Colorado State University Athletics
Tuesday, January 6
Fort Collins, CO
7:00 p.m.
Colorado State
10-5,1-3Mountain West
70
vs
80
New Mexico
12-3,3-1Mountain West
1
2
F
New Mexico
39
41
80
Colorado St.
30
40
70
Sluggish Night Stymies Rams at Moby
1/6/2026 10:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball
New Mexico pressure sets tone in CSU loss
A slow start isn't impossible to overcome. Over the course of 40 minutes, a shot of energy, a bit of adrenaline can override a lot on a basketball court.
Unless a spark never ignites. Colorado State's first offensive possession ended with a shot-clock violation. A few more would follow. So would a drove of first-half turnovers, leading to easy New Mexico buckets. While the Lobos never ran away Tuesday night, an arm's length of comfort is how they spent the evening at Moby Arena, leading to an 80-70 victory, dropping the Rams to 1-3 in Mountain West play, 10-5 overall.
While that was a theme for the night, the Rams feel it's been a trend in their five losses.
"I feel like just, we've got to be better at the start of the games," Augustinas Kiudulas said. "We've just got to start off strong because I just feel like the way we started just kind of sets the whole tone for the game, so we've just got to be better there."
So, how to stop it if it's been happening. To coach Ali Farokhmanesh, it isn't anything systematically – though that can bleed in – it's more in the head.
Curious too, because he felt like his team knew what was coming in New Mexico's high-pressure defense. Curious too, because in those five losses and slow starts, each has come against a defense which applies persistent pressure.
"I think that's partly on us though as a staff too. I think we have to know what our guys need day in and day out," Farokhmanesh said. "And we know them by now. I think that's what we do better than a lot of other places is we truly get to know our guys, and so we know what they need and I think we got to do a better job of kind of setting that tone and helping them get there.
"Because like I've said before, I love the group that we have. Right now, we don't have a lot of experience playing in these games where you're playing these atmospheres and competing for NCAA tournament bids. There's a different level of intensity that comes with that. So I think as staff, we have to help them get there. They don't know what they don't know yet. And we got to help them grow in that aspect, and there's definitely some schematic stuff that we got to help them with too. But at the end of the day, I love the group that we have, and I love our guys' fight. We just got to get them to fight from the start of the game."
Playing with a deficit to overcome nearly the entire game, the Rams never could find a way to string things together, on either end of the floor or collectively, which is required to overcome. A 5-0 run was the best they could muster.
Make a basket, give up a 3. The Lobos shoot more of them than any team in the league, but they were defter at making them against the Rams – 11-of-25 – hitting at a 44 percent clip, about 12 percentage points better than their average.
The Rams make more of them than any team in the conference, but they never really found the mark; just 7-of-25, about 14 percent worse than normal. Even still, there were points in the game where putting a stop together with a basket would have made the game more interesting.
CSU reached enticing a couple of times, never more so than in the final three minutes. Down 74-68, the Rams put together a pair of stops but never dropped the ball in the net in the next to possessions. The second resulted in the 14th turnover of the night, leading to a breakaway dunk by Antonio Chol, giving the Lobos 21 points off CSU miscues.
Pressure is coming, which the Rams knew, which makes taking care of the ball paramount.
"At the end of the day, you've got to be tougher with the ball in your hands. I thought we left our teammates on islands sometimes, and I thought that they were allowed to get free pressure," Farokhmanesh said. "We've got to do a better job as a group and we've got to have the right mindset going into the game and know what's coming because I think at this point, we pretty much know what most defenses are going to try to do to us."
Kiudulas is figuring some things out himself. A power forward by nature, he's been playing in the post to account for injuries to Rashaan Mbemba and Kyle Jorgensen. Farokhmanesh said after spending the build up for the season learning one pattern, the past two weeks they've thrown something entirely new on him.
Kudos to him for taking it as it comes. He led the Rams with a season-best 20 points in the contest, giving him 35 the past two games. Defensively, he's battled bigger foes.
"I played as a four, and I was a five," he said. "I mean, I just feel like when the fours and the fives are kind of similar, just physical is strong, so I don't feel like there's some kind of a big change really."
Jase Butler came off the bench to score 14, while Brandon Rechsteiner added 13. For Butler, 12 of those came in the second half, but it was the defensive lapses which stung the most.
"They forced a lot of turnovers, and I think that's one of the things Ali talked about, we've just got to win the turnover battle. Tonight we didn't," Butler said. "And when we actually got back and set our defense up, I thought we did a pretty good job most times, but they scored a lot of points.
"I mean, 21 points off turnovers, that's not good enough for us."
The first step to correction is recognizing a flaw. The next steps are going to be important because other teams have seen it too, and they'll try to take advantage.
As Farokhmanesh noted, with a game Friday, there's no time to waste when it comes to the matters of the mind. For the players, that means from the jump.
"I think almost now all five of our losses are kind of teams that really pressure us, so I think we've just got to do a better job of being strong, and we're going to see that a lot going forward," Butler said. "So, we've got to make adjustments so we can right away pull these ones up."
Unless a spark never ignites. Colorado State's first offensive possession ended with a shot-clock violation. A few more would follow. So would a drove of first-half turnovers, leading to easy New Mexico buckets. While the Lobos never ran away Tuesday night, an arm's length of comfort is how they spent the evening at Moby Arena, leading to an 80-70 victory, dropping the Rams to 1-3 in Mountain West play, 10-5 overall.
While that was a theme for the night, the Rams feel it's been a trend in their five losses.
"I feel like just, we've got to be better at the start of the games," Augustinas Kiudulas said. "We've just got to start off strong because I just feel like the way we started just kind of sets the whole tone for the game, so we've just got to be better there."
So, how to stop it if it's been happening. To coach Ali Farokhmanesh, it isn't anything systematically – though that can bleed in – it's more in the head.
Curious too, because he felt like his team knew what was coming in New Mexico's high-pressure defense. Curious too, because in those five losses and slow starts, each has come against a defense which applies persistent pressure.
"I think that's partly on us though as a staff too. I think we have to know what our guys need day in and day out," Farokhmanesh said. "And we know them by now. I think that's what we do better than a lot of other places is we truly get to know our guys, and so we know what they need and I think we got to do a better job of kind of setting that tone and helping them get there.
"Because like I've said before, I love the group that we have. Right now, we don't have a lot of experience playing in these games where you're playing these atmospheres and competing for NCAA tournament bids. There's a different level of intensity that comes with that. So I think as staff, we have to help them get there. They don't know what they don't know yet. And we got to help them grow in that aspect, and there's definitely some schematic stuff that we got to help them with too. But at the end of the day, I love the group that we have, and I love our guys' fight. We just got to get them to fight from the start of the game."
Playing with a deficit to overcome nearly the entire game, the Rams never could find a way to string things together, on either end of the floor or collectively, which is required to overcome. A 5-0 run was the best they could muster.
Make a basket, give up a 3. The Lobos shoot more of them than any team in the league, but they were defter at making them against the Rams – 11-of-25 – hitting at a 44 percent clip, about 12 percentage points better than their average.
The Rams make more of them than any team in the conference, but they never really found the mark; just 7-of-25, about 14 percent worse than normal. Even still, there were points in the game where putting a stop together with a basket would have made the game more interesting.
CSU reached enticing a couple of times, never more so than in the final three minutes. Down 74-68, the Rams put together a pair of stops but never dropped the ball in the net in the next to possessions. The second resulted in the 14th turnover of the night, leading to a breakaway dunk by Antonio Chol, giving the Lobos 21 points off CSU miscues.
Pressure is coming, which the Rams knew, which makes taking care of the ball paramount.
"At the end of the day, you've got to be tougher with the ball in your hands. I thought we left our teammates on islands sometimes, and I thought that they were allowed to get free pressure," Farokhmanesh said. "We've got to do a better job as a group and we've got to have the right mindset going into the game and know what's coming because I think at this point, we pretty much know what most defenses are going to try to do to us."
Kiudulas is figuring some things out himself. A power forward by nature, he's been playing in the post to account for injuries to Rashaan Mbemba and Kyle Jorgensen. Farokhmanesh said after spending the build up for the season learning one pattern, the past two weeks they've thrown something entirely new on him.
Kudos to him for taking it as it comes. He led the Rams with a season-best 20 points in the contest, giving him 35 the past two games. Defensively, he's battled bigger foes.
"I played as a four, and I was a five," he said. "I mean, I just feel like when the fours and the fives are kind of similar, just physical is strong, so I don't feel like there's some kind of a big change really."
Jase Butler came off the bench to score 14, while Brandon Rechsteiner added 13. For Butler, 12 of those came in the second half, but it was the defensive lapses which stung the most.
"They forced a lot of turnovers, and I think that's one of the things Ali talked about, we've just got to win the turnover battle. Tonight we didn't," Butler said. "And when we actually got back and set our defense up, I thought we did a pretty good job most times, but they scored a lot of points.
"I mean, 21 points off turnovers, that's not good enough for us."
The first step to correction is recognizing a flaw. The next steps are going to be important because other teams have seen it too, and they'll try to take advantage.
As Farokhmanesh noted, with a game Friday, there's no time to waste when it comes to the matters of the mind. For the players, that means from the jump.
"I think almost now all five of our losses are kind of teams that really pressure us, so I think we've just got to do a better job of being strong, and we're going to see that a lot going forward," Butler said. "So, we've got to make adjustments so we can right away pull these ones up."
Team Stats
UNM
CSU
FG%
.528
.458
3FG%
.440
.280
FT%
.619
.818
RB
31
31
TO
10
14
STL
6
3
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
3
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
13
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballColorado State Basketball (M): Ali Farokhmanesh Post-Game (New Mexico)
Tuesday, January 06
Colorado State Basketball (M): Jase Butler (L) & Auggie Kiudulas (R) Post-Game (New Mexico)
Tuesday, January 06
Colorado State Basketball (M): Ali Farkohmanesh Post-Game (Nevada)
Tuesday, December 30
Colorado State Basketball (M): Brandon Rechsteiner (L) & Jevin Muniz (R) Post-Game (Nevada)
Tuesday, December 30