Niko Medved, CSU players reflect on preseason recognition, remaining committed to excellence and a challenging non-conference slate

DENVER — Colorado State men’s basketball has been selected to finish first in the Mountain West Conference by the league’s media for the first time ever. The Rams also have a pair of preseason all-conference selections, David Roddy (Guard/Forward) and Isaiah Stevens (Guard), who both return to lead the Green & Gold following a second consecutive 20 win season under Niko Medved. 

During the league’s first portion of the virtual media days on Wednesday, the superstar duo reflected on the recognition and explained what their mindset is as the team prepares for the upcoming 2021-22 season. 

“You know, it’s a big honor. It’s a goal that ‘Zae’ and I have been talking about since freshman year,” David Roddy said, before explaining that it’s been a motivator since they were tabbed ninth in the preseason of their freshman campaign. 

“The tremendous growth that this team has had, and the coaching staff has had over the past two years, it’s just a real testament of how hard they’ve worked. And I’m just really proud of my team. But we can’t be satisfied. And we’ll just have to keep taking it day by day, to keep getting better.”

Stevens echoed the word of his running mate, emphasizing that while they appreciate the attention, undeserved satisfaction often leads to failure. According to Stevens, that’s the attitude that he and a lot of his teammates are trying to live by. 

“We’re really excited about it,” Stevens said. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Entering the season roughly 36th in the AP Poll and now tabbed the preseason Mountain West favorites, CSU clearly has the attention of the college basketball world. Just a few short years ago, though, this was a basketball program that was in a totally different place. Following the exit of Larry Eustachy and the majority of his roster, head coach Niko Medved had to basically rebuild CSU from the ground up. 

According to Medved, the biggest difference between now and then is the general connectedness of the locker room, a shared vision of excellence, as well as the drive to achieve those goals. There was always a vision of where he wanted to take this team and what he knew it could be. But it started with getting the right people on board. He explained that finding out who really wanted to be part of the vision, who really believed in it all, and getting the right people on the bus was most important. 

“It sounds a bit cliche but you know, it’s a people business and I think that’s the first thing that had to happen,” Medved said. “Get people who are on board and who are really excited about being here.”

Medved credited some of the veterans that stuck around in his first season, including Nico Carvacho, Hyron Edwards and Kris Martin. But for the most part it’s the guys that he’s brought in that have made the biggest impact. This of course includes the superstars, Roddy and Stevens, who answered similarly when asked about what’s changed the most between the beginning of their time at CSU and the present. 

Roddy specifically emphasized that Medved has established a winning culture and it’s evident by the way that the team completely buys in. From extra reps to individual work with coaches, there’s not anybody on the team that isn’t willing to go the extra mile. And according to Roddy, that’s extremely rare. In fact he said this is the first team he’s ever been on that has so many individuals always willing to put in that work. 

“It’s just amazing to see. I’m really proud to be part of this team,” Roddy said. 

“There hasn’t been a sense of satisfaction in our program,” Stevens added. “There’s always been room for us to improve on the floor, off the floor, in the weight room, different areas. And I feel like we’ve taken a lot of that to heart and so we continue to come in each and every day, with the growth mindset and just trying to improve.”

One of the areas where the team is going to have to improve the most this year is on the defensive end. The Rams have made great progress defensively in each season that Medved has been in town but in order for CSU to really achieve its goals as a team, finding more consistency on that end of the floor is going to be paramount. 

On Wednesday Medved spoke to the defensive improvement his program has made during his tenure and how it’s all come to be. After switching to a new scheme during his second season there were some ups and downs but things started to smooth out this past year. According to Medved, they were able to tweak some things schematically and that made a difference, as did the familiarity of the players on the floor together. This year he hopes it all culminates with the Rams taking their defensive efforts to the next level. 

CSU flashed on defense last year, at one point being ranked as high as 38th in the county in defensive efficiency. After finishing 72nd, however, Medved is striving for more consistency and a total commitment on that end of the floor from everyone on the roster. 

“We didn’t finish the season the way we needed to on that end of the floor,” Medved said.

“We didn’t offensively either, for that matter. But you know, we’re going to have to be more consistent that way. And I mean, it starts with a commitment. You hope that guys who’ve been in a system now for a while, have some familiarity and comfort in what we’re doing. And then I think as coaches, can we continue to tweak, add, and maybe do some different things that help take us to the next level. But, you know, there aren’t a ton of tricks. A lot of it’s just a commitment, and toughness, and understanding what it takes to win at the highest level.”

If the Rams do find the commitment and consistency that Medved is looking for on the defensive end, it should only help them raise the national profile of CSU hoops, especially with the difficult non-conference schedule that the Rams will play. 

“I just felt like for us, this was the right move,” Medved said of his team’s challenging schedule. “This is what we wanted to do. We really wanted to take a shot.”

“Personally, I’m really excited about it,” Stevens added. “I feel like those are the kind of games that we came here to play. Definitely going to be some tough matches but I will see where we really are. See how much better we can get through those experiences. And I feel like they’ll also just be able to pay a big dividend for us later on in the year. Going out and playing those tough teams and you know, hopefully winning a lot of those games, will be big-time for our program.”

CSU’s journey begins at Moby Arena on November 9 against Max Abmas and Oral Roberts University. Abmas is coming off of one of the more insane NCAA Tournament runs in recent  years, as his explosive offensive production allowed them to upset Ohio State and Florida before narrowly falling to Arkansas in the Sweet 16.