Colorado State University Athletics

Wednesday, February 21
Albuquerque, NM
8:00 PM

Colorado State

at

New Mexico

Joel Scott

Rams Face Road Test at New Mexico

2/20/2024 11:49:00 AM | Men's Basketball

No. 22/24 Colorado State aims for road win at The Pit

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State men's basketball looks to be road warriors this week with a pair of games away from Moby Arena starting on Wednesday against New Mexico at 8 pm.

Opening Tip
- Colorado State's defeated league leader Utah State 75-55 on Saturday in front of a sold out Moby Arena.
- The win was the 20th of the year for CSU. It is the fourth time in five years the Rams have won 20 games.
- Head coach Niko Medved became the first coach in program history to win 20-plus games four times.
- The Rams are 14-1 inside Moby Arena this season. The lone loss coming to Saint Mary's in December.
- The 14 wins inside Moby this season tie for the second most in program history with the 2011-12 and 2021-22 seasons.
- Isaiah Stevens became the program's all-time leader in made 3s on Saturday passing Andy Birley (1999-03).
- Head coach Niko Medved is in his sixth year leading Colorado State. He is 111-69 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 was named one of the 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award. It's the second time in his career earning the honor.
- Stevens became the second Ram in three years to earn a spot on the Naismith Midseason team announced earlier this week.
- He sits in the top 5 for active players in both scoring (3rd) and assists (1st).
- Stevens has four double-doubles on the year and already reset one of his own records when he posted 14 assists against Wright State. He is averaging 16.2 points, 7.4 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 47.5% from the field and 46.7% 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 2,194.
- Newcomer Joel Scott continues to be a big presence inside for CSU averaging 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds.
- He set the tone for the Rams against Utah State scoring the first seven points and finishing with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
- Nique Clifford has enjoyed his time in Fort Collins transferring to Colorado State from Colorado. He is shooting an impressive 56.0% from the field including 40.8% from behind the arc on his way to averaging 13.0 points and 7.1 rebounds.
- Patrick Cartier missed two games for Colorado State, but since returning has not missed a beat. He is averaging 11.4 points on 55.4% 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 (2,194), Patrick Cartier (2,314) and Joel Scott (2,778).
- Colorado State leads the Mountain West in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.85), assists per game (19.2), effective field goal percentage (56.8%), field goal percentage (49.8%) and free throw percentage (76.6%).

Scouting the Lobos
New Mexico has one of the top home courts in the nation in The Pit holding an 11-2 record their this season.

The guard trio of Jaelen House, Donovan Dent and Jamal Mashburn Jr make UNM tough to defend averaging 15.4, 15.9 and 14.6 points per game. Dent is also dishing out 5.6 assists per game while House brings the pressure on defense against the opponent's top guard.

Freshman JT Toppin has been hard to guard inside averaging 12.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

What's Ahead
The Rams stay on the road for the weekend heading to Las Vegas to face UNLV at 6 pm on Saturday.

Players Mentioned

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