What we learned in Colorado State's 80-65 win over the Omaha Mavericks

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Every game counts.

Wednesday night’s matchup against the University of Nebraska Omaha may not have been as exciting as last week’s trip to Cameron Indoor Arena but after winning 21 games a season ago, the Mavericks were certainly not a team that Colorado State men’s basketball could afford to take lightly.

Coming into the contest, Omaha was only allowing 60.7 points per game — a figure which ranks 80th in the country. Considering CSU has not been the most potent offensive team and generally struggled to hit open jump shots in the first two games, Omaha had the potential to be a tricky matchup for CSU.

“They’re a really good team,” Nico Carvacho said postgame.

In the end, though, CSU was able to answer the call with a complete 80-65 victory over the Mavericks. In the process, four different players finished the night with double-digit figures, including Nico Carvacho (21 points), Adam Thistlewood (19), Kendle Moore (16) and Isaiah Stevens (11). And the one starter who didn’t score a ton of points, Kris Martin, was a phenomenal facilitator and a relentless bulldog on the defensive end.

“Good win for our team against a really good team,” head coach Niko Medved said of his team’s effort.

The second-year head coach of the Rams explained that the Mavericks are a team that’s playing with a lot of confidence right now and will ultimately have a decent chance to win the Summit League. So for his team to play the way they did, particularly after an exhausting trip to Duke, was definitely an encouraging sign. As was the complete effort given by his team on both ends of the floor.

“You have to keep consistency with what you’re doing but good, bad or different, I thought our guys had a pretty good mindset here tonight,” Medved said.

With that in mind, here are the three takeaways from CSU’s mid-week victory over the Mavericks.

Nico Carvacho does Nico Carvacho things

Nico Carvacho was due for a big night and the senior center certainly had one on Wednesday. Carvacho paced the team in scoring with 21 points and generally looked unstoppable in post. Time and time again, CSU was able to feed the big man down low and the senior center from Frisco, TX., would in turn respond with a big-time finish at the rim.

Along with a breakout game on offense, Carvacho was a force to be reckoned with on the glass. The nation’s leading rebounder from a season ago finished with a game-high 19 boards — one shy of recording a 20-20 game.

“Honestly, I heard that I was jipped one,” Carvacho joked. “I’m not going to lie, I heard that. But that doesn’t really matter. As long as we get the win.”

If Carvacho can build off of this performance and consistently play like he did in the second half against Omaha, CSU is going to be a dangerous team come spring. For the first time in a long time, the Rams have great depth and a variety of versatile scorers. But Carvacho is still the ‘X factor’ for this team’s success in the long run.

His size makes him a mismatch for most teams that CSU will encounter and his ability to pass out of the post creates opportunities for cutting guards as well as open looks around the perimeter. Both of these components of the offense were big factors on Wednesday. For the offense to really function, though, the defense has to fear that Carvacho will finish.

“You’ve gotta remember that Nico missed all summer,” Medved said. “Sometimes there’s nothing like just playing games again — getting in there and getting into a game. We were just going to keep force-feeding him the ball because he’s a guy that is eventually going to start to get them to them to fall.

“He’s a great playmaker too,” Medved continued. “They started to bring help, he saw the help and we were kicking it out. It always looks better when the shots go in, right? But it’s a simple game sometimes. You play inside-out and you get it in the paint. Guys did a great job of making the extra passes and sharing it. And we knocked down some threes.”

Adam Thistlewood has a career night

One of the guys that consistently knocked down those threes was Adam Thistlewood. For the second time in as many home games, Thistlewood led the Rams in 3-point shooting as the sophomore forward from Golden, Colo., finished with a career-best 19 points in the victory. The scoring figure surpassed his previous high total from last season, when he scored 17 points against the University of Louisiana.

“It felt great,” Thistlewood said of his team’s strong shooting performance from deep.

“That trip to North Carolina — it felt like we were there for a month to be honest, but it’s nice to see it finally go in.”

In total, Thistlewood finished five-of-eight from beyond the 3-point arc in what was a very efficient showing. What really stood about his performance, though, was his shot selection. There was never a moment where Thistlewood did anything except make the best basketball play for his team. If there was an open man with a better look, Thistlewood would keep the ball moving. But if the defense gave him too much room, he showed no hesitation to let it fire.

The second-year starter was not just a one-trick pony either. Thistlewood pulled down the second-most rebounds (7), made all his free throws (4-of-4) and took two charges on defense to boot.

“I was just having fun out there and playing my game. Shots were falling and balls were coming to be on the boards,” Thistlewood said.

If Thistlewood can continue to be a two-way threat, this team is going to be tough to stop, especially if they get more complete team showings like tonight.

Rams are becoming a defensive-minded team

During his postgame press conference, I asked Medved what he is most encouraged about with this team so far. Without hesitation, he responded that he was happy to see the work they have putting in on the defensive end starting to pay off.

“I’m encouraged by their approach in practice — I think that these guys come and they work hard in practice,” Medved said. “They’ve been coachable that way.”

Obviously, it’s early but this team has shown significant improvement on the defensive end and much of that has simply come down to effort. Medved has openly talked about how last year’s team would struggle to keep the intensity up on defense if shots were not falling. This was problematic on multiple levels but mostly because when the buckets aren’t coming, that’s when you need your defense to step up more than ever. The good thing is that this year’s squad doesn’t seem to struggle with keeping the intensity up.

“I like their talent level and I like who they are, so I think they’re a group that’s going to get better,” Medved said. “That’s what every coach says but it’s the truth. I’m really enjoying this team.”

As it currently stands, CSU ranks 259th out of 353 teams in defensive rating (100.9). This isn’t great but it’s much better than last season (108.7). Not to mention the figure should improve as the Rams play more games and balance out the 89 points they recently allowed to Duke.

Numbers don’t always tell the whole story but in this case, they show that CSU is a team that is learning to value both ends of the floor. This needs to keep up if the Rams are going to make any noise in the Mountain West this season.

Next Up

CSU will hit the road again this weekend for a Saturday night showdown with Loyola Marymount (1-1). The Lions are always a tough matchup and recently hung tight with Nevada in Reno.