3 takeaways: Colorado State bullied San Jose State to earn first true road win of 2021-22

DENVER — Colorado State (13-1, 3-1) took care of business on Saturday, taking down San Jose State (7-7, 0-2) in a 78-42 beatdown. The true road victory is CSU’s first of the 2021-22 campaign and improved their all-time record against the Spartans to 23-0. 

SJSU entered the matchup as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the Mountain West, you wouldn’t have known that based on Saturday though. The Spartans finished 7-of-32 from deep (22 percent) and scored the fewest points they have in any game this season. Prior to losing to CSU, SJSU’s previous low was 45 points against a Texas team that was ranked in the top 10 at the time. 

“I really loved our mentality,” men’s head basketball coach Niko Medved said postgame. “ It was a good afternoon. I thought our guys came out and played great defense from beginning to end and had the mentality that we needed to have.”

Medved praised his players for coming out of the gate with the right mindset, aggressively guarding the ball and giving their all on the hustle plays. He said that he felt like it set the right tone from the beginning, because even when they weren’t scoring the Rams were in such rhythm on both sides that it allowed them to break away early. 

“I thought our guys kept that up for most of the game, so that was great to see,” Medved said. “We defended and we took care of the ball.”

CSU recorded 17 assists in the victory and really shared the ball selflessly throughout. After looking stagnant at times in the last three games, the Rams looked a lot closer to the group that we saw light the world on fire with a 10-0 start. There were still some open looks that the Green & Gold needed to display better touch on, particularly within 15 feet of the hoop. As a whole, though, it’s tough to complain much about a day where nine individuals scored and CSU controlled every facet of the game. 

The Rams were +18 on the glass and scored 26 more points in the paint. And on the other end they produced eight steals, held the Spartans to zero fast break points and kept them under 50 points. 

Here are some of the takeaways from the win. 

CSU slammed the door on SJSU early in the second half 

If there were any worries about the Spartans making things interesting down the stretch, CSU quickly put the fans at ease by starting the second half with an 11-0 run and holding SJSU scoreless for the first 7 of the final 20 minutes. 

Medved said the halftime message to the team was that they needed to build off their early success and take it to the next level in the final period. He added that the Rams benefited from their opponent missing some shots, but he was really pleased with his team’s effort in a lopsided game. 

“We definitely didn’t play the scoreboard,” Medved said “I thought we were locked in, I thought the guys’ energy was really good. They were excited about playing defense And that’s what you have to do. I was really pleased with our mentality.”

The young bucks got a chance to shine

In a win where just about everyone got a chance to show off a little bit, we could honestly credit every individual from the rotation for a play or two that they made at some point on Saturday. Dischon Thomas was great, scoring a team-high 14 points and pulling down seven boards in just 15 minutes. Isaiah Stevens had 10 points too. Long-term, though, I think it was great that some of the younger players got an opportunity to play key minutes and fill up the stat sheet a little bit. 

Isaiah Rivera had a season-high 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor. He had four defensive rebounds in 13 minutes as well. He’s been outshined at times this season by the addition of Jalen Lake and Chandler Jacobs, but has played well in a limited role in the rotation. It’s always nice when a guy like him, who has been a great teammate and played a part in CSU’s winning season, gets a chance to produce a little bit more and experience a moment of individual glory. 

“This is a game of confidence,” Medved said, before explaining that sometimes all it takes is getting a couple of shots to fall to really turn the corner. But it was great to see ‘Riv’ get going, I thought he played really well. He did a great job of using shot stops, playing off two feet, pivoting, playing slow to fast and I thought he had a really good game.”

Along with Rivera, Jalen Lake had 8 points, three rebounds and three assists, so he continues to impress as a true freshman. Medved expressed his appreciation for Lake’s confidence and poise postgame, before crediting the bench unit as a whole. CSU’s bench scored 41 points on Saturday and for most of the game there production alone would have been enough to win. 

Roddy made impactful plays without scoring 

It wasn’t the type of high-scoring performance that we’ve become accustomed to from David Roddy — if you only looked at his 6 points, you might assume it was off day from CSU’s superstar — his impact on the game as a whole was undeniable though. 

Roddy led CSU in total rebounds (11), defensive rebounds (8) and assists (6). He recorded a steal. And what’s really impressive is that Roddy played 30 minutes without recording a foul, which is crazy considering the high contact situations that he is frequently in down low. It was a masterclass of how to defend and play winning basketball without being the leading bucket getter on offense. And that’s why Roddy was a team-high +34 during his minutes on the floor. 

“I was really proud of David Roddy here today,” Medved said. “I thought he had one of his best board games.” Medved continued, emphasizing how great of a passer Roddy was on Saturday. He joked that if a few more guys had knocked down shots earlier, the guard/forward might have even had a double-double. 

“It could have even been more, but it was a good performance by us here on the road. And to play the way we did, and win the way we did, I’m pretty happy.”