Colorado State University Athletics
The Dish: Stevens Deals "It" to Nevada
1/29/2020 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Freshman drops game-winner at the buzzer
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A conversation when Colorado State was at Clune Arena, the home of Air Force, carried a lesson. The back and forth was between Isaiah Stevens and head coach Niko Medved after the former rushed a pre-halftime play and cost the team a chance at insurance points going into the locker room.
The message of the talk was not to rush – utilize your internal clock and don't feel like everything is happening so quickly.
With time racing after an inbounds pass with 5.3 seconds led Stevens up the Moby Arena floor against Nevada, he took a pause. He'd just shook a defender and stood wide open with the chance to send the Rams' faithful crashing down onto the floor with a single shot.
"It's (about) just trying to put pressure on the defense and then read and react after that," Stevens said. "If I could get all the way to the basket and get a layup, that was option one. If he cuts it off, try to make another counter move and do something else."
Instead of rushing, or even forcing, he planted his feet, rose up and nailed it for the 92-91 win Wednesday. Once again, it began with a huddle after Medved used his final timeout.
"We have a couple of things we do in that situation," Medved said. "I just wanted to make 100 percent sure that we know exactly what we're doing. Everybody was going to run and try to crash. I had a great angle on it, he shot it, I think the buzzer went off and I'm like, 'That might go.' It makes me look a lot smarter than I am."
Stevens is merely a freshman. He won't use it as an excuse, but it's a fact fundamental in judging his development.
The Rams have done everything they can to raise their youngster's collective comfort levels. They've kept practice consistent, kept emotions consistent and hoped the levelheadedness they've shown would rub off.
Some guys, like Stevens, just possess a different gene though.
"Some guys just have it," Medved said. "You can't put your finger on it, but you know it when you see it. When you recruit them, you never know how they're going to respond to this level right away, but you always knew he had that kind of moxie and instinct."
In response to a new level of basketball, Stevens has merely paced the team in scoring this year. Medved will tell you it wasn't his best game. He only had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Much like the other freshman across the way, David Roddy, Medved knows the two will overcome earlier shortcomings though.
Roddy's block with 1:58 left gave the Rams a defensive stop which their coach had yearned for, even at halftime – he knew a stop would be all his team would need. Or so he thought. The final three points of Jalen Harris' 31 for Nevada came off a 3-pointer at the top of the key, a dagger of a shot on most occasions.
Just not Wednesday. In their exchange of headlines from game to game, Roddy and Stevens have shown their own version of it.
"(We have) extreme comfort with them," Adam Thistlewood said of the freshmen duo. "They're phenomenal young players and it doesn't even feel like they're freshmen anymore. They've been through so much – that triple-overtime game against Tulsa, the game winner in the Cayman Islands – they're experienced and they're ready."
Stevens' buzzer-beater count is up to two after just his 23rd game. Going another five years without a court-storming effort from the students is something which is unlikely under his watch.
In fact, he can't wait for the next time.
"The potential of this place is crazy, especially if the students continue to turn out, just more and more each game as we keep on progressing," Stevens said. "Man, I'm excited for it."
The message of the talk was not to rush – utilize your internal clock and don't feel like everything is happening so quickly.
With time racing after an inbounds pass with 5.3 seconds led Stevens up the Moby Arena floor against Nevada, he took a pause. He'd just shook a defender and stood wide open with the chance to send the Rams' faithful crashing down onto the floor with a single shot.
"It's (about) just trying to put pressure on the defense and then read and react after that," Stevens said. "If I could get all the way to the basket and get a layup, that was option one. If he cuts it off, try to make another counter move and do something else."
Instead of rushing, or even forcing, he planted his feet, rose up and nailed it for the 92-91 win Wednesday. Once again, it began with a huddle after Medved used his final timeout.
"We have a couple of things we do in that situation," Medved said. "I just wanted to make 100 percent sure that we know exactly what we're doing. Everybody was going to run and try to crash. I had a great angle on it, he shot it, I think the buzzer went off and I'm like, 'That might go.' It makes me look a lot smarter than I am."
Stevens is merely a freshman. He won't use it as an excuse, but it's a fact fundamental in judging his development.
The Rams have done everything they can to raise their youngster's collective comfort levels. They've kept practice consistent, kept emotions consistent and hoped the levelheadedness they've shown would rub off.
Some guys, like Stevens, just possess a different gene though.
"Some guys just have it," Medved said. "You can't put your finger on it, but you know it when you see it. When you recruit them, you never know how they're going to respond to this level right away, but you always knew he had that kind of moxie and instinct."
In response to a new level of basketball, Stevens has merely paced the team in scoring this year. Medved will tell you it wasn't his best game. He only had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Much like the other freshman across the way, David Roddy, Medved knows the two will overcome earlier shortcomings though.
Roddy's block with 1:58 left gave the Rams a defensive stop which their coach had yearned for, even at halftime – he knew a stop would be all his team would need. Or so he thought. The final three points of Jalen Harris' 31 for Nevada came off a 3-pointer at the top of the key, a dagger of a shot on most occasions.
Just not Wednesday. In their exchange of headlines from game to game, Roddy and Stevens have shown their own version of it.
"(We have) extreme comfort with them," Adam Thistlewood said of the freshmen duo. "They're phenomenal young players and it doesn't even feel like they're freshmen anymore. They've been through so much – that triple-overtime game against Tulsa, the game winner in the Cayman Islands – they're experienced and they're ready."
Stevens' buzzer-beater count is up to two after just his 23rd game. Going another five years without a court-storming effort from the students is something which is unlikely under his watch.
In fact, he can't wait for the next time.
"The potential of this place is crazy, especially if the students continue to turn out, just more and more each game as we keep on progressing," Stevens said. "Man, I'm excited for it."
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