Shorthanded CSU beaten by nation’s best 3-point shooting team

FORT COLLINS • When it comes down to it, basketball, like all sports, is really just one giant math equation.

The formula Colorado State used on Saturday against Utah State almost always leads to wins. The Rams scored 79 points, shot more than 55% from the field and more than 70% in the second half. They outscored the Aggies by 16 points in the paint and turned the ball over only eight times.

But when the game was over, CSU lost by nine and for one simple reason — three is greater than two.

CSU’s offensive outburst didn’t matter all that much because Utah State, the nation’s best 3-point shooting team, did what it does best. The Aggies got off 39 3-pointers in the game and made 18 of them.

“Threes always outweigh twos in whatever sport you’re playing,” senior guard Isaiah Stevens said. “They add up quickly. Man, 18-for-39 is high-level shooting right there.”

It sure is.

No matter how many mid-range jumpers Stevens had or how many shots around the rim the Rams made in the second half, it seemed like each time the Aggies were able to respond with a bucket of their own from beyond the arc.

“It felt exactly like (we were trading 2s for 3s),” CSU coach Niko Medved said with a laugh.

The 3-for-17 performance by CSU from 3-point range was just not going to cut it against a team like Utah State.

“We’re going to have to have a few more of those to go down to beat a team of this quality,” Medved said.

Coming off a 25-6 season and the program’s highest ever seed in the NCAA Tournament, no one expected the Rams to be where they’re at — 10-14 and last in the Mountain West — in the first week of April.

Sure, losing David Roddy hurts, but this is still a talented team when they’re all on the court and healthy. That’s the catch, though. Medved has been playing down at least one scholarship player in every game this season. And on Saturday, he had just seven.

The result was Medved doing something he’s never done in his time as a head coach.

“I’ve been a head coach for a decade, I’ve never opened a game in a zone (defense) in my life,” he said.

Any hopes of playing beyond the Mountain West tournament next month are pretty much out of the question at this point.

“It’s been a real challenge, in so many ways,” Medved said. “Nothing about this is easy, that’s not what we sign up for. It’s not supposed to be easy. It’s difficult. I get it, it’s not going the way they want. (This season} has spiraled into a place that nobody saw coming for a variety of reasons. But we’ve gotta pick ourselves (up) off the mat.

“At the same time, we’ve gotta find something to play for that’s bigger than just the scoreboard. It can’t just be about winning and losing. There’s gotta be some other purpose to what you’re doing.”

Medved and his team certainly had that on Saturday night and the scene on the court postgame was why.

It was the team’s annual ‘Fight like a Ram’ game where the team honors local cancer patients with each player wearing the last name of a patient, instead of his own, on the back of his jersey.

“It’s such a special event,” Stevens said. “This game always hits a little bit more close to home for me. (I) try to just go out there and represent the name on the back of the jersey as best as possible because for a lot of them, maybe they didn’t play college athletics. So to look out there and see their name out there competing is special.”

Even after the loss, the CSU players and coaching staff stayed on the court for nearly an hour, sharing a laugh and talking about everything but the game of basketball.

“This is one of the best things we do,” Medved said. “It’s so meaningful to our program and to these young people and I know it’s really meaningful to these cancer warriors and their families.These guys out there, they lost the game, but they’re out there with (the patients) and the patients out there, yeah they would’ve liked that we won, but they don’t care whether we won or lost the game. It’s not about that.”