging a double-double, with 12.5 assists per contest, too.
Behind Stevens, there’s the two newcomer starters in guard Nique Clifford—formerly of CU—and forward Joel Scott each averaging 17.5 points per game. Finally, big man Patrick Cartier is also averaging double-digit scoring, at 16.5 points per contest.
Not only is Stevens averaging 12.5 assists per game—with 14 against Wright State—the Rams enjoyed a stellar 37 assists on 42 made baskets in the win.
This is really encouraging for Colorado State going forward because it’s not one guy carrying the team on his back every night. If the Rams can continue to distribute scoring well, it makes them tougher to defend as you never know who may go off in a particular game.
Rams have come back in both wins
That started on Monday night as Colorado State trailed by 11 points in the second half against Louisiana Tech. But the Rams went on a wild, 23-2 run to take the 11-point lead with less than five minutes to go.
Then on Friday night, Wright State jumped all over CSU in the first half. The Raiders led by as much as 11 points at basically the mid-way point of the first half. But the Rams again were resilient, going on a 21-10 run to tie the game up. Colorado State even took the 45-43 lead into the break.
Medved’s Rams ran away with it in the second half, out-scoring the Raiders 60-35.
The comebacks are both good and bad for Colorado State. It shows they can fight back when they get down, but ideally they wouldn’t dig themselves a hole like that to begin with. The Rams don’t want to get into a trend of falling behind in every game or the better teams will be able to hold them off from coming back.
Team Together is scoring well in the paint
The 6’8″ Scott and 6’8″ Cartier down in the paint has helped CSU score well down low so far this year.
In game one, the Rams out-scored La Tech 38-28 in the painted area. On Friday night, the disparity was even greater at a 46-26 advantage for CSU.
That’s an average of 42 points per game in the paint, which is stellar for Colorado State. As a result of shooting so many from close range, the Rams are making 58.1 percent of their field goal attempts so far this year. That ranks 6th-best in the nation.
Next up for CSU (2-0) is their first road game of the year in Greeley against Northern Colorado (2-0) of the Big Sky Conference. That game tips off at 6 p.m. MT on Tuesday, Nov. 14. Then on Friday, the Rams face Kansas City (1-0) at Moby Arena with a 7 p.m. MT tip.