FORT COLLINS — For so-called roadkill, Nique Clifford kicked some serious tail Tuesday night.
Thank you, kickball.
Yes, kickball. A bunch of college dudes and their coaches giggling on a softball field, this past Sunday, basking in a warm January FoCo sun, playing like fifth-graders again, remembering what unabashed joy felt like.
“We got rid of (our last game),” Clifford explained after dropping 20 points in a 79-71 win over bruising San Diego State at Moby Arena. “We went and played kickball, we did some different things just to get our minds right, have some fun. And I think that helped us and brought us closer together.”
If there was ever a moment and a team that required flushing, it was the 72 hours prior to tip Tuesday and 16-5 Rams.
After a soul-killing, fan-murdering loss at woebegone Wyoming this past weekend, social media declared them dead. Finito. Toast. Some FoCo faithful even started calling for heads to roll while whispering the winter’s dirtiest 3-letter word: N-I-T.
“You don’t go in and try to shame these (players) for what they did (at Wyoming),” Medved explained after his guys took their miseries out on the 16-5 Aztecs. “They know.
“I just decided (on Sunday), ‘We’re not going to spend one minute getting ready for SDSU. It’s 60 degrees outside in Fort Collins, let’s go out and play some kickball.’”
Flushing accomplished.
Team Roadkill went out Tuesday outscored one of the most physical teams in the country in the paint, 30-22. They won the fast-break point count by a margin of 18-12. They turned it over just 10 times.
NIT? Let somebody else drive you home, brother.
Are the Rammies flawed, despite their resume? Heck, yeah. CSU still feels like a David Roddy team without a David Roddy up front, one scoring big man shy of a Sweet 16. Which isn’t fair, but that’s the bar.
And is it cool to worry about how this team closes? Absolutely. The Rammies made just six of their final 10 free-throw attempts Tuesday within friendly confines, which is the kind of math that can end a trip to Bracketville before it ever gets started.
“(That’s) good of a win as we’ve had,” Medved reflected. “Just couldn’t be prouder of this group of young men.”
And with good reason. Because as long as the zebras are letting the Aztecs get handsy, they know there’s a path back, one poke at a time.
SDSU star Jaedon LeDee got free for a layup off a steal and a runout that got SDSU to within 60-59 with 8:10 left in the game. Next time down the floor, Aztecs defender Elijah Saunders let his fingers to the talking on Clifford, launching another break the other way and a Lamont Butler jumper at the 7:29 mark that put SDSU up one against the run of play, 61-60.
Medved called timeout to stem the bleeding, and it worked like a dream. CSU came out of the huddle on a 9-0 run of its own, punctuated by Clifford’s Clyde-Drexler-esque one-handed slam with 6:45 to go, pushing the hosts up 64-61.
Sometimes, it takes a village. Especially defensively. Lee, who went into Tuesday averaging 20.9 points and 8.7 boards, missed three of his first four from the floor, had netted just two points at the halftime break and seven points with 12 minutes to go in the contest, finishing with 13 on the night.
Funny, isn’t it? SDSU brought out by CSU’s best by bringing their usual worst to the party. The Aztecs have two modes: Rock fight and WrestleMania. To ex-coaches, SDSU’s style is personified and complemented for its trademark “active hands.” To the beholder, it looks like a bunch of slap-happy buggers trying to work the refs and confuse the electorate by bumping, jostling and contesting every catch. To each their elbows.
Yet it was the hosts who got the knives out early, poking away a pair of steals in the game’s opening six possessions. The first four minutes played out like a particularly one-sided stretch of the old video game “NBA Jam,” with the Rams swinging forearms on the defensive end while knocking down triple after triple at the other.
Back-to-back treys from Clifford and Isaiah Stevens (20 points) got a packed Moby bumping as the hosts ran to a 13-2 lead at the start, extending it to 17-4 before Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher called a time to try and calm the din.
SDSU cranked up the fourth-degree assaults while turning shoves and stops into Reese Waters jumpers the other way. The USC transfer’s rainbow in transition with 8:08 left until halftime capped a 10-0 SDSU run that cut the Rammies cushion to 21-17.
While the locals celebrated supersub Joe Palmer’s birthday by wearing giveaway replica versions of his trademark headband, Clifford got rolling again. The former Buffs’ steal and layup capping a 12-3 Rammies run the other way as the hosts went into the under-4 timeout back up double digits, 35-23.
The best weapon against Bluto Ball is to keep your head, box out, avoid getting baited and let The Undertaker methodically brick himself into an early grave.
The Rammies at the break forced eight Aztecs turnovers while committing only four themselves, outscoring the bigger guests 8-6 in the paint and 7-0 on second-chance opportunities.
That travels, especially in the Big Dance. Which only makes that one-in-a-million meltdown in Pokes Country this past weekend all the more confounding.
“Life is 10% what happens to you,” Medved mused, “and 90% how you react to it.”
This roadkill’s still dancing. At times, these Rams are going to be hard on the eyes, granted, even while Stevens and Clifford, The Clutch Brothers, get busy untying the knots in your stomach. When it comes to March bona fides, always trust your gut.
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