John Tonje, Dischon Thomas stand out in a dominant team performance by the Rams

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Teamwork makes the dream work. 

Colorado State men’s basketball (1-0) opened up the season with a 109-80 drubbing of Oral Roberts at Moby Arena Tuesday night. Starring for the Green & Gold was John Tonje, who dropped a career-high 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting in his first start of the year. On a night where there was a preseason All-American facing a pair of preseason All-Mountain West selections, Tonje outshined them all. He was the best player on the floor.

“Yeah, wasn’t that a brilliant coaching move,” head coach Niko Medved joked postgame. I don’t know if a guy has had 30 in here or how long (it’s been), but you guys watch John. That’s who he is. Last year, whenever he came into the game, he made things happen. And you know what, he may come off the bench next game. And he doesn’t care. That’s just who he is.”

Medved explained that Tonje is a guy that’s always had extreme confidence but has just continued to get better each and every day. As the player that’s tasked with going up against David Roddy in practice, Tonje doesn’t ever get an easy rep and he’s reaping the rewards of that hard work. 

“You see a guy like him, who works so hard,” Medved said. “He’s gotten stronger and he takes great pride in getting better. We see it in practice every day. You’ve got to understand him and David Roddy guard each other every day in practice. So you know, if you can do it against him, in my opinion you can do it against anyone at this level.”

While it was Tonje that ended up scoring the most points by any CSU player in the Medved era, from top to bottom it was really a pretty impressive game for the entire team. Aside from all the buckets that Tonje was able to get, what stood out the most was the depth of CSU’s roster. Technically 14 different players saw the floor for the Rams but 11 logged at least 4 minutes. And although there were a couple of “Club Trillion” statlines for CSU, meaning 1 minute played and zero stats on the board, what’s really impressive is that the 11 aforementioned Rams all at least scored once. 

CSU got serious production from the bench too (53 points). In his official debut in front of the home fans, Chandler Jacobs was stellar with 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting. Dischon Thomas had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in just 20 minutes as well. ‘DT’ may not have gotten the start on Tuesday night, as Medved opted to go with a smaller lineup for defensive reasons, but he was extremely effective on both ends during his time on the floor. 

“Yeah, just for me personally, it’s just confidence,” Thomas said of his ability to provide a spark. “I’ve been working on getting stronger. That’s been my main focus.”

“He’s gotten a lot stronger,” Medved added. “And I’ve said it before, he’s improved as much as anybody in our program. He’s been terrific in the summer and throughout the offseason. He’s improved as an offensive player in the post. He obviously can shoot the ball, he’s rebounding better, but I do think the work in the weight room has really paid off for him.”

With the way that Roddy and Isaiah Stevens can beat you, if the Rams can even get half of the 62 points they got out of Tonje, Jacobs and Thomas on any given night, CSU isn’t just going to be a threat in the Mountain West, they’re gonna be a team that is capable of running with anyone.

Expectations were already high for the 2021-22 season but it’s tough not get even more carried away after such a decisive victory over a team that reached the Sweet 16 this past spring.  CSU shot 59 percent from the floor and only recorded five turnovers compared to 20 assists, they out-rebounded the Golden Eagles, it was pretty much domination. And the best part was that it was truly a team victory. Let’s hope to see many more of them between now and April.