The future in Fort Collins looks bright as Ali Farokhmanesh and the CSU Rams dominate in his head coaching debut

Colorado State didn’t skip a beat in the first win under Ali Farokhmanesh. The Rams scored 98 points and had 22 assists on 29 made field goal attempts. Despite the changes to the staff and CSU having eight new players on the roster this season, Monday night looked a lot like the quality product we’ve been fortunate to watch for the last 5+ years. 

While Farokhmanesh was instrumental to the rise of the program and assumed more and more responsibilities over the years as Medved’s right-hand man, obviously it’s a bit of a whirlwind when it becomes your name that’s associated with the record.  

Farokhmanesh talked postgame about how nothing felt normal to him leading up to the 98-64 win over Incarnate Word. “I didn’t know what to do for like two hours,” the first-year head coach said with a smile. 

Even in the moments leading up to the game, instead of warming up the players on the court, for the first time he experienced the short stretch of solitude that every head coach has in the locker room pregame. 

“Niko always used to talk about how you’d sit in a locker room by yourself while everyone else was on the court or doing other things,” Farokhmanesh said. “And for those 20 minutes, it’s so lonely in that locker room. You just get lost in your own thoughts. So that was different.”

While the emotion was evident postgame and a candid young coach came off great, aside from how well a team with so many new pieces seemed to gel, what stood out the most on Monday was how natural of a leader Farokhmanesh is. He was composed on the sideline and didn’t ride the highs and lows that inevitably come with a college basketball game. And when he had a chance to pat himself on the back postgame, he continually deflected the praise to the players and his staff. There’s just a positive energy with him that is infectious. It’s easy to see why players buy into him. 

“He’s a big reason why I stayed,” Kyle Jorgensen said postgame. “He’s somebody who I go to for everything. He’s not even just a coach. He’s a mentor. So when you play for somebody like that, it makes you want to go out there and just go full out for a guy like that.”

Brandon Rechsteiner, a transfer guard from Virginia Tech, said that it meant everything to him to be a part of his head coach’s first career win. After tying his career-high in points (19) in his first game in the Green & Gold, one of the newest Rams emphasized how much faith that Farokhmanesh puts into his guys and the confidence that it instills. 

“We really want to go out and play for him,” Rechsteiner said. “It means a lot.”

While Rechsteiner led the way, CSU had five guys finish the night in double-digit scoring figures and three different transfers hit multiple threes. Josh Pascarelli, who came over from Marist, had 18 points and went 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Illinois transfer Carey Booth hit three from deep as well in a strong debut. With 15 points from Jorgensen and 13 from Jevin Muniz, it was a pretty well-rounded showing across the board. 

CSU shot 60 percent from the floor and 52 percent from 3-point as a team. The Rams were clutch at the free throw line (27-of-30) and dominated the glass to boot (+23). 

Farokhmanesh was clearly pleased with the mentality and execution of the group. He praised his staff, though, for encouraging him to not get too complicated right out of the gate. CSU’s offense features a ton of movement and passing. It takes time to really get a full grasp of everything. And instead of overwhelming the guys with a bunch of new stuff, the Rams really leaned into the basics that they’ve been working on since June. 

“I’m really proud of our staff,” Farokhmanesh said. “I know myself, like, I want to keep adding things, and I almost did. And then we talked about it and we pulled it back, and we just stuck to our base. Our base has gotten so much better because of that.”

Farokhmanesh continued, explaining that what excites him is they still have a chance to grow together and add more elements as the guys get more comfortable together out on the floor. “I think that’s the best part about it, we haven’t added a whole lot. We’ve just taught them the nuances of it and what they’re looking for depending on how they’re being guarded.”

Finally, when asked what message his mentor and former boss had for him ahead of his head coaching debut, Farokhmanesh said that he didn’t get anything out of the ordinary from Medved. Just that he should trust what he’s doing and lean into what he knows.

“Don’t trick it up,” he said. “Don’t do anything you haven’t done before. Like, you always have ideas and other thoughts about what you want to do. And I think that’s kind of what I stuck to with the whole lead-up to this game, and the preparation for the whole season was just sticking to what we do and keep getting our base stronger.

“Honestly, that’s what coach (Ben) Jacobsen always said at Northern Iowa, too. In November, the teams that win are the teams that have the best base. And that just means the simplicity of your offense, and the simplicity of your defense, and not getting in the weeds of things. I think we’ve done a good job of not getting into the weeds.”

There’s much basketball to be played this year and it’s going to take time to iron out this rotation. But you really couldn’t have asked for a better performance to kick off a new era of CSU hoops. They gave the right person the keys to the program. The future in Fort Collins looks very bright right now.