A few thoughts on CSU men's basketball after a wacky comeback win over Wyoming

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State men’s basketball continues to keep everyone on their toes.

After falling short in a hard-fought contest with Utah State at home, the Rams managed to beat Wyoming 77-70 on the road Saturday after trailing by as much as 19 in the second half.

Although the game itself was absurd — for a large portion of the game it was the Rams that looked like a last place team, not the other way around. CSU ultimately outscored the Pokes 42-16 over the final 14 minutes, including a 15-0 run to secure the win.

“It’s big,” head coach Niko Medved said of his team’s resolve in the comeback and what it could mean for the squad moving forward.

“I think it’s just building on who we are and building that character but it’s really no different than the Utah State game.”

Medved then went back to one his most consistent messages this season: what you wouldn’t accept in defeat, you can’t accept in victory. What Medved means is despite winning the game, which is obviously something to celebrate, the Rams have a lot of things they need to tighten up if they want to beat UNLV at the Thomas and Mack Center on Tuesday.

CSU turned the basketball over 17 times — the most since the Rams recorded in a single game since finishing with 19 in the win over New Mexico. Despite getting away with the sloppy play in both games, CSU won’t be so fortunate if they don’t value possessions better in these final four games.

Along with playing much too loose with the basketball, the Rams missed 14 free throws up in Laramie, Wyo. Frankly, they just need to be better. There’s really no point in dragging on about something so obvious but if CSU would have even made half of those 14 missed attempts, the Rams never would have been down by so much in the first place.

Nico Carvacho was part of the problem at the free throw line. The senior center went 5-of-10 at the charity stripe. But even if he did not make all of his free throws, Carvacho made enough so that Wyoming couldn’t simply hack him intentionally. More importantly, he was an absolute beast in the post and recorded a game-high 17 rebounds — 10 more than anyone else on either team.

“They were just getting after him,” Medved said of Carvacho on Saturday. “I mean they were just holding him, grabbing him and doing anything they could… Sometimes it’s just that ability to get in the bonus quickly and get that team in foul trouble, which he did. I thought he played incredibly hard here tonight.”

With Carvacho consistently dominating down low, opponents are going to have no choice but to try and box him out with two people. But if they do double him, things are only going to open up that much more for David Roddy or guards that come crashing in.

On Saturday, Roddy was not quite his dominant self after getting into foul trouble. However, Roddy did still score 10 points and pick up six rebounds. Kris Martin (5) and Hyron Edwards Jr. (5) also combined for 10 boards in what was a great team performance on the glass for CSU. In total, the Rams out-rebounded the Pokes 52 to 26.

While Martin and Edwards’ respective efforts may not get enough recognition this year, they definitely made a positive factor against Wyoming. As mentioned above, they helped pitch in on the glass. What really stands out, though, is whenever these two enter the game, the Rams just seem to become a more aggressive team on the defensive end.

Both Martin and Edwards rank in the top 5 on CSU in defensive rating, which is an estimate of how many points a player allows per 100 possessions. And despite playing less minutes than the starters, the seniors are also two of CSU’s top 5 leaders in steals this season.

At 7.8 points per game, Martin is also CSU’s leading scorer off the bench. But he scored more than that in the final 5 minutes alone on Saturday. When it was all said and done, Martin totaled 13 points, five rebounds and four assists in 22 important minutes of action.

Moving forward, it should give Ram fans confidence to know that Medved has someone experienced like Martin to turn to in a crunch. The freshmen have certainly carried CSU through much of the team’s run over the last two months but as we saw on Saturday, there are going to be games where they just don’t have their A-game.

In those rare instances, it comes down to the veterans picking up the young guns’ slack. Everyone from Martin to Carvacho to the sophomores — everyone on this team has stepped up at some point and they will likely have to do so again in the future.

At the risk of sounding like a coach running through cliches, basketball truly is a team sport. And as talented as the new faces of the program are, the greatest strength of the 2019-20 Rams is that they’re actually a cohesive unit.

If CSU ends up making a run in the Mountain West Tournament, there will be individuals that stand out but you can’t get through teams like San Diego State or Utah State with just one or two weapons. If the Rams make a play for the postseason, it will have to be a collective effort.

“We’ve got a lot of good players. It’s a really good team,” Martin said. “Whenever you’re winning, everyone gets noticed, everyone gets love (and) everyone gets recognition.”

Following an exciting weekend for CSU men’s hoops, the Rams have a short turnaround with Tuesday night’s road game against the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV. The Rebels narrowly defeated New Mexico 78-73 on Saturday and still have a narrow shot to finish in the top half of the league.

Considering UNLV (13-14, 8-6) allowed a season-high 95 points to CSU in their first matchup, look for T.J. Oltzelberger’s team to come out with a lot of effort the second time around.