LAS VEGAS — Sometimes, a team can fight through all of the adversity thrown at them. They can reset halfway into the season and become one of the hottest teams in the conference. They can go through a lot, just for their season to end before they feel like it’s done.
In the Mountain West Tournament, it doesn’t matter what someone’s seed is or how well a team has performed recently; it comes down to each game. For Colorado State men’s basketball, it has won the past 9-of-10 games.
This had put the Rams on a high, but reality came crashing down in the quarterfinals of the MW Tournament against San Diego State. The Aztecs used what they learned from playing CSU twice this season and shut down the Rams’ offense, winning 71-62 Thursday.
“At the end of the day, you want to be a part of a team in a program that you care enough that you do feel (emotional), and that’s the journey you want to go through,” head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said. “Because there are other people that don’t get to experience that, right? You want to laugh, you want to cry, you want to have fun, you want to be sad. You want to experience all these emotions. … I thought we got to experience all of them.”
Seven seasons ago, Farokhmanesh joined the CSU men’s basketball team as an assistant coach. But with each year, he not only grew himself, but the program alongside former head coach Niko Medved.
Farokhmanesh’s presence only grew from there as he transitioned into associate head coach and helped to develop Division 1 players — David Roddy, Isaiah Stevens and Nique Clifford — into NBA weapons.
His ability to scout and develop talent made him the perfect choice to become CSU’s 21st head coach. And in his first year alone, he became the third coach in program history to hit 20 wins or more in a season.
“It can be the ups and downs that will make it hard, but it also makes it so rewarding at the end of the day,” Farokhmanesh said. “That’s why these guys are so emotional. That’s why they care. I’m lucky enough to be with a group of people that I get to experience that with.”
Although the loss stings, Farokhmanesh pointed out how many people there were to support him when it was all said and done. Before next season starts, a big thing CSU will figure out how to overcome is starting slow.
The Rams are no strangers to having a nonideal start, but Thursday’s game was slightly different. CSU hit the ground running and had very positive production, but it was downhill from there — especially in the last few minutes of the first half.
“It was everything we said it was going to be,” Farokhmanesh said. “I wish we would have had the last six minutes in the first half back.”
When the Rams went into halftime 12 points down, they knew it would be difficult to overcome the deficit and come out with the win. And just when fans in the green and gold had flashes of hope after a successful 3-pointer, SDSU would almost immediately take it away and score.
It didn’t help that the Thomas and Mack Center was flooded in Aztec red, while only a small section had CSU supporters.
“When you step between those lines, you kind of tune it all out; they had a great fan base,” Kyle Jorgensen said. “(We) just lean on each other. … this is a roller coaster season, and through it all, we were with each other.”
Although the Aztecs didn’t diminish CSU’s spirit, it did diminish the Rams’ chance to score in the paint. SDSU’s bigs were running the show, forcing the Rams to continue passing the ball around.
CSU finished with only eight points in the paint compared to the Aztecs’ 42.
By the time a Ram player was able to get their footing, the shot clock had already run out. Or, in the case that the buzzer hadn’t gone off, CSU would have a more than difficult time trying to break free from the Aztecs’ defense, get too frazzled and lose the rebound.
But the Rams did the score relatively close because of their 3-pointers. By the end of the night, CSU had 13 3’s compared to SDSU’s one.
Even though the Rams left Las Vegas disappointed after their MW season was forced to end, multiple players put up points and gave the Aztecs a good fight. Jase Butler has been CSU’s star throughout the MW Tournament, having the second-most points with 14 in Thursday’s matchup.
Carey Booth, who had a career-high of 22 points in CSU’s and SDSU’s previous matchup, couldn’t get the spark ignited Thursday. Instead of getting six powerful blocks like he did Feb. 21, he was only able to tack on one.
“I feel like their defense disrupted me,” Booth said. “Their defense disrupted everyone on our team.”
Brandon Rechsteiner was able to hit the most points of anyone who saw action, hitting four points over his average per game with 16. But even his contribution couldn’t keep the Rams afloat.
As the game drew to a close, CSU tried to be scrappy and see if it would work again — as it did against Fresno State — but all that came of it was missed shots. The Rams ended the matchup shooting 33.3%.
For a second, it seemed as if CSU had a glimmer of hope when SDSU kept missing its free throws — shooting a 46.7% in the second half — but the Rams would try to rush back and shoot, but instead, turn the ball back over to the Aztecs.
The last few minutes were the most painful for CSU as the clock barely ticked down since SDSU was constantly at the free-throw line. Booth ended up fouling out, and Butler, Jevin Muniz and Jojo McIver were all in foul trouble.
SDSU wasn’t too productive in the end, though, as it didn’t score a single field goal for almost the last seven minutes.
Although it wasn’t an ideal ending for the Rams, their MW time has come to a close, and after the season officially ends, they will join the Pac-12 along with several other current MW teams. As for senior Muniz, Thursday’s matchup will be his last game as a Ram unless they make it to the National Invitation Tournament.
“They are competitors, and the way they responded in there, I think you only get so many chances to play basketball,” Farokhmanesh said. “I think sometimes you lose sight of that. Once it’s done, it’s done. There’s no going back. Any chance you get to compete and play, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to do that.”
Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on social media @sophgwebb.
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