DENVER — After five-plus glorious months of college basketball, the offseason is officially here. Just because there aren’t games happening on the court, though, does not mean that it isn’t an important time for the Colorado State Rams.
Coming off of a successful year in which CSU went 25-6, finished the regular season in the AP Top 25 and secured the highest NCAA Tournament bid in school history, there is reason to believe that the Green & Gold will once again be a dangerous group in 2022-23.
David Roddy coming back for his senior season would definitely affirm any lofty hopes/goals that Ram Nation has — or at the very least would make them more realistic — but with a roster that includes Isaiah Stevens, John Tonje, Jalen Lake and Isaiah Rivera, the Rams have an extremely talented backcourt regardless.
Without breaking down the entire roster, my main point here is that even with four transfer departures this offseason, in no way should this be viewed as a rebuild scenario. Really, the situation is closer to an NBA team that had a great regular season but ultimately came up short in the playoffs, so the next step is to change up a couple of things and try to add a few key pieces to help them take things even further.
So, with that in mind, let’s review who has left and take a look at which high school players will be coming in, as well as some players you should keep an eye on in the transfer market.
Who is out so far?
Having veteran players leave the program is always a bit of a sad situation, however, even more so for the fans when a team was as beloved as the 2021-22 Rams were. The core of the roster grew up together and now three experienced players have ultimately decided to finish their careers elsewhere. Plus, Jalen Scott, who redshirted as a freshman this past year, has also decided to leave.
While I won’t try to tell anyone not to miss Adam Thistlewood, Kendle Moore or Dischon Thomas, because they were all key members of a three-year stretch in which the Rams won 69.89 percent of their games. It’s going to be weird seeing those guys in different uniforms — there’s no doubt about it. What should be encouraging for Ram fans, though, is that open scholarships mean new possibilities. CSU has a chance to go out and potentially find even better pieces for making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
For example, ‘DT’ is a guy that stretches the floor well with his 3-point shooting. It’s why he scored 15 points against Michigan on five made threes. What he is not is a traditional five, or a guy that is going to protect the rim consistently against an elite center like Hunter Dickinson. Even going up against power forward Moussa Diabate was a stretch, but that’s what CSU needed based on the roster last year. Again, it’s bittersweet to see him move on. But now CSU can pursue someone that is better suited to defend the paint.
And on the flip side, the good thing for him is he’s already shown that he can score against quality mid-majors and even high-major programs as well. At Montana he should be able to really put up some numbers against Big Sky schools. Plus he’ll get to reunite with brother Dorell.
Sometimes a change is the best move for both sides.
2022 transfer departures
- Dischon Thomas (Montana)
- Adam Thistlewood (Colorado School of Mines)
- Kendle Moore (TBD)
- Jalen Scott (TBD)
What’s next?
With Chandler Jacobs graduating and four guys transferring out, CSU will have at least five different scholarship players next season, though that number could increase if Roddy were to remain in the NBA Draft.
Niko Medved has already filled one of the scholarships with Jack Payne, a 6-foot-6 wing out of Idaho. Payne was named the Idaho 5A Player of the Year after leading Owyhee High School to a state championship this past season.
— Colorado State Men’s Basketball (@CSUMBasketball) April 13, 2022
Most recently, CSU picked up a verbal commitment from Taviontae Jackson, a 6-foot-2 165-pound combo guard out of Las Vegas. Jackson averaged 26.3 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game in an impressive year for Las Vegas High School.
According to his Twitter page, ‘Tavi’ also holds offers from Dixie State, Pacific, Sienna and Wyoming.
As far as the other three open scholarships are concerned, a couple of CSU’s top targets include Max Klesmit (Wofford) and Gideon George (BYU).
Klesmit is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound shooting guard that averaged 12.3 points per game over two seasons with Wofford. He’s a 35-percent shooter from deep over 50 games. And last season he also averaged a couple of assists, as well as a couple of steals per game too.
On March 13, Klesmit posted his top 4 schools on Twitter, which included Clemson, CSU, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. We’ll see where he ultimately ends up but he would definitely be a solid addition for the Green & Gold.
George, on the other hand, is a 6-foot-6, 190-pound forward, who like Roddy is able to guard any position on the floor. Over the last two seasons with BYU, George averaged 7.3 points and five rebounds in about 18 minutes a contest. Watching him in action, it really feels like BYU only scratched the surface when it comes to his potential, though. George is crazy athletic and showed more and more touch as the season progressed.
Considering his frame and abilities, George will undoubtedly have plenty of interest from schools around the country. If Medved and Co. can land him, though, he’d be a perfect fit in the Mountain West.
Finally, in an ideal world the Rams would add a five that has more offensive capabilities than what we’ve seen out of James Moors so far. Moors can hang with most bigs as a defender but still has a lot of room to grow on the offensive end. If CSU could add another big with size that can defend the paint but also presents more of a threat offensively, it could really shore up some of the troubles CSU occasionally had against bigger teams over the last couple of years. But as we have talked about over the last month, that’s easier said than done.
