Niko Medved on CSU's open scrimmage, community engagement and goals on the defensive end

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State men’s basketball opens the 2021-22 season in less than a month and expectations for the Green & Gold are extremely high. 

The Rams return a roster that has predominantly been playing together for two to three years, including two of the top five players in the Mountain West, David Roddy and Isaiah Stevens. They added talent as well with Division II standout, Chandler Jacobs, transferring in from Dallas Baptist University. 

With the campus packed for Homecoming weekend, head coach Niko Medved elected to take advantage of the opportunity and hosted an open scrimmage Saturday morning prior to the football team’s victory over San Jose State. In front of a crowd of roughly 1,500 people, the Rams played an intrasquad exhibition that showcased a small sample of the talent, competitiveness and athleticism of the Rams. 

“Today was all about them,” Medved said. “I told them to have fun and engage, and of course, compete, play hard, do all that stuff. But for the most part, this was just an opportunity for them to enjoy being back out here and playing in front of the fans. And hopefully it was fun for the fans. I know it was fun for our guys, I think it’s just such a natural opportunity to do that with homecoming weekend.”

While Kendle Moore and Adam Thistlewood did not participate in the event, as they’re still easing back into the mix as they get healthy, the scrimmage was definitely a great chance for the community to watch a team that should crack the top 25 this season. Unfortunately, due to high demand from Homecoming, the Rams were not able to host quite as many recruits this weekend as the staff may have liked to thanks to a shortage of hotel rooms in the area. In the end, though, it was still a pretty successful event, especially considering the turnout for a 10:00 a.m. start. 

“I mean, it’s a great problem to have. No hotel rooms, sellout crowds, fan engagement, the Homecoming activities last night were awesome,” Medved said. “Our team was out there and I  took my kids and my family out there just to have that energy back on campus. That’s what it’s all about.”

The quality of the basketball played was not necessarily the sharpest on the defensive end but it’s tough to really take much away from this type of exhibition. The players all know what the other is going to do, including the set plays. Plus, nobody wants to injure a teammate from going too intense on the defensive side, so reserving judgement until they play a different opponent seems like the right thing to do. 

“It’s hard sometimes when you’re going against yourself, because you’re kind of running this stuff that everybody knows,” Medved said.

Having said all of that, if the Rams are going to survive a challenging non-conference slate, defensive success will be paramount and Medved knows it. So far his teams have improved significantly on the defensive end each year that Medved has been in town. 

When asked if he thinks this group has what it takes to potentially be a top 50 team defensively, Medved said that he hopes so and that they’ve once again shown a lot of growth on that end. He also explained that it’s been one of the biggest things they’ve emphasized in the first couple weeks of practice. 

“I think that they’ve shown that and, you know, as we get closer to the season, can we find the right group of guys and right group of bigs to be able to do that,” Medved said. “When you start to play other teams, you see different kinds of actions and all that, but I would agree with you, I think that’s our goal. We got closer last year, you know, at one point, I think we moved up to 38th in the country in defensive efficiency and we didn’t end the season maybe the way we wanted. 

“But I think that’s a good goal for us,” Medved continued. “Can we find a way to move into the top 50 and be one of the top couple teams in our league? And that’s going to be a tremendous challenge. But if we want to get to where we want to go, that’s when we’re gonna have to meet that.”