Finding the Right Formula
Rams concoct one for end-of-game fortitude
Mike Brohard
There is no hard and fast formula.
This isn’t a recipe for a cake, where all the ingredients are consistent through time. This is a college basketball team, and the names and faces change from year to year, bringing along different personality traits, altered triggers and response mechanisms.
Yet here are the Rams, tried and true in the crunch. They have an admirable mental fortitude when it comes to closing out games, be it one where they trail or they lead. Coach Niko Medved knows for each team there is a recipe, and like the secret one mom has stashed in head for banana bread, the Rams have stored away theirs.
If you talk to the team, what’s in it varies from person to person, though all agree it takes a huge scoop of trust.
“I wish I could say it was a magic formula of some kind, but I think you start with having the right people. The people who have a strong belief in what we’re doing and a strong belief in each other,” said Medved, whose team is off to an 8-2 start to the campaign, 5-1 in Mountain West play. “When you start that way and you have a connection, you have a lot invested. The more you have invested, the harder it is to surrender.
“I think we’ve got a big investment in each other, a big investment in what we do, and I think it starts there. That permeates from the coaches down to the players, and it becomes a player-led thing. They have a strong belief in each other, they stay with it, they don’t get too up, they don’t get too down. They have a next-play mentality.”
In three of the past four games, Colorado State has needed a mental gut check to pull out wins. It led to the largest comeback in Mountain West history to take a game in one of the more unlikely spots in the conference, Viejas Arena, home of the San Diego State Aztecs. Coming home, the Rams were pushed to the brink twice by UNLV.
The first outing, they had to overcome a 13-point deficit. The second night, they led most of the way, but still had to regain the lead late in the contest. While each game required a little something new, the base, John Tonje said, was trust.
“I feel like when somebody else is settled down and focused in the late game, everyone else just follows suit,” the sophomore said. “We all just keep pulling for each other and keep believing in each other, so I feel like it’s just contagious just to always keep composure and finish out these games.
“We all work very hard on our individual game, and we’re all pulling for each other and making each other better and learning from each other every day. We’ve really made some good strides in making each other better and making the team go.”
We’ve got guys here that really want to win, so it’s become easy at this point to get guys up and ready to go.Isaiah Stevens, Sophomore Guard
An important step is practice. The key ingredient there is competition.
Medved believes you can’t have too much of it in workouts. They allot time specifically to end-game situations, but even fundamental drills carry a competitive element. His reasoning is if you can’t be competitive all the time, you’re not ready to be competitive at the crucial times.
And it’s not just the players feeding off each other.
“I honestly feel it comes from the practices we have, just spreading the competitive spirit from our coaches down to the players,” Mountain West player of the week Isaiah Stevens said. “Our coaches are tough and competitive and really want to win at a high, high level, so when that starts to show up on a daily basis, it really tends to run down to the team. We’ve got guys here that really want to win, so it’s become easy at this point to get guys up and ready to go.”
Practice will help a team to recognize the situation, but practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect in every situation. Winning a tight game is one of those times. For Medved, it has to be experienced in a game setting. And while people continue to harp on how young the team is, Medved continually reminds them all just how much floor action this group has really seen.
Last year, they saw their fair share of tight games and proved they could be up to the task. This year, the Rams look like a team which anticipates the setting night after night. Embraces it. Expects it.
Which they do.
“When you start to become a better team, you’re going to be in a lot of close situations,” Stevens said. “When we start preparing -- hopefully for situations in March where every team is giving it their all and games are starting to come down to the wire -- it won’t be the first time we’re in situations like that. So we play really good competition early in our schedule and throughout conference. We’re going to be in these situations, and right now we’ve been able to find ways to come out with wins. That’s huge, because that’s not always easy to do against really good competition.”
What everyone tends to remember is the game-winning shot. The one Tonje hit at San Diego State. Stevens and David Roddy produced key late-game buckets against UNLV. To a man, there is no fear factor when it comes to taking the last shot, but what they appreciate most is, they don’t look to just one player to take on the challenge.
Medved noted it was a Stevens drive and dish which led to Tonje’s winning shot. In the second game with UNLV, the roles were reversed.
Again, trust, and Tonje said that’s hard to defend.
“That’s probably scary for other teams to know that at any point down the line that we’re willing to take the shot from anyone on the floor,” he said. “That’s something we take very seriously, and it’s been working for us. We’re simply looking for the best shot we can. If it’s someone new every night, we’re just going to take it and roll with it.”
What people tend to forget is the defense stance required to make a shot possible. When a team trails on the road by 26 points, coming back is not all about making baskets, it requires getting stops. The Rams have been getting better at that, too.
It’s the part of the game where the Rams feel they have the most room for growth, and more often than not, it requires all five players on the floor doing their part. Everybody is involved in forcing a missed shot, though occasionally, a player is left on an island to do the hard work himself.
Medved loved the 3-ball Stevens hit to help sink the Rebels on Saturday, but he’ll never forget the defensive play by Roddy to make it possible.
Left alone with Bryce Hamilton, who had hit a variety of tough shots in the two-game set, Roddy rose up and blocked a 3-point attempt. The only thing which prevented a breakaway dunk was it created a turnover via a shot-clock violation.
Fortitude on defense is just as important.
“You have to have it,” Medved said. “David Roddy made one of the best individual defensive plays I’ve seen in a long time in the game Saturday, but like so many of these other plays, it’s being connected on defense, it’s helping each other. Five guys always guard every action. I think you have to have as much trust, if not more trust, on the defensive end as on the offensive end.”
Right now, the Rams have trust, as well as belief. They also have three tight Mountain West wins as a direct result.
Will it work every time? Even the Rams know the answer is probably not. Yet, they’re also confident they’ll refrain from panic and be comfortable in the situation, the creation of a formula specific to this team.