Eustachy: CSU hoops will be better than experts think

It’s not quite the wholesale change the CSU men’s basketball program went through three years ago, when coach Larry Eustachy had to replace five senior starters who had become synonymous with the program’s rise under former coach Tim Miles.

But the Rams have a lot of retooling to do this year, too, after losing three senior starters from last year’s record-breaking 27-7 team. Three starters — forwards J.J. Avila and Stanton Kidd and guard Daniel Bejarano — averaged a combined 39.7 points and 19.8 rebounds a game for a team that opened the season on a school-record 14-0 run.

It’s a daunting task. But Eustachy, now entering his fourth season with the Rams and 25th season as an NCAA Division I head coach, believes his 2015-16 team will be far better than the media that cover the league expect.

NEW HIRE: Hornung joins Eustachy’s CSU basketball staff

The Rams were picked to finish seventh in the 11-team MW in a preseason poll. But because of the emphasis he puts on defense and rebounding, people often overlook the offensive firepower of his teams, Eustachy said. CSU has led the league in scoring in two of the past three seasons.

“I think we stack up pretty good,” said senior point guard Antwan Scott, a transfer from Grambling State who played in just four games last season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury “… I think people are just writing us off because of what we lost. They don’t really know what we’ve got coming back, and they don’t know the new guys that we’re bringing in.

CSU is 69-32 overall and 31-21 in the Mountain West under Eustachy. The Rams were 13-5 in league play last season, one game behind co-champions San Diego State and Boise State, and were famously snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee despite a No. 29 RPI at the end of the regular season.

COMMITMENT: CSU women's basketball team adds top Colorado player

That’s making this year’s squad work even harder, senior guard Joe De Ciman said after a practice earlier this week. The Rams believe they’ve got a team that’s good enough to get to the NCAA tournament this year, a belief Eustachy shared with a sellout crowd at Hughes Stadium during a timeout in the CSU football team’s win over Air Force.

“We’ve got enough talent, for sure, to compete with the best in the league,” Eustachy said Monday after putting his squad through a nearly 3-hour practice at Moby Arena. “… The thing this team can do probably better than any team I’ve ever had is shoot the ball from the perimeter, so that makes up for a lot of mistakes.

“Time will tell, but I’m excited.”

The excitement stems from a talented but still unproven roster, led by returning starters De Ciman and senior forward Tiel Daniels along with last year’s top three reserves: senior guards Gian Clavell and Fred Richardson III and junior guard John Gillon. Add in senior Scott and two freshmen who practiced with the team but didn’t play while redshirting last season (guard J.D. Paige and 6-foot-10 forward/center Toby Van Ry), and there’s a pretty good nucleus of players who understand Eustachy and his demanding style of play.

That’s making it easier to bring along a group of newcomers that includes two of the top junior-college prospects in the country and three freshmen straight out of high school. Forward Emmanuel Omogbo, a 6-8 forward, was a second-team JUCO All-American last season for a South Plains College team in Texas that finished second in the national championship tournament. Kimani Jackson, also a 6-8 forward, was rated the No. 5 JUCO prospect in the country by 247Sports.com after playing just one season at Eastern New Mexico Junior College.

“They’re talented and very athletic and impressive,” De Ciman said. “But to us who’ve been here, the most impressive thing is they want to listen. They aren’t trying to do their own thing. You know they came from successful junior-college programs, but they’re all ears. They’re all listening to us and will ask questions, and that’s the most important thing. That’s what will help them be successful this year, and they’ll be able to play right away.”

COLLEGE ATHLETICS: Escalating coach salaries drive up CSU athletics budget

The high school signees are impressive, too. Prentiss Nixon, from Bolingbrook, Illinois, was rated the No. 9 prospect in Illinois and No. 25 point guard in the country by ESPN.com. Anthony Bonner, a shooting guard from Lawrence, Kansas, was rated a three-star prospect by Rivals.com. And 6-10 forward Nico Carvacho out of Sunrise Christian Academy near Wichita, Kansas, played on the Chilean national team in the 2013 Under-16 Americas Championship.

“I think we’re a really deep team. We’ve got a lot of pieces,” said Scott, who averaged an impressive 15.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists two years ago at Grambling State.

Best of all, Eustachy said, is how interchangeable those pieces are.

De Ciman can play any position on the floor, he said, from point guard to post. Scott, Gillon and Nixon, all point guards, can slide over to become shooting guards, and shooting guards Clavell, Richardson, Paige and Bonner all have enough size and strength to play small forward. Jackson can play either forward spot, and Omogbo and Daniels are athletic enough to play power forward or center, as needed.

“We have a lot of options, so guys can’t get comfortable on this team,” Eustachy said. “… It’s a good coaching situation. It’s a very versatile team.”

Formal practices for the 2015-16 season began last weekend. The Rams will play an exhibition game at 2 p.m. Nov. 7 at Moby Arena against CSU-Pueblo. They open the regular-season a week later at Northern Iowa.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.