Feeling Ahead of the Game at the Start

First days aren't supposed to feel comfortable, yet Thursday's first official practice did.

It had something to do with the first-year descriptor being taken away from coach Ali Farokhmanesh, as well as some of his assistants in the Colorado State men's basketball program. Returning 105 starts from last season's roster was a big component, too.

But mostly, it wasn't really a first day, just the first day back. This team – all the returners and the newcomers – spent a good portion of their summer together moving through the awkward stage which comes with introductions.

"We spent a lot of time together this summer, even just like doing things outside of the court," guard Jase Butler said. "I feel like now it feels like we've been together for almost like six, seven months compared to like first official practice."

Farokhmanesh is different too. He evaluated himself, and his staff did the same. He said it from the start, that he wouldn't know what he didn't know, but now he does. He's had to make decisions and do it on the fly. Not just on the court but in meetings. He had to learn his head coach voice instead of that as an assistant. There were things he thought he couldn't do as a head coach which he missed, so he made time for them.

Doing so made it easier for him to move forward with the roster they assembled, and the players can see slight differences in his tone, even his mannerisms. Some tweaks were made offensively and defensively, but also in the way the Rams operate.

"In terms of staff though, just being more organized in terms of what everybody's roles were, and honestly that happens from year one to year two, too," he said. "I think I knew it, but I don't think until you go through it that we had so many new players, but we had seven new staff members too.

"So it was teaching the whole staff how we want things done, how we want to go about things. Now that just seems like a lot of those things are just happening. I talked about it before, kind of the automated decisions that I don't have to make anymore because we've got such a good staff in terms of I know that person's taking care of that, I know that person's taking care of this, and they do a great job. I don't have to micromanage any of these things."

All of those returning starts – which encompass every level of the team – feel like a security blanket. There's experience in the backcourt and in the post as well as the wing.

Automatically, when a drill starts, there is a large swath of the team that knows what it is supposed to look like, how it is supposed to be run and they act like it's all muscle memory.

At least that's how it felt.

"I would just say like you can kind of see our offense is ahead of where it was last year just because there's so much continuity," Butler said. "And then all the older guys are helping the younger guys kind of pick things up in the transfers. So it's been a lot more seamless in the transition."

When it comes to adding seven players (five freshmen and two transfers), the teaching isn't just being done by the coaches. The veterans spent the summer working with the newcomers, explaining the sets on both ends of the floor, as well as indoctrinating them into the culture of the team. The players will tell you the last part is the easiest, thanks to the types of people Farokhmanesh and his staff target.

Part of that culture is being welcoming in all aspects. It's not an ask, it's an expectation, one undertaken willingly as others did before them.

"Ali harps on that. That's something he harps on from the beginning, being a player-led team," center Kyle Jorgensen said. "Me and Rashaan (Mbemba) have been on teams, and we've seen that. Freshmen year, we had all those guys you can name off the list. So it's just trying to build that tradition and keep that tradition going."

The Rams have a month before they will play their first contest which counts, but they are looking forward to tests via scrimmages along the way. Playing against another team will help answer some questions, those which developed by watching the injected talent flow with those who were already here.

The break after summer workouts was welcomed and needed. It also made this day feel a bit special just to get going again, to start working toward the season.

But it also felt really familiar to them all, and that felt best.

"You can hit the ground running in a different way than we have in the past. It feels a little bit more like the years before where you have so much continuity," Farokhmanesh said. "You felt it from day one when Carey Booth's out there coaching the new guys.

"I don't think you can replace anything like that. We can get more talent and whatnot, but that continuity as a group, that camaraderie, that's what you want early on. Now we have to tell those guys we were two months ahead of a lot of people. Because we have that, how do we stay two months ahead of everybody?"

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