FORT COLLINS — “I said I’m proud to be a CSU Ram.”
The chants from the students echoed throughout Moby Arena as the rowdy members of Ram Nation celebrated on the floor together following Colorado State’s 71-68 victory over Boise State on Saturday night. From one end of the floor to the other, a sea of delighted CSU supporters danced, jumped with joy and embraced each other’s company as the Rams capped off a memorable regular season with a sweep of the conference champions on Senior Night.
Going all the way back to back to December, the Broncos have only lost a total of three games but two of them were to the Green & Gold. Even so, Boise State still ended up finishing with a one game advantage over CSU in the league standings though, which shows how successful they’ve been against everyone else in the Mountain West.
Standing amidst the chaos, with Ram fans celebrating around him in every direction, a smiling David Roddy took in the moment with both of his hands placed on the sides of his head; kind of like a child that can’t believe the birthday present they just received, so they just stare out in a moment of pure bliss.
The goal for guys like Roddy, Isaiah Stevens, Kendle Moore, etc, was always to bring the program back to relevancy. Contending for championships and qualifying for NCAA Tournaments were what they envisioned when they signed with CSU. Now, three to four years later, after going 24-4 in the regular season, the Rams are a week away from finding out where the team’s first March Madness appearance in close to a decade will take place and who it will be against.
CSU came close to receiving an at-large bid and ending the drought in 2021. But the Rams ended up being the second team outside the field after a quirky conference tournament season resulted in more bid stealers than usual.
“We were right there last year, right? We were a game away from the Mountain West Championship, we finished maybe a game away from the NCAA Tournament. That’s a tough thing to go through right there,” Niko Medved said postgame.
“Obviously we made a little run in the NIT. But the one thing about this team is when the season was over, there was no drama, there was no pouting, it was, hey, let’s take a couple weeks off and let’s get back to work. And they were really determined not to have the same fate again. And I think that’s what you’ve seen from this team this year.
“We tried to schedule up and they’ve met every challenge,” Medved continued. “Every time that they’ve had a little bit of adversity, they’ve responded the right way. They’ve stepped up in all these big moments. And I’ve got the best job in the world coaching these guys.”
As he tends to do in the big moments, Roddy led all scorers in the win over the Broncos, finishing with 23 points on 58 percent from the floor. He also came up with a couple of huge offensive rebounds and a steal in the final minute of play. Really, though, all of the veterans stepped up in one way or another. Kendle Moore had 19 points and five rebounds. Isaiah Stevens scored 12 points and dished out seven assists. John Tonje made his presence felt in the paint and scored 9 points. Adam Thistlewood even got to score a couple of points as he made his return to the starting lineup for the first time in a couple of months.
“What a night, there’s a lot of emotions. And I told our guys after the game I think it’s important to take a second to reflect,” Medved said. “Take a second to think about where they were and where they’ve come from, in particular Adam and Kendle. And to go out like this, on this kind of night, that stuff doesn’t happen all the time. So it’s pretty special.”
We’ll see where the Rams end up getting slotted in the NCAA Tournament field after the upcoming Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas. While the Rams have an at-large bid all but officially secured, a couple of more wins against teams in the top half of the league could really bolster CSU’s resume when all it’s said and done. What’s important to both Medved and the players is keeping the same mindset that’s gotten them to this point.
“It’s zero and zero. Just remembering how we got here,” Roddy said of the team’s mindset entering the postseason. “Whatever seed we are, whatever placement, or whoever we have to play first — just remember what you have done over this regular season. And again, it’s just remembering it’s a mindset of zero and zero, and it’s win or go home.”
