Who would have thunk it?
All signs pointed toward the 2020-21 Colorado State Men’s Basketball team being an offensive juggernaut that needed to overcome defensive deficiencies of the previous season in order to take that next step.
But in the upside down world of 2020, they have turned the tables, becoming a potent defensive force that has held their opponents to less than 60 points three straight games. And less than .85 points per possession for three straight games.
To put that into perspective, last year’s squad only held an opponent to less than .85 points per possession once over the entire season.
And when CSU found just enough sudden offense to produce the decisive 12-5 run to blow the game open midway through the second half, the Rams produced a stellar win over the previously undefeated Santa Clara Broncos, winners of their first six.
The Broncos are the 5th tallest team in D-1 this year, averaging over 6’7”. It wasn’t a problem for the Rams as their on-ball pressure, their post defense, and their intelligent help and defensive rotations held the Broncos to 36% shooting from the field including a measly 5-28 (18%) from beyond the arc.
And they did it not only with traditional lineups featuring bigs Dischon Thomas and James Moors, but also with small lineups that featured 6’5” David Roddy in the post.
In fact it was the small lineup that broke the game open as they were able to get defensive stops and then spread Santa Clara out on the offensive end. A three-ball by Roddy, a three-ball by sub Jon Tonje, 3 points from sub Isaiah Rivera (including a clever finish at the rim), and a punctuation mark 3-ball by Kendle Moore fueled the decisive run that pushed the lead to double digits with just under 8 minutes remaining.
The Broncos would never get closer than 7 down the stretch as the Rams closed the game effectively by breaking Santa Clara’s press and scoring from the free throw line.
Roddy Leads Five Rams in Double Figures
David Roddy led the Rams with 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Isaiah Stevens had a quietly efficient game with 14, 4, and 4 against only one turnover. Kendle Moore struggled early but heated up to score 12 and Tonje came off the bench to score 12. Adam Thistlewood chipped in 10 along with 8 rebounds.
But in the end, it was 9 players operating as one unit on the defensive end of the floor showing that size doesn’t always matter.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
With the victory, the Rams moved their record to 3-1. They are scheduled to begin their Mountain West Conference slate with a pair of games at home against Fresno State on December 28th and 30th.
A Dry Run – Sort Of
Scheduling has been made difficult by the pandemic. One of the decisions made by the MWC was to schedule games in pairs. The typical schedule might feature a home game vs one opponent followed by a home or road game against another opponent.
Not this year.
CSU tried to schedule a pair of road games only two days apart to simulate what the conference paired games will feel like. The goal was to play St Mary’s on Saturday night and Santa Clara on Monday afternoon.
They weren’t quite able to do that because of the demands on the court in Santa Cruz, which is the temporary home of both Santa Clara and Stanford. Temporary because Santa Clara County will not allow games to be played. Stanford had dibs on the court on Monday, so the Rams and Santa Clara had to wait until Tuesday to meet.
Not quite what the staff hoped for but close enough to give Head Coach Niko Medved some experience with turnarounds similar to what he and his squad might see during MWC play.
Small axe, fell big tree