The Dish: Rams Choose High Drama For Sweep of Rebels - CSURams.com

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By: Mike Brohard

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – When college basketball fans turn on their television sets, they hope for high drama.
 
For games like the one played Saturday at Moby Arena between Colorado State and UNLV. Stupid COVID-19, too, because the atmosphere would have been lights out with fans in the stands. It was a thought which didn't evade coach Niko Medved.
 
"What a great college basketball game. Both teams, I thought, were playing at a high level offensively," Medved said. "Guys trading blows, players making shot after shot after shot. I kept thinking to myself, how cool this would have been here today to have fans in Moby and to get to see these kind of games."
 
Both teams shot better than 50 percent. UNLV's largest run was seven; CSU's six. The Rebels biggest lead was three points; for the Rams, it was eight. There were 18 lead changes. The game was tied for more than 8 minutes on the clock, and the Rams led for the majority of the afternoon, for 26:03 minutes of time.
 
But throughout the afternoon, it was anybody's game to take. Colorado State finally did, securing an 83-80 Mountain West victory as Isaiah Stevens hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, then iced it with a pair of free throws.
 
Naturally, the players are fans, too. So yeah, that was a blast, especially to be involved and not on a couch.
 
"It gets a little tiring, I'm not gonna lie," Stevens said, "but it was a great competitive game. UNLV is really tough, and they showed that. They did some really good things offensively. When you have guys hitting shot with a hand in their faces, there's not too much you can do. Credit to them for making it a really, really competitive game, but also credit to our guys for battling the whole way through."
 
With the Mountain West schedule a set of two-game affairs, night after night isn't going to be twins. The teams are the same, but the players are not robots. Circumstances will change.
 
Medved said sure, some coaching adjustments will be made. The Rams threw a zone at UNLV to provide a different look, but it was circumstance, not preparation, as the team hasn't practiced it much. But the real kicker is the Xs and Os on whiteboards are people on the court.
 
This set with UNLV proved as much. David Roddy made a simple internal mistake – nothing serious, Medved said – so he didn't start. John Tonje did. And Tonje couldn't hit a shot on Thursday.
 
Saturday, he hit plenty, going 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 behind the arc for 15 points.
 
"I couldn't make a shot the other day, so I got some shots up after the game, came in here and prepared," he said. "I made a couple. It's just not losing confidence, that's the biggest thing, just making sure that one game is just a game and the next game is different."
 
What he continued to do was play tough defense, but in the case of UNLV's David Jenkins Jr. and Bryce Hamilton, it just didn't seem to matter. Folks would need fingers and toes to count the number of baskets they made with a hand in their face. Or off balance. Or both.
 
On Thursday, like Tonje, he couldn't hit, making just two shots all night in scoring 11 points. He responded by going 13-of-19 from the field for 29 points, while Hamilton added 28 by hitting 10-fof-21.
 
Medved, a father of two daughters, would not say out loud the words that crossed his mind in watching their shot making ability. Then again, he calls Hamilton the best tough-shot maker in the conference. But to him, it's the early easy shots the Rams allowed the two Rebels which led to them having the guts to take shots Tonje doesn't think his teammates would attempt.
 
"Sometimes what happens is, you make some defensive errors early in the game and a guy like that sees the ball go through the hoop a couple of times, and now they're in a rhythm," Medved said. "Then yeah, they start making difficult shots, but it wasn't the difficult shots, it's the ones early."
 
The Rams can do that, too. Roddy came off the bench and provided 18 points, including a couple of physical baskets in the paint during the drawn-out dual. And late, Stevens was the man with the plan and not shy about dropping a 3 from the top of the key to give the Rams a lead. Then he went to the line and iced the win with a pair of free throws to lead the team. Not just with 22 points, but with six rebounds. And eight assists.
 
The Rebels have their guys, the Rams have theirs. When it mattered, when fans were on the edge of their seats, Stevens was not afraid to be front and center.
 
The kind of high drama fans crave.
 
"The game, I'm pretty certain fans across the country, these would be the type of games they'd want to see," Tonje said. "For us, we want to win every game by 50. It is what it is. There are other good teams out here; we have to play and compete. These are fun ones, I'm not going to lie. These are fun to come down the wire and see who can gut it out. It's just fun to be part of something like this."
 
That's three out of four games the Rams have gone down to the wire. Two of them required comebacks, one of them the largest in Mountain West history. Saturday, it required the ability to take a blow and then deliver one of their own.
 
Fun to watch, sure. Gutsy to pull out, most definitely.
 

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The Dish: Rams Choose High Drama For Sweep of Rebels - CSURams.com
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