Rams To Open Two-Game Home Swing Against South Dakota State Tuesday Night

2019-20 Colorado State Men's Basketball
Game #12 - Colorado State (6-5, 0-2) vs. South Dakota State (6-5)
Dec. 10, 2019 • 7 p.m. MT • Moby Arena (8,083) - Fort Collins, Colo.

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Video: MW Network
Radio: Colorado State Sports Network (Play-by-Play: Brian Roth / Color Analyst: Adam Nigon)
Flagship: KARS 102.9 FM (Fort Collins) / Affiliates: KDCO 104.7 FM (Denver), KMTS 99.1 FM (Glenwood Springs), KMTS 96.7 FM (West Glenwood Springs), KRDO 105.5 FM (Colorado Springs), KKVT 100.7 FM (Grand Junction), KMTS/KKVT 99.5/100.3 FM (Rifle), KKVT 97.1 FM (Delta), KKVT 98.1 FM (Montrose), KRFD 100.1 FM (Sterling), KNEC 100.9 FM (Yuma), KNAB 1140 AM (Burlington), KLMR 920 AM (Lamar) / TuneIn App
Live Stats: Colorado State
Complete Game Notes: Colorado State / South Dakota State

Opening Tip
• The Rams return home for a pair of games, starting with South Dakota State on Tue., Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. Last year's Jackrabbits went 24-9 to win the Summit League regular season and played in the National Invitation Tournament.
• The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network along with the audio on the Colorado State Sports Radio Network (along with online at CSURams.com), with Brian Roth and Adam Nigon on the call.
• CSU Sports Network broadcasts can be also accessed on mobile devices through the TuneIn app (free on all Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry and Amazon Kindle devices) – once downloaded, search "Colorado St. Rams Sports Network" in the app for the games and coaches' show broadcasts.
• The game will also have live stats on CSURams.com

The Leaders
• Colorado State Head Coach Niko Medved (Minnesota, '97) is in his second season at CSU as head coach with an 18-25 mark and has a 97-112 overall record is in his seventh season as a head coach.
• South Dakota State Head Coach Eric Henderson (Wayne State (Neb.), 2000) is in his first season at South Dakota State and as a head coach overall with a 6-5 record. He was on staff for the past three years as an assistant, helping SDSU to a 70-33 overall record and three postseason appearances, including two NCAA Tournament berths.

A Quick Look at South Dakota State
• Returning one starter and six letterwinners from last season's 24-9 squad that won the Summit League regular season title last year with a 14-2 record and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament, the Jackrabbits were picked to finish fifth in the league's preseason poll.
• Transfer junior Douglas Wilson leads the Jackrabbits in points, and rebounds, while senior guard Brandon Key paces the team in minutes, assists, steals and free throw percentage. Sophomore guard Alex Arians is the lone returning starter from last year's squad.

History Versus South Dakota State
• The two teams have met just twice, both of them SDSU victories.
• Last year, the Jackrabbits got a 78-65 win at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida, while the only other previous meeting was in the 2015 NIT, with SDSU getting an 86-76 win in Moby Arena. (box scores on pages 19-20).
• CSU leader Niko Medved has an 0-2 record against South Dakota State as a head coach and 3-5 against Summit League teams overall in his six-plus years. This year, he is 2-0 against the conference with wins over Denver and Omaha.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - 0-2
Home: 0-1 / Neutral 0-1
     Date              Loc.       W/L        Score     Att.
!    3/18/2015      Home        L          76-86    3391
@ 11/21/2018    Neutral       L          65-78     657
! National Invitation Tournament (Home Sites)
      @ Gulf Coast Showcase (one home site game, three games

CSU vs. The Summit League
School                     Overall     H         A         N
Denver                      94-70   57-29 35-41    2-0
IPFW                           2-0       2-0        -          -
North Dakota               1-0        1-0        -          -
North Dakota State      2-1       2-0      0-1         -
Omaha                       3-0       3-0        -          -
Oral Roberts                3-1       2-0       1-1         -
South Dakota              0-1        0-1        -          -
South Dakota State     0-2       0-1        -        0-1
Totals                      105-75 67-31 36-43    2-1

Medved vs. The Summit League
School                     Overall     H         A         N
Denver                        1-0        1-0        -          -
Omaha                        2-1       2-0      0-1         -
South Dakota              0-2       0-1       0-1         -
South Dakota State     0-2         -        0-1       0-1
Totals                         3-5       3-1      0-3      0-1

Improvement Always
• Head coach Niko Medved has had extensive success wherever he has coached, both as a head and an assistant.
• As an assistant coach, he helped turn around the CSU program to improving its win totals from his first year in each successive year, ending in four straight postseason appearances.
• He continued that trend at Furman and Drake, improving both programs' win totals from the previous year in each of his five seasons as a head coach, finishing his last three years in postseason play.
• In his first year at CSU in 2018-19, he continued that trend, surpassing the previous season's win totals at CSU, both overall and in Mountain West play.
• This season, the Rams already have six non-conference wins, surpassing last year's total of five, with four games to play.

Moby Arena Home Court Advantage
• CSU has a record of 556-237 (.702) record all-time at Moby Arena.
• The Rams had finished at least .500 in each of the last nine years prior to last season. This dated back to the 2008-09 season when the program was 6-9, prior to 2018-19's 8-9 mark.
• Current head coach Niko Medved was part of a coaching staff at CSU that posted two of the top records in program history at home, as the 2012-13 team set the best mark at 16-1 with the 2011-12 team going 14-1. Overall as an assistant at CSU, he was part of a team that went 97-97 overall and 59-30 in Moby Arena and improved their overall record in each successive season.

National Rankings (Team/Players)
(through Dec. 8, 2019)
Team (Top 70 of 350 Division I teams)
Free Throws Attempted                           238          15th
Free Throws Made                                 160         25th

Players (top 100 nationally)
Nico Carvacho
Free Throw Attempts                              77              1st
Double-Doubles                                    4             27th
Defensive Rebounds Per Game                7.18         30th
Rebounds Per Game                              9.7          33rd
Free Throws Made                                 42           50th

Carvacho Growing On the Floor
• Redshirt-senior center Nico Carvacho showed his increased comfort level on the floor, growing extensively since his freshman year.
• He now has a Mountain West-record 1057 (tops in NCAA among current active players), passing previous leader Pat Durham (1985-89) at 851.
• Carvacho also is first in CSU offensive rebounds with 363 and in CSU career defensive rebounds with 694 (since tracking of the two categories began).
• He is now the leader in Mountain West-only double-doubles with 27, passing San Diego State's Kawhi Leonard (2009-11) and Nevada's Jordan Caroline. His 39 career double-doubles are fourth in the league's history (tied for first among current active NCAA Division I players).
• Carvacho became the 29th CSU player in history to reach the 1,000 point mark in his career, accomplishing that feat in the opening round of the 2019 MW Championship.
• With his five rebounds against Arkansas State Nov. 20, 2019, he became the first player in league history with 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
• He was also named to the preseason watch list for the 2020 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced. Last year, he was a finalist as one of final 10 players from which the top center in men's college basketball will be recognized.
• Carvacho was named to the Preseason All-MW team entering this season by the league's media representatives.
• For his play against Omaha and in the three contests in Grand Cayman as CSU went 3-1 combined, Carvacho was named to the Cayman Islands Classic All-Tournament Team. He posted a pair of double-doubles and averaged 14.8 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists in those games.

CSU Career Ranks
Points
17.    1119       Daniel Bejarano (100 Games)            2011-15
18.    1085     Chuck Newcomb (70 Games)          1957-60
19.    1084    Nico Carvacho (110 Games)         2016-pres.

Field Goals Made
14.    438     George Price (71 Games)                1969-72
15.    434     Gary Rhoades (77 Games)              1970-73
16.    426     Nico Carvacho (110 Games)         2016-pres.

Field Goal Percentage (Minimum 75 Made)
12.    .559     David Fisher (151-270)                     1998-01
13.    .552     Nico Carvacho (426-773)             2016-pres

Rebounds
1.     1057     Nico Carvacho (111 Games)        2016-pres.
2.     851      Pat Durham (125 Games)                1985-89

Rebounding Average (Minimum 35 Games)
3.     9.6      Bill Green (76 Games)                    1960-63
4.     9.6      Nico Carvacho (111 Games)         2016-pres.

Defensive Rebounds
1.     694     Nico Carvacho (110 Games)        2016-pres.

Offensive Rebounds
1.     363     Nico Carvacho (110 Games)         2016-pres.

Blocked Shots
11.     66       Michael Harrison                         2005-06
       66       Ceedric Goodwyn                        1998-00
13.    63       Nico Carvacho                          2016-pres.

Games Started
3.     113       Pat Durham                                1985-89
4.     108      Nico Carvacho                          2016-pres.
5.     107       David Turcotte                            1984-88

Minutes
10.    2964    Lynn Tryon                                  1988-92
11.     2913     Milt Palacio                                  1996-99
12.    2888    Nico Carvacho                          2016-pres.

Double-Doubles
1.      39 Nico Carvacho (2016-pres.) (4th in MW history)

NCAA D-I Active Career Rankings (through Dec. 8, 2019)
1.       Total Rebounds                                          1057
t-1.     Double-Doubles                                           39
5.      Rebounding Average                                    9.5
7.            Consecutive Starts                                  107
38.    Field Goal Percentage                                  55.1

Martin Stepping Up His Role
•                                                            Redshirt-senior Kris Martin has emerged as one of the leaders this season.
•                                                            The guard led CSU in its opening win over Denver, Nov. 5, scoring a team-high 18 points and adding five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• The senior currently is fifth for CSU at 8.4 points per game while playing 26.8 minutes a contest, fifth on the team. He is shooting 36.2 percent from the field and 68.4 from the charity stripe while also adding 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists a game.

Moving On Up
• Sophomores Kendle Moore and Adam Thistlewood are going to be looked at to help lead this team as two of the four returning starters.
• Thistlewood was fifth on last year's team at 8.9 points per game and Moore is sixth at 8.8 points per game. Thistlewood scored in double figures in 16 contests, with Moore with 11 10+ point games.
• Thistlewood scored in double figures in each of the last six games and ranked third in the MW in three-point field goal percentage in conference games.
• Moore and Thistlewood each shot 78 percent or better from the charity stripe.

This season
• Thistlewood and Moore both had a solid game in the win over Omaha, Nov. 13.
• Thistlewood was 5-for-11 on field goals, including 5-for-8 from the three-point arc, and hit all four free throws for a career-high 19 points. He also added seven rebounds, two off his career best earlier this year against Denver.
• Moore tallied a season-best 16 points, including five triples against the Mavericks.
• Moore was solid in the thrilling win over Loyola Chicago Nov. 26, as he had a game-high 15 points, including 6-of-9 FG and 3-5 from the arc.
• Thistlewood was a standout against Washington State Nov. 27, as he had a game high and career-high 20 points on 6-of-9 FG, including tying a career-high with five three-pointers and chipped in four rebounds.
• Thistlewood is now third on the team at 10.0 points and third at 4.3 rebounds per game, while Moore is sixth at 7.7 points a contest and leads in steals with 15.

Newcomers With Early Impact
• Head coach Niko Medved has played four freshmen in nine of the 10 contests so far, with three playing in all 10.
• Guard Isaiah Stevens has started all 10 games and tied for game-high honors with forward David Roddy with 12 points at #4 Duke, Nov. 8.
• Roddy also added six rebounds and a steal in his 21 minutes of action.
• Dischon Thomas and John Tonje have both played at least eight contests and contributed off the bench.
• Stevens followed it up with against Omaha, Nov. 13, tallying 11 points and a team season-high five assists in the win and at Loyola Marymount, Nov. 16, with a game-high 21 points, five rebounds and five assists in the come-from-behind win.
• Stevens and Roddy both had a presence against Arkansas State Nov. 20. Stevens then had 11 points, six rebounds and a team season-high eight assists while Roddy had a personal-best 14 points with three blocks.
• Roddy scored in double figures in all three games in Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands Classic, averaging 11.0 points per game on 50.0 percent shooting from the field.
• Against Utah Valley Dec. 1, two other newcomers made a major contribution. Thomas scored a game-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor and hitting all four free throws while adding six rebounds. Sophomore P.J. Byrd come off the bench and tallied eight points in 10 minutes in his first action of the season.
• Stevens is currently second on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game, shooting 46.9 percent from the floor, 38.6 from the arc and a team-best 85.7 percent from the free throw line. He has reached at least 10 points in seven of the 11 games so far and had at least four assists in seven of them.
• Roddy is fourth at 8.6 points per game and second at 4.6 rebounds a contest, as the freshman has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games and seven total contests this season.

Coors Light Coaches Show Is Back
• The Coors Light Basketball Head Coaches Show returns to Lucky Joe's Sidewalk Saloon in Old Town Fort Collins this year. Join men's head coach Niko Medved and women's head coach Ryun Williams starting at 6 p.m. on the Mondays listed below (other than the first and last shows) to hear their thoughts on the previous week and look forward to upcoming action.
• December: 9 & 16
• January: 6, 13, 20 & 27
• February: 10 & 20 (Thur.)

All-Time Overtime
Overall: 27-36
                1-ot       2-ot     3-ot       Tot
Home:      10-15      6-2      0-0     16-17
Road:       10-15       1-1       0-1      11-17
Neutral:      0-1        0-1       0-0       0-2
Totals      20-31      7-4      0-2     27-35

Looking Ahead
• The Rams wrap up the two-game homestand with their annual White Out game, hosting No. 23 Colorado on Fri., Dec. 13 at 6 p.m.
• The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, with Rich Waltz and Steve Lappas handling the broadcast.
• The audio will be on the Colorado State Sports Radio Network (along with online at CSURams.com), with Brian Roth and Adam Nigon on the call.
• CSU Sports Network broadcasts can be also accessed on mobile devices through the TuneIn app (free on all Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry and Amazon Kindle devices) – once downloaded, search "Colorado St. Rams Sports Network" in the app for the games and coaches' show broadcasts.

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