With summer workouts ongoing, the Ali Farokhmanesh era of Colorado State men’s basketball is officially underway.
Introduced as the program’s 21st head coach March 28, Farokhmanesh and his staff are getting their first looks at a team that includes eight new players, along with six returners, who hope their upcoming season together ends in the program’s third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
So far, all is going well for the first-year head coach and his new-look team.
“It’s been great,” Farokhmanesh said. “They’re building on action. They’re getting more organized. We’re kind of putting it all together. There’s one more element we want to add, but it’s been fun to watch them just compete, to be honest. They’ve shown up every day.”
Farokhmanesh earned his first head coaching job after former head coach Niko Medved left Fort Collins for Minnesota following a season that saw the Rams go 26-10 overall and 16-4 in the Mountain West Conference. The Rams won the Mountain West tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
CSU defeated Memphis in the first round before losing at the buzzer, 72-71, to Maryland in the round of 32.
Farokhmanesh believes he was ready to take over when Medved left, just as the CSU administration was. Farokhmanesh was named the head coach just days after Medved’s departure.
“Niko did such a good job getting me prepared,” Farokhmanesh said. “Also, I have a great staff. It was intentional how it was built.”
Farokhmanesh and his staff’s first order of business was refilling the team’s roster. The combination of graduating seniors and transfers left some holes to fill, and the new staff didn’t waste any time filling them. It took just a few weeks for the Rams to have a full roster again.
The most notable departures were Nique Clifford, who will play next for the Sacramento Kings after being selected with the 24th pick in last week’s NBA draft, and starters from last year’s team in Kyan Evans and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. Through the transfer portal, Evans ended up at North Carolina and Crocker-Johnson joined Medved at Minnesota.
Colorado State forward Rashaan Mbemba, center, drives between Colorado's Assane Diop, left, and Elijah Malone, right, Dec. 7 in Boulder. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)Several players off last year’s roster did return, most notably junior forward Rashaan Mbemba, junior center Nikola Djapa and sophomore forward Kyle Jorgensen. They have spent the past several weeks meeting and learning to play with the eight new freshmen and transfers.
“It’s very great to be back on the court,” Mbemba said. “I got to meet the whole team. I think in those first (two) weeks, we bonded very good. I think it’s great to be back on the court practicing again, getting to know my new teammates.
“I’m trying my best to help my team if they need help. I know our offense is kind of difficult, especially for people who don’t know it yet. I remember my freshman year, I had Patrick Cartier and Isaiah (Stevens) teach me a lot, so I’m just trying to and hoping I can do the same for my teammates.”
The six transfers Farokhmanesh and his staff picked up after his hiring include Josh Pascarelli, a junior guard from Marist; Carey Booth, a junior guard from Illinois; Brandon Rechsteiner, a junior guard from Virginia Tech; Jase Butler, a junior guard from Washington; Augustinas Kiudulas, a junior forward from Virginia Military Institute; and Jevin Muniz, a senior guard from Florida Gulf Coast.
Along with incoming freshmen Jojo McIver, a guard from Killeen, Texas and Docker Tedeschi, a guard from Benton, Ill., have spent the past few weeks acclimating themselves to a new coach, team and environment.
Pascarelli said that hasn’t been hard to do, and he is looking forward to continuing the program’s recent success.
“I got recruited by Ali, great guy who everyone knows,” he said. “He was telling me everything that you really want to hear as a person, not just basketball-wise, but that there were good people here, everybody was real tight. Even though we just got here a few weeks ago, everyone was trying to hang out with each other. Just the coaching staff and the culture that has been built here, and their producing and winning that’s been going on, I feel like I can be a part of that.”
Forming bonds on and off the court, as well as the practice time the team gets this summer, has the squad and its new coach hoping it will have something to build on when preseason practice begins in late fall.
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