Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
1-0,0-0Mountain West
Incarnate Word
0-1,0-0Southland
Rams Find Their Balance in Dominant Fashion
11/3/2025 10:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Colorado State pushed past the early nerves and rolled to a 98–64 victory
There's a first time for everything, while it didn't look like one.
Firsts can be shaky and unpredictable—like getting a bike off training wheels—but in Colorado State basketball's case, the first game of the regular season against Incarnate Word showed that the season opener can make as much a statement as you want it to.
Ending 98-64 the Rams separated themselves early never allowing the Cardinals to take the lead.
Nerves were obviously going to be part of the equation but as first-year coach Ali Farokhmanesh highlighted, they're there for a reason.
"I knew they were nervous when Darnez Slater literally tripped and fell over his own feet at shoot around," Farokhmanesh said. "So they were nervous. And that's normal. We talked about that, too. Allow yourself to feel those feelings and then let it pass through you. Then there's a calmness that will come over you. And I think that happened as the game went on, but they had to feel it, too. I would love to take those nerves away from them, but that's part of basketball."
However, winning while pushing through those nerves makes the end all the more exciting. Because, eventually, the team looked less like one taking its first ride and more like a group that had played ten games together both offensively and defensively.
If anything was for sure, CSU kept moving the ball around in important ways. Ending the night with 22 assists compared to UIW's eight, spreading the wealth kept the Cardinals questioning where the next shot was coming from.
"I think that's been a big point of our offense for years now in this program," Kyle Jorgensen said. "I think just the way we play when you have teammates that buy in every day like us. And it makes you want to play with these guys even more and share the ball. And it's a fun way to play, to be honest. When everyone's scoring, everyone's hitting, I can't really complain."
When someone like Jorgenson is in the paint or Brandon Rechsteiner setting things up on the perimeter, picking the moment comes down to who can rise up to it. By the end of the night that was everyone. Even Charlie Dortch, who made his way to floor in the last two minutes, found his way to the rim.
The depth speaks for itself.
"You don't necessarily know if those things are going to happen," Farokhmanesh said. "But, I mean, we got contributions from everybody. Anyone that came in gave a spark off the bench and gave us something. And it's going to have to be like that all season long when your number is called. You don't know from night to night, and that is hard to deal with. But I think that's the best opportunity for our team to find success, is everybody staying ready and being ready for the opportunity when their number is called."
Rebound-wise the Rams took advantage of every opportunity and continued to be aggressive in the paint ending with almost double that of the Cardinals at 43 rebounds.
Jorgensen, despite only being a sophomore, carried the wisdom of a championship run. Because even with Rashaan Mbemba out, his paint presence put it over the top with nine rebounds. Winning the rebound game helped on the fast break too, earning 15 points in that sector.
But no matter the stats or final score, consistency remains something the roster always looks to.
"We know it's just one game," Rechsteiner said. "We have a long way to go. So, I mean, we never get high, never get too low. We were kind of playing like it was tied and trying to play every medium, like trying to win each medium."
That mindset said a lot about the group's character. Even with a near triple-digit performance, the Rams didn't treat it like they'd arrived, but like they'd just begun.
Still, the win meant something deeper for the players who have been here since Farokhmanesh was an assistant.
"It means everything to me," Jorgensen said. "It's because of how much belief I have in him and just how much faith he puts in all of us. We really want to go out there and play for him. I mean, he's a big reason why I stayed. He's somebody I go to for everything because he's not even just a coach. He's a mentor."
The mentor had his fair share of emotional moments all week. Whether it was pregame messages from former players or the winning game ball presented by John Weber after the showing; it was all culminating into something he knows has been there all along.
And yet, even for Farokhmanesh, this first time carried its own kind of learning curve. The preparation, the anticipation, the unknowns—it was all part of the same process his players went through. Just like them, he had to settle into his rhythm.
"Sometimes you work so hard for something, and it doesn't necessarily show up the way you want it to," Farokhmanesh said. "And that kind of happened at Creighton. We did some great things. But I thought tonight, it really showed up with the way they had played the last month and a half. So, I was really proud of them for sticking to what we've been doing. And I think they earned the win and they played the way that they wanted to."
In that way, the opener wasn't just the first game of the season but was the first real glimpse of what this new era might look like.
Like taking off the training wheels, the early wobble gave way to balance, and the ride only smoothed out from there.
