Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Wyoming
Rams Head North for Border War
1/26/2024 2:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Colorado State takes on Wyoming Saturday afternoon for round one of the Border War
FORT COLLINS – Colorado State men's basketball heads just up the road on Saturday for round one of the Border War. CSU and Wyoming tip-off inside Arena Auditorium at 2 pm.
Opening Tip
- Colorado State continues to search for its first road conference win of the year after dropping Wednesday night's game at Nevada, 77-64.
- The Rams returned to the polls this week at No. 24 in the Associated Press and No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches poll. CSU was outside the top 25 last week for the first time in a program record seven weeks.
- Head coach Niko Medved is in his sixth year leading Colorado State. He is 107-68 as the Rams' head coach. The win on December 2 against Washington was the 100th for him leading the Green & Gold. Medved is now one of five coaches in the program's history to reach the 100 wins mark.
- Isaiah Stevens returns for his final year of eligibility and the nation is taking notice of the guard. Stevens was named the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, Wooden Top 50 Preseason List and one of 20 players named to the Bob Cousy Preseason Watch List. He has added on the Wooden Midseason Top 25 and Lute Olson Midseason Watch List.
- He sits in the top 5 for active players in both scoring (3rd) and assists (2nd).
- Stevens has three double-doubles on the year and already reset one of his own records when he posted 14 assists against Wright State. He is averaging 16.7 points, 7.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 49.4% from the field and 44.4% behind the arc.
- He became the program's all-time leading scorer against LMU (Dec. 22) when he passed Pat Durham (1985-89) and his 1,980 points.
- Stevens surpassed the 2,000 point mark with his first basket against New Mexico (Jan. 2) and currently sits at 2,091.
- In the team's two wins last week he went into Zay Mode late scoring or assisting on 24 or the Rams' 28 points against Air Force and 16 of the last 20 points against UNLV.
- Newcomer Joel Scott continues to be a big presence inside for CSU averaging 11.4 points and 5.7 rebounds.
- Nique Clifford has enjoyed his time in Fort Collins transferring to Colorado State from Colorado. He is shooting an impressive 59.1% from the field including 50.9% from behind the arc on his way to averaging 13.6 points and 6.5 rebounds.
- Patrick Cartier missed two games for Colorado State, but since returning has not missed a beat. He is averaging 11.8 points on 56.9% shooting.
- CSU is the only program across all of collegiate men's basketball with not two, but three 2,000 point scorers on their roster. The trio is Isaiah Stevens (2,091), Patrick Cartier (2,242) and Joel Scott (2,688).
- Colorado State leads the Mountain West in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.88), assists per game (19.6), effective field goal percentage (58.0%), field goal percentage (50.7%) and free throw percentage (76.1%).
Scouting the Cowboys
It is a new look Wyoming team from last year as the majority of the roster turned over for head coach Jeff Linder. The Cowboys enter Saturday's game 10-9 overall and 3-3 in Mountain West play.
Wyoming has protected its home court well this season at 7-1 including 3-0 during conference play.
Sam Griffin leads the team averaging 18.4 points and 3.6 assists per game. Akuel Kot (15.1) and Mason Walters (12.3) are also averaging double figures scoring.
What's Ahead
It's State Pride Night on Tuesday when Colorado State welcomes San Diego State to Moby Arena at 7 pm.
