Colorado State men’s basketball didn’t get much love in the preseason Mountain West poll Wednesday morning. The Rams, who have gone .500 or better in four years under Larry Eustachy, were picked to finish seventh.
San Diego State was picked to repeat as the conference’s regular season champion and garnered 23 out of 27 possible first-place votes.
What might be more startling than the Rams’ projected finish though was that senior guard Gian Clavell was nowhere to be found in the preseason all-Mountain West list.
Eustachy, who along with Clavell and senior forward Emmanuel Omogbo, were the CSU representatives at Media Day in Las Vegas. The Rams’ head coach talked about how excited he was that Clavell is back and healthy again.
“He’s a great leader,” said Eustachy through the Mountain West Network on Facebook Live. “I don’t think there’s a better player in the league. He certainly changes the culture of what we have now compared to what we had last year.”
Clavell’s presence was clearly missed last season. In the 10 games he appeared in before the injury, he averaged nearly 21 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
As good teammates do though, Clavell basically became an extra coach on the bench. Eustachy mentioned that the extended time away from playing helped him grow even more as a player.
“I think he has a different outlook by sitting on the bench,” said Eustachy. “He’s going to capture the moment.”
The other guy CSU will rely heavily on is Omogbo, who figures to be a double-double machine in 2016-17. Last season, Omogbo was named Honorable Mention All-Mountain West after averaging close to 11 points and eight rebounds per game.
“Rebounding is effort,” said Omogbo, who learned the importance of rebounding from Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Many CSU fans have a special place in their heart for Omogbo, who dealt with unimaginable family tragedy a season ago. He credits Eustachy for how he helped him through the situation.
Said Omogbo: “After that happened, I talked to coach and he took me in. Now I’m just playing for my teammates and family.”
Eustachy reciprocated his connection with Omogbo.
“I’ve shared some tragedies with Emmanuel that I’ve shared with nobody else,” said Eustachy.
Let’s get back to what this year’s team looks like.
Aside from Clavell and Omogbo, there isn’t a whole lot of certainty. Will J.D. Paige and Prentiss Nixon build on what they did a year ago? Which new players will Eustachy go to for quality minutes and production?
Eustachy currently has CSU in its best four-year stretch of men’s basketball. But as far as it 2016-17 is concerned, there are many more more questions than answers.
