Colorado State University Athletics
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3/10/2021 1:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball, RamWire
Rams enter tournament driven by the moment
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The goal has always been there, and it's not going away.
Not when Niko Medved's bunch feels like it is on the doorstep of its arrival. The desire of the Colorado State men's basketball team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament field has never been a secret, so brushing it aside as if it's not there is counterproductive.
So is forgetting the steps needed to actually ring the door bell and be welcomed inside.
"I think that you keep it consistent with what we've done all year, and we've tried to just stay in the moment and focus on what's the most important thing, and that's today," Medved said. "That's nothing different than we've emphasized from day one. Is it a challenge? Yeah. It's a challenge for every human being to stay in the moment and not think about the past or focus on the future. It's a challenge for everybody, but I think we keep it consistent.
"You can do that by still not shying away from, hey, we want to win a championship. We want to play in the NCAA tournament. I think you can't just hide from it, but at the same time, I think it's keeping the same process that we've had. There's an old saying, you don't play to win, you don't play not to lose you play to play your best."
Thursday's Mountain West Tournament opponent for the third-seeded Rams will not be known until later today, as the winner of the Fresno State-New Mexico first-round game advances to take on the Rams for a 9:30 p.m. tipoff at the Thomas & Mack Arena.
Before the team even departed Fort Collins on Tuesday, they were already busy compartmentalizing each and every step to the desired location. The quickest and most surefire way to qualify for the NCAA Tournament is to top the conference field.
"It's a daily challenge to, again, focus on the moment and focus on the practice that we have, focus on the travel day we have tomorrow, then focus on the practice that we have Wednesday, then finally the game on Thursday," sophomore forward David Roddy said on Monday. "We have enough on our plate as it is focusing on right now that we don't need to be focusing on the future. As long as we take care of the present, we'll know what our future holds."
Colorado State is the only one of the top four seeds to have beaten the other three team who drew first-round byes. That's a positive, but not a guarantee. And the way tournaments play out in March, past results mean little.
The team figures that much will hold true especially in a pandemic season. So they've spent the lead up to the event preparing for both of the squads they may face Thursday, giving each a quality amount of time. The Rams have seen New Mexico in the past week, but the Lobos were missing a handful of regulars. Fresno State came early in the season, and the Bulldogs have been playing well as of late.
Best to be prepared for the first step or the second may never get taken.
"We've talked a little bit about it, but we try to play one game at a time," junior guard Kendle Moore said. "Find out who we play and just prepare for them.
"We can't get ahead of ourselves. We just have to play one game at a time."
What they will walk into at the tournament will be strict measures to make sure the tournament goes off without COVID-19 issues creeping into the equation. Teams will be on a stricter lockdown, even more so than normal.
In some ways, Roddy feels it can be a benefit for a team focused on one round per day.
"It's definitely a more controlled environment. This team is great anyways on just staying in the hotel and focusing on the mission at hand and the game in hand," he said. "That's not too different with our culture, just getting in the mindset of being in the hotel and being around the guys. That's really where the memories are shared, are made, is in the hotel rooms and the training rooms and things like that, cracking jokes with everybody."
They're used to this year being different anyhow. So much has changed, and they've seen both sides of it. The Rams lost some games early when the team was affected, and they spent three weeks basically idle between conference contests as other teams ran into problems.
All along, the Rams had a big picture in mind, tracking the progress stroke by stroke. The goal is still there. So is the same approach.
"You focus on the next thing. The next thing is whoever we play Thursday, Fresno or New Mexico," Medved said. "You have to worry about playing well on Thursday night. That's the only thing that matters, and if you eventually want to reach your end goal, that's what we have to do. That's the next thing."
Not when Niko Medved's bunch feels like it is on the doorstep of its arrival. The desire of the Colorado State men's basketball team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament field has never been a secret, so brushing it aside as if it's not there is counterproductive.
So is forgetting the steps needed to actually ring the door bell and be welcomed inside.
"I think that you keep it consistent with what we've done all year, and we've tried to just stay in the moment and focus on what's the most important thing, and that's today," Medved said. "That's nothing different than we've emphasized from day one. Is it a challenge? Yeah. It's a challenge for every human being to stay in the moment and not think about the past or focus on the future. It's a challenge for everybody, but I think we keep it consistent.
"You can do that by still not shying away from, hey, we want to win a championship. We want to play in the NCAA tournament. I think you can't just hide from it, but at the same time, I think it's keeping the same process that we've had. There's an old saying, you don't play to win, you don't play not to lose you play to play your best."
Thursday's Mountain West Tournament opponent for the third-seeded Rams will not be known until later today, as the winner of the Fresno State-New Mexico first-round game advances to take on the Rams for a 9:30 p.m. tipoff at the Thomas & Mack Arena.
Before the team even departed Fort Collins on Tuesday, they were already busy compartmentalizing each and every step to the desired location. The quickest and most surefire way to qualify for the NCAA Tournament is to top the conference field.
"It's a daily challenge to, again, focus on the moment and focus on the practice that we have, focus on the travel day we have tomorrow, then focus on the practice that we have Wednesday, then finally the game on Thursday," sophomore forward David Roddy said on Monday. "We have enough on our plate as it is focusing on right now that we don't need to be focusing on the future. As long as we take care of the present, we'll know what our future holds."
Colorado State is the only one of the top four seeds to have beaten the other three team who drew first-round byes. That's a positive, but not a guarantee. And the way tournaments play out in March, past results mean little.
The team figures that much will hold true especially in a pandemic season. So they've spent the lead up to the event preparing for both of the squads they may face Thursday, giving each a quality amount of time. The Rams have seen New Mexico in the past week, but the Lobos were missing a handful of regulars. Fresno State came early in the season, and the Bulldogs have been playing well as of late.
Best to be prepared for the first step or the second may never get taken.
"We've talked a little bit about it, but we try to play one game at a time," junior guard Kendle Moore said. "Find out who we play and just prepare for them.
"We can't get ahead of ourselves. We just have to play one game at a time."
What they will walk into at the tournament will be strict measures to make sure the tournament goes off without COVID-19 issues creeping into the equation. Teams will be on a stricter lockdown, even more so than normal.
In some ways, Roddy feels it can be a benefit for a team focused on one round per day.
"It's definitely a more controlled environment. This team is great anyways on just staying in the hotel and focusing on the mission at hand and the game in hand," he said. "That's not too different with our culture, just getting in the mindset of being in the hotel and being around the guys. That's really where the memories are shared, are made, is in the hotel rooms and the training rooms and things like that, cracking jokes with everybody."
They're used to this year being different anyhow. So much has changed, and they've seen both sides of it. The Rams lost some games early when the team was affected, and they spent three weeks basically idle between conference contests as other teams ran into problems.
All along, the Rams had a big picture in mind, tracking the progress stroke by stroke. The goal is still there. So is the same approach.
"You focus on the next thing. The next thing is whoever we play Thursday, Fresno or New Mexico," Medved said. "You have to worry about playing well on Thursday night. That's the only thing that matters, and if you eventually want to reach your end goal, that's what we have to do. That's the next thing."
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