Taking on the Persona of a Cockroach

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The kids are alright.

Their generation, they just want to play. Give them games, any time, any place and their good. They want to lace them up, especially around Colorado State, where both the men's and the women's programs have gone a solid three weeks without meaningful competition.

They're cockroaches.

Two regularly-scheduled games to end the regular season with Air Force are eagerly awaited. Hey, how about two more next week, right before the Mountain West tournament kicks off?

Yes. Please.

"Definitely," junior forward Adam Thistlewood said. "I think any basketball player would say, they love playing the game, so as many games as we get in is great for us. We're just excited to play again."

The men are now set to play three in a row at home – the two with the Falcons, then a rescheduled date with New Mexico. Two days later, they'll be on the road to face Nevada.

The women have two more games, too. After taking on Air Force twice this weekend, they'll pack their bags and basically move somewhere – it could be Texas, possibly Las Vegas, and as of earlier today, even Albuquerque, now that New Mexico has been cleared to host games – where the Rams will play New Mexico on Wednesday and Friday. With no site official as of early this afternoon, that looms large with the conference tournament set to start in Las Vegas on Sunday, though the Rams will have a first-round bye.

Karly Murphy isn't worried. Not at all. The transfer post wants to play as much as she can.

"Cool," was her reaction to the scheduling change. "I'm not too concerned with it. That's just what March is. It's a lot of uncertainty, and especially this year, you just have roll with whatever the plan is. It sounds good to me. The more basketball the better."

The men's team has a program called Ram Excel Series, where speakers come in and meet with the team and work on their mental approach. One, Rod Olsen, explained the difference between a panda bear and a cockroach. A panda lives in one place, a controlled environment. Take away any of the resources, it dies.

A cockroach, however, will adjust to any temperature, any change. You can step on it, and it's not going away.

That's the way the players view it. The coaches have to take a big-picture approach to what it all means, and Tuesday's announcement by the Mountain West led to a flurry of aspects to consider.

"I think what's happened is there's been such as state of flux and our guys wondering what's next, and finally, Tuesday, 15 minutes before we're ready to practice, we get the final word on what the next week is going to look like," men's coach Niko Medved said. "You put it up there, and our guys realize, hey, we're going to have to play four in seven days. The first thing that P.J. Byrd said was, 'Let's go. Be a cockroach.'

"It's different, but that's what it is."

The women's team had already finished practice on Tuesday when the conference announced changes to their schedule, so getting word out to the players was just one of many items on a checklist for the coaching staff.

All the sudden, they are looking at an extended stay on the road – possibly up to eight days in Las Vegas -- with players out of a normal routine and meals being hung on hotel door handles.

"I'm still trying to process that, to be honest with you," women's coach Ryun Williams said. "I have obvious concerns about the amount of time we'll be holed up in a hotel, the risk of COVID and extended travel that doesn't necessarily have to happen.

"Less time to prepare for teams you're going to play in the tournament for the most important tournament of the year. We've proven we're one of the top teams in the league, so to compress all those games at the back end, that's a concern."

Karly Murphy

Coaches look at everything, and the way the conference handled the rescheduling of games raised some eyebrows. The men are getting two games in with different opponents, but the women's side had a pair of complete series' being played, with one other makeup.

Coaches on both sides want to know the difference in philosophies and why some games are being made up, others are not. A Mountain West spokesperson said the conference athletic directors allowed the Mountain West to reschedule women's games during the season, including the final week, while the rescheduling of men's games was put on hold until the end. The spokesperson said the updated women's schedule was based on upcoming conference tournament seeding and the possibility of NCAA Tournament qualifications.

At the very least, both Williams and Medved are proud of the way their teams have handled the pause to the season. Practices have been spirited, and the men were even to work in a scrimmage with Northern Colorado.

When they passed each other in the hall on the second floor of McGraw, they could console each other, knowing exactly what the other was processing.

As for the players, they want to see someone new. And play. As often as they can.

"In our case, we'd been so fortunate since we came off our COVID pause early in the year, we went through a long stretch of not missing any games," Medved said. "You feel like it's inevitable, but what you didn't know was inevitable was that it would be five in a row. That's just kind of par for the course. I think players are resilient. They're obviously disappointed; the game with New Mexico, to have it cancelled 40 minutes before tipoff is unique, but everything about this year is that way. I think they've handled it well."

Like cockroaches.

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