What we learned about the Rams in a rare early-December game against SDSU

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State men’s basketball (6-4) opened up the league portion of the schedule with a 79-57 loss to San Diego State (9-0) Wednesday night.

Due to the Mountain West Tournament being moved up one week this season, the Rams are playing a pair conference games in early December before wrapping up non-conference play over the next couple of weeks. Following the game, head coach Niko Medved said that he doesn’t like playing MW games this early in the season but understands it’s the reality this year.

“I think everybody would say that but that’s just what it is,” Medved said. “Everybody is in the same boat. I don’t like that. You kind of try and break up your season: non-conference, conference and then the postseason.”

Medved justified why he likes the traditional schedule better, explaining that if you’ve watched CSU so far this season, it’s clear that the Rams are showing signs of improvement but it is also evident they are very much still a work-in-progress. Because of this, CSU would have benefitted from not having to play league games until closer to New Year’s Eve.

That said, while Medved did confirm that he is not a fan of the 2019-20 scheduling format, he did not use it as an excuse for his team’s shortcomings against SDSU.

“It is what it is — it’s the same for every team,” Medved said, before raving about how SDSU is already a really dangerous squad.

“They’re playing great, you can see it right now,” Medved said. “They’ve got a lot of weapons and they gave us a really tough challenge out of the gate. But that’s okay. We’ve gotta step up and meet it [the challenge] and we didn’t quite meet it today.”

Now that it’s been established why the Rams and Aztecs played each other in the first week of December, let’s go over the takeaways from the game.

Aztecs overwhelmed the Rams

CSU really struggled to deal with SDSU’s length on both ends of the floor. In the first half, SDSU used a ton of ball screens and the Rams had a tough time staying in position. This allowed the Aztecs to come out and get in a scoring rhythm.

“We talk about being connected,” Medved said. “You know, guys are playing hard but if one guy gets out of position a little bit — we’re not as long as that team or athletic — and foot here or there can make all the difference in the world between a passing getting through.”

The Aztecs shot 60 percent from the floor and 50 percent from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes. Leading the way was junior guard Malachi Flynn. The Washington State transfer hit three-of-four 3-point attempts in the first half and played a big role in helping SDSU establish an early lead. In total, Flynn had a game-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field — he’s now scored 20+ points in three consecutive games.

In the second half, CSU played better defense for the first 15 minutes but as Medved said, “the wheels fell off” at the end. Over the final 6:37, SDSU closed the game on a 19-2 run and they outscored the Rams 10-0 over the final 3:23 to boot. The Rams missed their final six field goal attempts and genuinely looked both physically and mentally defeated by the end.

“I did think we showed some fight — we came back and I thought we guarded really well for a stretch,” Medved said. “I don’t think the final score indicated what kind of a game this really was but they were better than us today.”

CSU must rebound better as a team

By the time Nico Carvacho leaves CSU, his name will be firmly etched into the history books. Carvacho is already the Mountain West’s all-time leading rebounder and the only player to ever score 1,000 points and pull down 1,000 rebounds in the league’s storied history.

Against SDSU on Wednesday, Carvacho looked like a guy who understood the magnitude of conference play. Carvacho was all effort in the paint and unsurprisingly totaled a game-high 11 rebounds. The 6-foot-11, 240-pound center also finished with a team-high 16 points and consistently was looking to score throughout the game.

“I loved it,” Medved said of Carvacho’s aggressiveness in the post. “What I loved most about Nico [was his effort] on the offensive glass tonight.”

Medved explained that he told the senior center earlier this week that he was not getting as many offensive rebounds as he was in the past and it looked like Carvacho took it to heart.

“Boy, you only had to tell him once — and he came out with a great mindset tonight,” Medved said.

“Quite frankly, he gave great effort and he’d never admit it, but I thought he was a little bit winded down the stretch on that key run. It looked like we ran out of gas a little bit. Maybe I could have called a timeout earlier but they put it on us.”

With Carvacho gassed and nobody else to pick up the slack, SDSU really was able to rack up some easy offensive rebounds and extend their lead in the paint. Combined with CSU’s shooting slum, it explains why the Aztecs ended up winning by 22 despite it being a two-possession game for much of the second half.

Moving forward, the younger guys really need to be more aggressive on the glass and help take some of the load off of their big man. High school players, especially good ones, can afford to watch shots and then go run down rebounds because they are superior athletes. At this level, though, if you don’t put a body on someone or go high point the ball, odds are the other team is going to make you pay. CSU found this out the hard way against SDSU as the visiting Aztecs finished +13 in rebounds (40-27) and +8 in second chance points (12-4).

Rams valued possessions on offense

Along with inconsistent 3-point shooting, one of the struggles for Colorado State this season has been too many turnovers. The Rams came into Wednesday night’s contest against the Aztecs averaging 14 turnovers per game.

The figure isn’t necessarily all that awful — most programs aim for 10 to 12 to be the max allowed in any single game. But in two of their three losses, CSU finished with 15+ turnovers. And even in winning efforts against Denver, Loyola Marymount, Utah Valley and Washington State, the Rams played far too loose with the basketball far too frequently.

Against the Aztecs on Wednesday, though, the Rams did a nice job of valuing their offensive possessions and making the most of every opportunity. In the first half, CSU recorded just two turnovers. And in the game, CSU finished with eight. If they can replicate that kind of ball security in future games, the Rams will not lose by double digits frequently.

What’s Next

CSU will have to forget about the home loss quickly because a big-time road matchup with Boise State is coming up this Saturday. The Broncos are coming off of a narrow road loss to a talented New Mexico team and much like CSU, Boise State will be looking to get the taste of defeat out of their mouths.

“They’ve learned and they’ve show that they respond,” Medved said. “Half the teams are going to be 1-0 in the Mountain West and the other half are going to be 0-1 — and that’s what we are — we’ve gotta learn from it and get ready to play Boise on Saturday.”