Colorado State University Athletics
New Foes Add Excitement to NCAA Tourney for Rams
3/15/2022 3:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Process of scouting and preparing challenges coaches, players
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The idea has been pretty exciting for a couple of weeks, actually. Really, ever since Colorado State felt pretty secure about a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The chance to play somebody new. After two months of the same-ol'-same-ol', branching out felt invigorating to the coaches and the players. In the Mountain West, they all can pretty much recite the game plans against any of the teams in their sleep.
Once their name flashed as a No. 6 seed, followed by Michigan as a No. 11 against the Rams, the wheels were in motion. Assistant Brian Cooley was assigned Michigan, Ali Farokhmanesh has Tennessee and Sam Jones Longwood.
"(Graduate assistant) Colin McGettigan goes gets the film, and there's a whole process that's already arranged," Farokhmanesh said after Monday's practice. "We all watch it. Like, I've watched four Michigan games already, so then I'll probably watch a little more and then start in on Tennessee."
Quite honestly, this is the fun part for the coaching staff.
On Sunday, the rush was real, for all of them. The race against the clock to get the information. The race against the clock to break it down, then teach it to the team. One team – Michigan – at first, with the breakdown on the other two possible opponents to follow.
"You get into coach mode. That's what you do," CSU head coach Niko Medved said. "That's part of the fun, though. The grind is part of the fun to get in there and try to prepare. Your guys will feel the same way, and that's what we'll do. We'll treat it as the next game in our season."
And the next game feels so unlike the past 20 games they've played. The familiarity was nice, to a degree. On defense. The Rams knew what to do. In meetings, they could basically recite what the coaches were about to tell them, like a high school kid ripping off their A-B-Cs – old hat.
On offense, it was frustrating. All that they knew defensively, so did their opponents. Farokhmanesh said it gets irritating listening to other Mountain West squads call out their plays as they are happening.
Right now, new feels good. Exciting.
"I think it's an awesome, fresh start. It's a new season," post James Moors said. "They don't know about us, and we don't know about them, but that can work to our advantage like it did in non-conference. It's really fun. It was almost getting to the point where in the summer when we play against ourselves, the other teams know exactly what we're going to do. That's refreshing, and that's going to be fun."
What they've seen of Michigan on tape doesn't fit into an exact match in the Mountain West. Not in terms of system, not in roster make up. But there are slivers of similarities.
Hunter Dickinson, at 7-foot-1, who averages 18.x points and 8.x rebounds per game. The Wolverines have some length on defense, a balanced scoring attack with four players averaging in double figures. None of what makes Michigan the team it is (17-14 and 11-9 in an impressive Big Ten conference) is exactly what the Rams have seen before, but a lot of it is close.
They'll use those fragments as teaching tools, a way to trigger the memory of games gone by. They'll look for things the Wolverines have done against teams which seem similar to the Rams, too, to track how they react. That information will help, but it will be knew, and it's not like hearing the same story.
Time is still of the essence.
"We have to definitely be a lot more locked in for a team like this, because we only get a few days to prepare for them," Moors said. "This is pretty much all our first time looking at all these players, unlike San Diego State, who we've played all these years."
It's a little bit like the non-conference schedule – and that worked out really well. But just a little, not exactly. For the most part, the teams may have been new, but they were on the schedule for a while, with the exception of the Paradise Jam. Even then, the Rams could project a few months out and collect film and plan in advance.
This time, it was see the schedule on Sunday and get immediately to work. For Farokhmanesh, it not only provides an amazing opportunity for success, now and in the future.
"It's nice to see somebody else, a different style of play, too," he said. "I think even from growth in the coaching perspective, it's nice to see somebody else and learn a different style, learn a different system. In basketball, there's so many different ways to do it, and it's fun to go and see, OK, this is how Michigan runs a different style than anybody in our league. There are some similarities, but it's definitely different."
The chance to play somebody new. After two months of the same-ol'-same-ol', branching out felt invigorating to the coaches and the players. In the Mountain West, they all can pretty much recite the game plans against any of the teams in their sleep.
Once their name flashed as a No. 6 seed, followed by Michigan as a No. 11 against the Rams, the wheels were in motion. Assistant Brian Cooley was assigned Michigan, Ali Farokhmanesh has Tennessee and Sam Jones Longwood.
"(Graduate assistant) Colin McGettigan goes gets the film, and there's a whole process that's already arranged," Farokhmanesh said after Monday's practice. "We all watch it. Like, I've watched four Michigan games already, so then I'll probably watch a little more and then start in on Tennessee."
Quite honestly, this is the fun part for the coaching staff.
On Sunday, the rush was real, for all of them. The race against the clock to get the information. The race against the clock to break it down, then teach it to the team. One team – Michigan – at first, with the breakdown on the other two possible opponents to follow.
"You get into coach mode. That's what you do," CSU head coach Niko Medved said. "That's part of the fun, though. The grind is part of the fun to get in there and try to prepare. Your guys will feel the same way, and that's what we'll do. We'll treat it as the next game in our season."
And the next game feels so unlike the past 20 games they've played. The familiarity was nice, to a degree. On defense. The Rams knew what to do. In meetings, they could basically recite what the coaches were about to tell them, like a high school kid ripping off their A-B-Cs – old hat.
On offense, it was frustrating. All that they knew defensively, so did their opponents. Farokhmanesh said it gets irritating listening to other Mountain West squads call out their plays as they are happening.
Right now, new feels good. Exciting.
"I think it's an awesome, fresh start. It's a new season," post James Moors said. "They don't know about us, and we don't know about them, but that can work to our advantage like it did in non-conference. It's really fun. It was almost getting to the point where in the summer when we play against ourselves, the other teams know exactly what we're going to do. That's refreshing, and that's going to be fun."
What they've seen of Michigan on tape doesn't fit into an exact match in the Mountain West. Not in terms of system, not in roster make up. But there are slivers of similarities.
Hunter Dickinson, at 7-foot-1, who averages 18.x points and 8.x rebounds per game. The Wolverines have some length on defense, a balanced scoring attack with four players averaging in double figures. None of what makes Michigan the team it is (17-14 and 11-9 in an impressive Big Ten conference) is exactly what the Rams have seen before, but a lot of it is close.
They'll use those fragments as teaching tools, a way to trigger the memory of games gone by. They'll look for things the Wolverines have done against teams which seem similar to the Rams, too, to track how they react. That information will help, but it will be knew, and it's not like hearing the same story.
Time is still of the essence.
"We have to definitely be a lot more locked in for a team like this, because we only get a few days to prepare for them," Moors said. "This is pretty much all our first time looking at all these players, unlike San Diego State, who we've played all these years."
It's a little bit like the non-conference schedule – and that worked out really well. But just a little, not exactly. For the most part, the teams may have been new, but they were on the schedule for a while, with the exception of the Paradise Jam. Even then, the Rams could project a few months out and collect film and plan in advance.
This time, it was see the schedule on Sunday and get immediately to work. For Farokhmanesh, it not only provides an amazing opportunity for success, now and in the future.
"It's nice to see somebody else, a different style of play, too," he said. "I think even from growth in the coaching perspective, it's nice to see somebody else and learn a different style, learn a different system. In basketball, there's so many different ways to do it, and it's fun to go and see, OK, this is how Michigan runs a different style than anybody in our league. There are some similarities, but it's definitely different."
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