The Colorado State women’s basketball team announced its nonconference schedule for the 2017-18 season Wednesday. Highlighted by home games with Brigham Young University, Colorado, Gonzaga and Oklahoma, the Rams are slated to play 12 games before beginning Mountain West play in late December.
Coming off of four consecutive Mountain West championships, the standard for women’s basketball has shifted under head coach Ryun Williams. The 2017-18 schedule reflects this, as the Rams will face three teams that qualified for the 2017 NCAA Women’s College Basketball Tournament. Two of which (Gonzaga and Oklahoma), CSU will host as part of their out of conference schedule.
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Williams’ Rams will take the floor for the first time this season with an exhibition contest against the University of Colorado (Colorado Springs) on Nov. 1. Nine days later, CSU will host the University of Idaho (Nov. 10) for their first regular season game of the season.
The matchup with the Vandals will be the first of six consecutive games at Moby Arena to start the season. CSU will host Gonzaga on Monday, Nov. 13, before squaring off with Eastern New Mexico (Nov. 16), Oklahoma (Nov. 21) and North Carolina Central (Nov. 25).
After traveling to the University of Denver for the first road game of the season on Nov. 30, the Rams open up December with a pair of high profile games, starting with BYU on Saturday, Dec. 2. The matchup with the Cougars will a be “white out” game, meaning students and fans will be encouraged to dress in all white.
Less than one week later, the University of Colorado will travel to Fort Collins for the women’s basketball edition of the Rocky Mountain Showdown (Dec. 6). Along with the added excitement of being an in-state rivalry game, the match will also be the team’s annual “Orange Out” game in celebration of CSU’s agricultural roots.
The Rams will then play their final road game of the nonconference portion of the schedule at the University of Northern Colorado on Dec. 10. CSU closes the OOC schedule with home games against Prairie View A&M (Dec. 18) and Morgan State (Dec. 21).
The schedule is not the only CSU women’s basketball news this week. Williams also finalized his staff with the promotion of Amanda Cunningham and hiring of both Carissa Thielbar and Brooke Butkovsky.
2017-18 Colorado State Women’s Basketball Schedule:
Wednesday, Nov. 1 – UCCS (exhib.) – 7 p.m. MT
Friday, Nov. 10 – IDAHO – TBA
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Monday, Nov. 13 – GONZAGA – 6 p.m. MT
Thursday, Nov. 16 – EASTERN NEW MEXICO – 7 p.m. MT
Tuesday, Nov. 21 – OKLAHOMA – 7 p.m. MT
Saturday, Nov. 25 – NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL – 4 p.m. MT
Thursday, Nov. 30 – at Denver – TBA
Saturday, Dec. 2 – BYU – 3:30 p.m. MT
Wednesday, Dec. 6 – COLORADO – 7 p.m. MT
Sunday, Dec. 10 – at Northern Colorado – TBA
Monday, Dec. 18 – PRAIRIE VIEW A&M – 7 p.m. MT
Thursday, Dec. 21 – MORGAN STATE – 12 p.m. MT
* Thursday, Dec. 28 – BOISE STATE – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Dec. 30 – SAN JOSE STATE – 2 p.m. MT
* Wednesday, Jan. 3 – at San Diego State – 7:30 p.m. MT/6:30 p.m. PT
* Saturday, Jan. 6 – at Fresno State – TBA
* Wednesday, Jan. 10 – UTAH STATE – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Jan. 13 – WYOMING – 2 p.m. MT
* Wednesday, Jan. 17 – at Air Force – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Jan. 20 – at UNLV – 4 p.m. MT/3 p.m. PT
* Wednesday, Jan. 24 – SAN DIEGO STATE – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Jan. 27 – NEW MEXICO – 2 p.m. MT
* Wednesday, Jan. 31 – at Wyoming – TBA
* Saturday, Feb. 3 – at Nevada – 3 p.m. MT/2 p.m. PT
* Wednesday, Feb. 7 – AIR FORCE – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Feb. 10 – at San Jose State – 3 p.m. MT/2 p.m. PT
* Saturday, Feb. 17 – FRESNO STATE – 2 p.m. MT
* Wednesday, Feb. 21 – at Boise State – 7 p.m. MT
* Saturday, Feb. 24 – NEVADA – 2 p.m. MT
* Tuesday, Feb. 27 – at New Mexico – TBA
* – Mountain West game
Collegian sports director Justin Michael can be reached by email at jmichael@collegian.com or Twitter @JustinTMichael.
