Why Wednesday's collapse to Arkansas State can be a defining moment for Niko Medved's young squad

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — “This one is going to sting.”

Just about one month into the 2019-20 season, Colorado State men’s basketball (3-2) has flashed a ton of potential. The Rams have great depth in both the frontcourt and the backcourt, and at times they’ve legitimately looked like a squad that is capable of making some noise in the Mountain West. As promising as the team has looked through the first five games, though, the roster is still incredibly inexperienced as a whole.

In Wednesday’s 80-78 loss to Arkansas State, that inexperience, or maybe a better word to use would be immaturity, was on full display as the Rams were unable to protect a lead that at one point was as large as 17 points in the second half. Even with about 5 minutes to go, CSU still led by 10 and was in position to secure a victory with a couple of defensive stops and a few successful trips to the free throw line.

“This one is going to sting. And it should sting,” Niko Medved said postgame.

So what went wrong? What catastrophic sequence of events allowed the Red Wolves to completely turn the game around and erase a double-digit lead in a matter of minutes?

Really it wasn’t that complicated — the Rams simply stopped playing defense down the final stretch and Arkansas state never stopped attacking. Whether it was a layup or wide-open look from the perimeter, for much of the second half,  the visiting team was basically able to do whatever they pleased.

“We had a really poor mindset on the defensive end,” Medved said.

“When we got that lead in the second half, we looked like a team, to me, that kind of wanted it easy. I thought our intensity level went way down. We were just kinda hoping ‘I think we’ll get out of here with a win and get ready to head to the Cayman Islands.”

In a winning effort, the Red Wolves finished 27-of-54 from the field (50 percent) and an astounding 13-of-20 (65 percent) from 3-point range. Even more discouraging from CSU’s perspective was the fact that Arkansas State did all of this with 60 percent of their starting lineup fouling out of the game. But as CSU found out the hard way, if you don’t play a full 40 minutes, it does not matter if it’s the starting lineup or the team managers on the floor, at this level you’ll almost always get beat if you don’t keep up defensive intensity.

“I thought our defense was by far the poorest we’ve played this year,” Medved said. “It wasn’t a make-or-miss game to me, it was our defensive intensity — really throughout the entire game but particularly in the second half.”

If there is a silver lining in this heartbreaking defeat, it’s that nobody made excuses after the game. In fact, quite the opposite occurred. First a pair of up-and-coming freshmen, David Roddy and Isaiah Stevens, calmly expressed that the loss was 100 percent due to lack of effort, and that they will have to be more consistent moving forward.

“We had a 16 point lead in the second half, we’ve gotta be able to close out games like that,” Stevens said. “I don’t care if we’re young. I don’t care if we’ve got a lot of new guys. We’ve gotta be able to finish basketball games and that’s on us. We’ve gotta be tougher.”

Then for 7 minutes straight, Medved criticized his team’s performance and basically repeatedly said their inexperience is not an excuse for the lack of effort. He even alluded to the point that it may not necessarily be all that bad that the Rams were unable to convert the game-tying shot at the end of regulation. If Nico Carvacho was able to get the ball and convert the layup, the mood would have been extremely celebratory, especially if the Rams ended up winning in overtime or due to an and-one. Obviously, he would have been happy with the win but it would not have made up for everything the team did poorly.

“That wouldn’t change anything that happened in the game. That wouldn’t change anything about our defensive intensity,” Medved said. “What you wouldn’t accept in losing, you can’t accept in winning. So regardless of the outcome tonight, we didn’t play very well. That’s the biggest thing we’ve gotta take away and we have to play better.”

As CSU gets closer to conference play, Wednesday’s collapse to the Red Wolves can be a defining for this team if they respond correctly. We’ve all seen the skill from the youngsters and know what the veterans are capable of but what might actually be this team’s greatest strength is how much they seem to buy into the staff. If they learn from this disastrous outcome and get back to playing quality defense, there’s no reason to believe this team cannot put together a respectable season.

After the weekend the Rams will return to the floor on Monday Nov. 25. CSU will face New Mexico State at 9:00 a.m. MT in the Cayman Islands Classic.