LAS VEGAS — For the first time in over two decades, Colorado State is the Mountain West Tournament champion for men’s basketball.
Behind a commanding performance from Nique Clifford and sparks from Bowen Born and Ethan Morton, the Rams overpowered Boise State, securing an automatic NCAA Tournament berth. The Rams came out on top 69-56 Saturday, coasting through the second half. Clifford claimed MWC Most Valuable Player honors off a tournament double-double average of 25 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
With the Rams’ postseason run extending, so did Clifford’s impact — and with it, his NBA draft stock.
“I mean, he’s an all-time (CSU) great,” coach Niko Medved said. “He really is. … I think the dust needs to settle on it, but he’s one of the best to ever do it here. Just look at how he’s grown and gotten better, and (to see) just how he’s led us this season in so many big moments. I mean, his performance at Boise last game in the regular season and his performance in this tournament. It’s really been incredible, and he does it in such an unselfish manner.”
The NBA prospect reveled in the moment — especially given the public perception of this team earlier in the year.
“People didn’t believe in us,” Clifford said. “They still doubted us, and we just stuck together, continued to work every single day and trusted in coach’s plan. And we just (saw) the vision the whole year. And I think we just worked toward that, and it’s finally, finally come true. So, it’s surreal.”
CSU is the hottest team in the MW, and it might have a chance to continue to prove doubters wrong during March Madness. Following the championship, it seems like Medved is deserving of MW Coach of the Year after all as his team not only won it all, but it also clawed its way up from a seventh-place conference preseason ranking. Of course, no committee predicted such a historic ending for the Rams.
The fanfare engulfing the team in Thomas and Mack Center was a stark contrast to the disappointment of a ruined December and forgettable Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado. Back then, the team was at an all-time low.
As a four-year member of the team, Jalen Lake believed in the staff at CSU and was willing to do whatever it took to improve.
“I remember coach Medved saying, before Christmas break, ‘This is where teams get better,'” Lake said. “Everybody makes the biggest jump around Christmas break. And we really took that to heart, and we went to work every day. We didn’t look into the future, we didn’t look behind us. We just kept focused and tried to get better (at) what we can do each and every day.”
This season’s success didn’t come naturally, but the Rams developed their relationships in the best way possible: through thick and thin. For graduate transfers like Morton and Born, this last year was one final opportunity. Surrounding themselves with others who had already bought in to the program eventually yielded a more cohesive team orientation — as evidenced in the all-around effort Saturday. More defined roles came with time along with the benefits it yielded.
That trust in the system reignited their joy for the game, something Medved has long emphasized as a key to sustainable success.
“You know, it’s a lot different than happiness,” Medved said. “And they’ve really embodied that. They’ve found that in themselves, and it’s something that — it’s hard to describe to people when we talk about it a lot. But they have found that, and it’s really — I think — what fuels them in this team.”
For Lake and the other seniors, the victory means another shot at glory and another game with their brothers. For Morton, it’s everything.
“(I’m) just thanking God for letting me do that today, and (I’m) just glad to help this team win,” Morton said. “(Things) haven’t always been great, but the one thing you can say is: I’m a winner. I’m just happy to win no matter what it takes. I play five (minutes), I play 30 (minutes), I score two (points), I score 10 (points). Like, no matter what it is, I just want to win, man, and that’s what this group embodies.”
Even within the tournament, key contributions came from different personnel each game — Clifford being the exception. In the championship match, Born made the difference with three consecutive deep makes to ignite the surge which was lacking. Morton took the tough responsibility of guarding BSU’s Tyson Degenhart at times, yet he also displayed intensity on the drive when the shooting wasn’t there.
CSU’s redemption against BSU came with the MW finals all-time record for 3-pointers made — previously 11 — despite a rough stretch of shooting early on. The gameplan was sound, but the Rams were simply started making it rain in Thomas and Mack off the backs of auxiliary scorers.
“Those two guys really embody what the team’s about,” Medved said. “We knew it: Bowen didn’t have his best game last night, but he’s played big for us, and those two guys are the guys that sparked (Saturday’s win), to be honest. They came in there when we were down 6-0, and their energy changed everything.”
In previous games, Evans, Lake and Rashaan Mbemba were the keys to success — facilitating the game through shooting confidence or punishing defenders when they played too high around the perimeter. In Saturday’s game, the backups made all the difference. At one point in the final, the Rams had a greater number of players with at least one three than BSU had 3-pointers in total.
Aside from the Rams’ game against Utah State — in which the Aggies hammered the Rams down the stretch — CSU made defensive adjustments to successfully finish out games with minimal worry. The thing it greatly improved upon from the quarterfinals match, though, was more efficient passing and better spacing.
One of the things the Rams stayed consistent in versus the Broncos was efficiently pinging the ball. Aside from their sloppy start to the game, CSU made the right number of passes in the right amount of time to keep up the flow. This led to several of those open looks from the perimeter that the Rams eventually started sinking.
The Rams didn’t just weather the Broncos’ typical second-half surge — they countered it with a barrage of 3’s. This time, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson sank his first two following break, leading to hits from Kyan Evans and Clifford to repel the Broncos takeover at the time. CSU continued to move well off the ball and picked from a decent shot selection.
Coming into the game, BSU was known for guarding closer to the interior, and it excelled in taking away 2-pointers. CSU knew that from the start — it just took some time to capitalize. Some Rams — like Mbemba and Crocker-Johnson — have a tendency to neglect kickouts when in the paint, but that wasn’t the case Saturday.
Despite the offensive explosion later on, both teams struggled to find a rhythm early. The first half saw CSU shoot just 37% from the field, with BSU barely cracking 33%. The Broncos, in particular, saw plenty of open looks from CSU throughout the beginning but really couldn’t hit. Pearson Carmichael and Andrew Meadow tied for the team lead in points with five apiece, and Degenhart was largely lacking.
CSU, on the other hand, had a combined 2-of-15 from starters Clifford, Evans and Crocker-Johnson. In each previous tournament win for the Rams, at least two starters provided some stability. That was not the case against the Broncos.
For BSU, Degenhart did all he could to keep the Broncos afloat. But sometimes, even a star effort isn’t enough.
His dedication to his team and passion for the game wasn’t enough to dig BSU out of an early hole. For whatever it’s worth, he was the only player on his team with double-digit points outside of the final minute.
The Rams entered the MW Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country, and they leave as champions. With their 10th straight win, the Rams will now turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament, where they hope to carry this momentum onto the national stage.
“It’s a storybook kind of thing,” Medved said. “And I agree, you know, we’re not done yet. … Selection Sunday is going to be really special. I want these guys to enjoy every single moment of it — not focus on everything else — and then we’ll turn our attention right away to whoever we play. But we’re going to enjoy the heck out of this right now. They’ve earned it.”
Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @michaelfhovey.
