Colorado State University Athletics
Rams, Old and New, Feel Right at Home
9/26/2025 1:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Traditionally, transfers have made an impact for Williams
Over the years, Ryun Williams hasn't been afraid to turnover his roster, probably acclimating he and his program to the direction college basketball was headed with the free-flowing ways of the transfer portal.
In four of the past five seasons, it has been a Colorado State transfer who was named Mountain West Newcomer of the Year, dating back to McKenna Hofschild's arrival for the 2020-21 campaign. Twice, he's had transfers eventually named the Player of the Year – Hofschild and Gritt Ryder back in 2015.
He brings them in based on what they've shown, but also off of what they feel they haven't been able to show at a previous stop. He gives them all a chance to prove they can be something more as a Ram.
We know what they did at their previous school, but it's more about seeing they really fit what we do here. You know, yes, their character, their personality, their team-first mentality, but also their skill set, he said. You might only see it a handful of times because they didn't get on the floor all that much at their previous school, but I think we've done a nice job of just kind of seeing the strengths in our transfers, and then obviously there's more opportunity here. We put them in good positions, and they produce, so it's more about, yeah, we see what they can become here.
Welcome to the fold a trio for the upcoming season. Lexus Bargesser will bring depth to the guard, while Madelyn Bragg and Lexi Deden will add punch to the front line.
When leaving one school for another, the top desire for the player is to find opportunity. Maybe it is simply to play more, possibly a bigger role. Bargesser wanted all that leaving Indiana, but she also wanted to prove she could offer more in terms of scoring than the Hoosiers asked of her.
Part of her research was seeing what prior transfers had accomplished at CSU.
I knew that he had a bunch of newcomers of the year and a lot of success with transfers and that definitely drew my eye because I'm like, he must be doing something right, Bargesser said. Aside from that, I really just was trying to focus on what game fit me the best, what team would fit me the best, and I really found that here through our conversations we had, through film that we watched, and I really believed in that and bought into that.
Through the summer work and early this first official week of practice, it's clear the trio will impact the rotation. However, the cupboard wasn't bare before their arrival, and the rotation was looking pretty good with who was returning.
Hannah Ronsiek, an All-Mountain West defensive team selection, has started 64 times in her career, entering the season with 62 consecutive. Marta Leimane has started 37 games, and the roster features two freshmen – Kloe Froebe and Brooke Carlson – who both had highly productive debut seasons.
Just as he gives his transfers a chance to transform themselves, he affords his returners to do the same. You showed us this, but what else can you bring? Where can you improve?
Just a lot more hard work, dedication, Carlson said of her summer vacation. We worked really, really hard last year to get where we're at, but that's never enough because you've gotta get better every single season because that's what your teammates are expecting, your coaches are expecting, the community. We're in here every single morning getting our work in. We come in after practice and it's just a grind but you gotta love it.
It's figuring out just within myself what I'm capable of because sometimes obviously last year I'd get worked up a little bit, get sped up, so figuring out that difference between slowing down, when to push it and I've worked on that a lot during the summer. I'm excited to see it translate this season.
Combined, Froebe and Carlson started 33 games, averaged 16.3 points per game. Froebe was thing on the team in rebounding but led the squad in offensive boards (60) by a landslide; Carlson was one assist behind Emma, doing so averaging nearly 17 less minutes per game.
That's where I really like this group. They buy into that film room and make the corrections. They were really good freshmen, and they were really good defensively for us, but they're more familiar with kind of the intricacies of a defensive system, and probably how it changes from night to night, you know, Williams said. How you guard Vegas is not the same way you're going to guard Wyoming, and young kids do struggle with just that, but they won't struggle with that this year.
The Rams have a bit more than a month to put the pieces in place before Weber State visits Moby Arena to offer up the first official resistance on Nov. 4. Time has been spent working individually to get better, now the next month is bringing it together.
Mix and match the versatility the Rams believe they possess; blend the forms of experience they have from whatever court it was gained. Bargesser said the team made it easy for those new to the program to inject their authentic personalities to the equation from the jump.
They've been accepted and embraced, even beyond the locker room. Booster Ed DeCourcey visited practice as he often does, bringing donuts. As he spoke to the team about the why, it seemed Bargesser was being singled out in a bad way – no donuts for her. Instead, he remembered an earlier conversation with her, a craving for a cherry-filled Bismark.
That's when he produced the bag, especially for her – a cherry-filled Bismark inside.
I was like so excited. Never have I been given a donut, Bargesser said. Never did I know it was OK to eat a donut after practice. That's so sweet of Ed.
At Colorado State, Williams allows for things to be a bit different. That goes for his players, whether they're adding to what they've shown in a CSU uniform or what they bring to the table from afar.
