Strike 1: A year ago at this point, the state of Colorado was enjoying a banner year for college basketball. Both the Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State Rams were having big seasons that culminated with early round wins before exiting March Madness. We were getting exciting games and national attention, which was a stark change following on the heels of both schools’ bleak football seasons.
The worm has turned in a big way this year. Both football teams had nice turnarounds and made it to bowl games. But both basketball teams – gutted by graduation and the transfer portal – struggled out of the gate and neither looked anything like their immediate predecessors. For the Buffs, the move to the rugged Big 12 (which, unlike its football counterpart, is near the very top in terms of Power Four conferences) and having a brand new roster has resulted in league wins being very hard to come by.
It’s not likely that there will be postseason hoops in Boulder this March.
But something odd has happened in Fort Collins. After a nondescript non-conference, this version of the CSU Rams has gathered themselves and already done something last year’s excellent team failed to do consistently – and that’s win road games in Mountain West Conference play.
Led by one of the school’s all-time greatest players, Isaiah Stevens, CSU had a dynamic non-conference season last year, but when MW play started, it was mostly “win at home, lose on the road.” During a year where the MW ended up putting six teams in the NCAA Tournament, CSU could only muster road wins in Fresno and at Air Force. That middling conference season nearly cost them an NCAA bid.
The league isn’t as good this year which helps, but nonetheless, after winning just two road games during the entire 2023-24 MW season, this year CSU has already won four of five road games, and sits solidly in the third spot in the league standings. Without any sort of marquee non-conference wins on their resume this year, the Rams only real hope to get back to the big dance is to win the conference outright.
Coach Niko Medved didn’t quite have the same impossible rebuilding job that Tad Boyle had in Boulder, but he did have to replace four starters and much of his bench after the Rams finished 25-11 a year ago. Fifth-year senior Nique Clifford, the lone remaining starter for Medved, has been outstanding so far, and is a leading candidate for MW Player of the Year. More importantly, the Rams are getting contributions from a good number of players, both veterans and newbies, and even when they have an off night – like they did Saturday at Fresno State – they’re still finding ways to win. That didn’t happen much away from Moby Arena last season.
The toughest part of the conference schedule lies ahead, with road games at league-leading New Mexico (which has already won in Fort Collins), UNLV, Utah State (which has been part of the Top 25 already this season) and Boise State. While winning the regular season title would be nice, it’s more important that Medved get his team into a good position to make a run at winning the MW tournament and earning the league’s automatic bid. After destroying Virginia in a “play-in” game last March, getting back and trying to top that would make this Medved’s best coaching job to date.
With UNC having a big season in the Big Sky conference, the Bears might actually be our state’s best hope at getting a spot in the NCAA Tournament. But these Rams have shown a lot of growth already, and if they keep it up, maybe there won’t be so much March Sadness around here after all.
