Rams seek identity for MWC play
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Which team will it be?
The one that beat No. 21 Purdue at the buzzer and three days later appeared unbeatable in a dismantling of Pepperdine?
Or the one that lost by more than 30 points apiece to Oklahoma State and Auburn, blew a 10-point halftime lead at Denver and lost by 17 and most recently lost a road game at Montana State?
Nobody's quite sure which Colorado State University men's basketball team will show up each night this season.
The one that lost seven consecutive games during Mountain West Conference play last season?
Or the one that made a nice end-of-season run, winning the MWC Tournament as a No. 6 seed and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990?
"We see ourselves as the team that made that run not as the team that lost seven straight," junior guard Jon Rakiecki said as the Rams (8-5) prepared for their MWC opener against Air Force (9-2) at 7 tonight at Moby Arena. "We see that as us finally achieving and using our talent to its fullest."
The Rams were picked to finish third in the MWC -- behind last year's co-champions, Brigham Young and Utah -- in a preseason media poll.
Some fans have argued that last year's late-season success stripped the Rams of the passion for the game that got them there.
"I feel like we're talented enough and athletic enough and gaining the confidence that we ought to be there," sophomore swingman Freddy Robinson said. "But we've got to want it."
Particularly now, in the MWC season. The worst teams in the eight-team league appear to be significantly better this season than last as evidenced by Air Force's win two weeks ago at California, San Diego State's victories over Ohio State and Iowa State and New Mexico's win over Penn State.
Air Force, in fact, is off to its best start ever and riding a seven-game winning streak. This from the team that has finished last in the MWC each of the past three seasons and was seventh in the eight-team league in its inaugural season of 1999-2000. The Falcons have lost 27 consecutive MWC road games.
"We have better players," Air Force coach Joe Scott said. "We're a better team. We have good freshmen.
"But until such time as we go on the road in this league and prove that we can win some games, people will still be looking at us in the same way."
The Rams claim they know better now.
"If we can learn from the DU and Montana State games and play like we did against Purdue and Pepperdine, then yes, I definitely think we can compete for the conference title," Rakiecki said. "But if we are immature and don't learn from those experiences, we'll be in trouble."
They might be right now.
Junior center Matt Nelson, who averages a team-leading 14.9 points a game, sprained his right knee a week ago in the loss to Montana State and isn't likely to play tonight. Sophomore guard Micheal Morris has been slowed by a hamstring injury that has kept him out of practice the past week, and sophomore swingman Shelton Johnson's minutes have been limited as he recovers from what he and school officials are calling a "urinary surgical procedure" he underwent Dec. 19.
That's typical of the health issues the Rams have dealt with so far this season. No player has started more than 11 of the team's 13 games, and 10 players have made at least one start apiece as coach Dale Layer has been forced to mix and match different combinations of players all season.
"We've had a myriad of players of injuries," Layer said. "At one point, we had four starters out heading into our Stetson-South Florida trip."
That certainly was the low point. Yet, the Rams won both of those games and already have won as many road games (three) as they did in each of the past two seasons. And, those wins over Purdue and Pepperdine prove that CSU can play at a higher level.
''We've got a lot of stuff to work on to get back to last year," sophomore swingman Morris said. "What we did last year is always in the back of our mind, but we never talk about it much. It's in the past, and we're trying to make ourselves a new future.
"We've got to get off on the right foot."
