Following a valiant team effort in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown win, Colorado State men’s basketball switched up the gameplan for Dartmouth Tuesday. The Rams claimed another victory at home 76-55, behind head coach Ali Farokhmanesh’s goal of holding Dartmouth under 60 points, which they achieved while adjusting their offense to breakaway down the stretch.
While Dartmouth was not a looming threat coming in, Farokhmanesh and the team still were not satisfied.
Rams spread the wealth, figure out how to score
The season is young, but CSU’s early offensive success has clearly alerted opponents. Dartmouth switched coverages all night, but CSU still found answers.
The Rams finished with five players in double figures and 22 bench points.
Brandon Rechsteiner led the team with 14 points — which he accumulated solely from the first half — Kyle Jorgensen added 12 on 6-of-9 shooting and Jevin Muniz chipped in 11 with a team-high four assists and five rebounds. Carey Booth pulled in seven rebounds and hit a three in a calm 7-point outing.
Farokhmanesh credited their exposure to every style of defense so far.
“Our scout team does a phenomenal job of doing that like they mix up switching versus not switching, versus hard hedging, versus fronting the post, versus denying passes, denying passing lanes, locking on Josh (Pascarelli),” Farokhmanesh said. “So our scouts did such a good job of preparing them for different looks that most of the time. I mean, we’ve seen almost every defense, and we’re only nine games into the season.”
Farokhmanesh looks to improve defense
Even with the comfortable finish, CSU’s coach said there are still areas to sharpen.
“It’s not that they’re not (meeting expectations defensively); it’s just (been) eight and a half out of 10 times, and that’s not good enough for where you want to get to,” Farokhmanesh said. “And I’m not lowering the standard, and I don’t think they want me to either, though.”
Without defensive anchor Rashaan Mbemba still, CSU will rely even more on connected team defense.
“(Mbemba) is out for the foreseeable future, but he’s moving around now,” Farokhmanesh said. “He started rehabbing it on Sunday, so there’s a possibility he’s back by Utah State, since it’s still a ways out, but he’ll be back before … I’ll guess January.”
Farokhmanesh said the group lacks elite individual stoppers but believes they can still reach a strong level together.
“We don’t have a Nique Clifford, we don’t have a Jalen Lake, like, those are some pretty elite individual defenders,” Farokhmanesh said. “And so we might not have elite individual defenders, but we have to be a better team defensively then, too. And so our communication has to get better … we have to be on the same page constantly.”
CSU limits key Dartmouth players effectively
Dartmouth’s Kareem Thomas came in averaging 20 points per game, but CSU closed off most of his early looks. He finished with 12 on only seven shot attempts and did not find much space. The same went for forward Brandon Mitchell-Day, who started the game hot.
Farokhmanesh said what CSU showed was meaningful progress.
“I can’t stick to the process of it and say that we’re a process oriented group, if I’m not celebrating the small steps that we’re growing into,” Farokhmanesh said. “So absolutely, I mean, (Thomas) had 27 at Wyoming the other night, so I thought we actually did do a really good job on him.”
“And I was worried about Brandon Mitchell-Day, like he’s a good player, and I thought we actually kind of kept him in check for the most part. Every every basket he made was was tough tonight. So for their main guys, I actually thought we did do a good job on them.”
Dartmouth shot 40% from the field and 31% from deep, but CSU held them to just 24 first-half points and forced 15 turnovers. The Rams also finished with 13 steals as a group.
3-point shooting ramps up
The Rams took what Dartmouth’s defense gave them and shot a cleaner, more composed game from deep. CSU attempted only 18 threes, almost half of what they put up against Colorado on Saturday, shooting only 25% at one point and ultimately knocking down seven at a 39% clip.
It was not a night where CSU relied on the long ball to pull away. Instead, the shots came in rhythm and off good ball movement. Five different Rams hit a three, and the team shot 61% overall from the field.
Farokhmanesh said their preparation did not totally match what Dartmouth ran.
“We planned for a three-two zone, because they basically played 85% of the game versus Wyoming in that,” Farokhmanesh said. “And then they didn’t against us at all. So part of that was on me and the preparation for it, but I felt like we had to be ready for the three-two, just because we hadn’t seen zone up until this point. But I’m glad we got the win, and we won by a good margin, and the guys responded in the second half..”
Up next
The Rams get a short break before continuing non conference play against Northern New Mexico and preparing for a Mountain West slate that will likely demand even more growth.
Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.
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