By: Mike Brohard
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – They just needed a game.Colorado State was amped up to play before Thanksgiving. That didn't happen. Then the team, which had avoided COVID-19 complications since the summer began, had to go into a pause for two weeks. More games off the slate, including the Mountain West openers on the road at San Diego State and a meeting with in-state Colorado.
Expectations for the season are going to be high, but Rams head coach Niko Medved had to temper his for Saturday afternoon against Colorado State-Pueblo. They went from Nov. 17 from Dec. 8 without having a practice together, then came together on the floor four days later for a game.
Just too much had happened, making the affair at Moby Arena a dicey proposition. The outside world may have seen a Division II opponent. Medved knew better.
"This was going to be tough," he said after the Rams pulled away in the second half for an 89-77 victory. "There's no experience you can get in practice to prepare you for games. The other thing that you're not able to do when you're off as long as we were, it's the conditioning piece. It's playing through fatigue, it's practicing the tough things that you have to do, the gritty things of practice and accountability stuff. That's what gets you ready to play. Now we've got to do that in a game scenario.
"I'm really glad we did this. My expectation today was I was just really happy for our guys. More than anything, I'm just so happy for them to get a chance to get out and play a college basketball game. I was glad to see us work our way through it, and I think we'll get a lot better from here."
At least now they have a "here."
For a while, the players were wondering when that was going to be, and getting amped up for a season, only to have to do it again, can play with the psyche. This was a kid waiting for Christmas morning, only to have Santa delay it a few days.
"I can't think of another time. It just felt so good to get back out there," guard Isaiah Stevens said. "I remember when we all came back from the shutdown period, everyone was just super eager and super excited to get back on the floor. It was like nothing else really mattered. Everybody was just ready for a game. We had great intensity, great energy, so I would say definitely getting out here was the most important thing."
The Rams ran out to a quick lead, then found themselves playing catchup for stretches. They led most of the contest, thanks to a quick start to the second half that put them in front for good, but they had to work through some things.
That, Medved said, was good. The Thunderwolves hit a bunch of 3s – 11 in all, coming off 29 attempts. The aptly named Tre Brown led that charge with a game-best 28 points, hitting 4-of-7 behind the arc and all eight of his free throws has he had some success driving, too.
That didn't bother Medved as much as the second-chance points the guest's had (15), as they pulled down 11 offensive boards. This, he said, was all stuff they needed to get better at. Just like working through fatigue, which affected stances and made them a step slow on both ends of the floor.
Medved also feels they will improve on sharing the ball, having missed seeing some open teammates. A game exposes those things, and the Rams hadn't played one yet.
"I thought this was exactly what this team needed today, was to have to play some fatigue and challenge the way that they were," Medved said. "We found a way to get it done today. I also think the best thing for this group is we quickly get to play again on Monday night, because at this point, we just need to play games to work ourselves back into shape."
The Rams fabulous freshmen of a year ago appear to be ready to become sensational sophomores, too. David Roddy bullied his way to a double-double, finishing with 25 points (11 from the free-throw line) and 12 rebounds. He had his way with anybody who stood their ground with him in the paint.
That was especially important the first 20 minutes, as he was the lone consistent scoring threat.
"It was understanding where I could score and taking advantage of it," Roddy said. "That's definitely what it was, and then to just start off strong, we just had to make a statement early in the game. Hopefully we got everybody level headed and started to execute really well."
Stevens added 18, equally distributed among the halves, and he finished with six assists while committing one turnover in resuming his floor-general role. Juniors Adam Thistlewood (16 points, a trio of treys) and Kendle Moore (13) contributed to the greater cause, too.
There were new roles to play out. Dischon Thomas moved into the starting lineup and had five points and seven rebounds, and James Moors and true freshman Isaiah Rivera saw their first game action.
On Saturday, there was a lot for the Rams to unpack, and Medved knew they had to see and experience it all to effectively move forward, the first target being Monday's home 6 p.m. tipoff with Northern Arizona. Five days later, on the road at St. Mary's. And if all goes well, maybe another game or two before Christmas if details can be worked out.
He was tempered a bit with his expectations. The players, too, but just to a point.
"A little bit, but at the same time, we hold ourselves to a really high expectation and standard here," Stevens said. "We don't really give ourselves any leeway, so anything we can improve on from this game, we're definitely going to correct it tomorrow and moving forward, so I don't think we're going to live with any excuses."
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December 13, 2020 at 07:21AM
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