FORT COLLINS — Oklahoma called. So did Wisconsin. Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky, two schools a short drive his parents in Nashville, whipped out the Google maps and turned on the charm.

“I actually got a chance to go on unofficials there while I was home,” Nico Carvacho admits now. “I got to look at the school and met all the coaches firsthand. So that was really the hardest part, because I was able to actually meet with them in person last spring.”

More than 25 schools inquired about Colorado State’s junior-to-be center last spring, gauging the 6-foot-11 Carvacho’s transfer interest, casting lines even after coach Niko Medved was brought on board to steady the ship.

“I see (the new staff) every single day, I’m working out with them, and then having to go home and get on the phone with other coaches, and they’re selling me (on transferring),” Carvacho recalls. “Actually, it was a hard time, to be honest with you. For like two or three weeks, it was hard on me, because you’ve got to say, ‘No.’ You’ve got to listen to what your parents say, all that stuff.

“Everything (the new staff) promised has gone through.”

He’s one board shy (942) of becoming all-time leading rebounder in the history of the Mountain West, whose men’s basketball tournament tips off Wednesday afternoon with Carvacho’s Rams (12-19), the No. 9 seed, taking on Boise State (12-19), the No. 8 seed, at noon. He’s only the ninth player in CSU history ever tapped to the All-MW first team, just the second player in league history to ever snatch 400 rebounds in a single season and the No. 1 rebounder in the country at 13.1 boards per game, the silver lining in a season clouded by growing pains.

“One thing we did talk about was a legacy,” Medved says. “That I thought that we could help him develop his game, he’d enjoy playing in our system, would enjoy playing for us, and you looked at where he was, how he had a chance to really leave a legacy here at CSU.

“I don’t know if it was any one conversation. I think just reiterating all those things over and over again, at the end of the day, you can’t make the decision for him. I think he trusted his heart. You’ve got to go with your gut. And he did that and I think it’s worked out for him.”

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It’s worked out for Medved, too, to the point where it’s a little scary to think where the rebuilding Rams might’ve been without Carvacho — who leads the Mountain West in rebounds (407), 2-point makes (210), field-goal percentage (.587) — deciding to double down on CSU.

According to Sports-Reference.com, the junior’s season has been worth 4.3 Win Shares, the site’s statistical approximation of how many victories Carvacho was worth to the Rams all by himself. It’s the sixth-highest mark in the MW, which is a pretty meaty figure at face value. But it’s even more impressive given CSU’s season in context: Carvacho is one of only two MW players among the league’s top 10 in Win Shares to be part of a squad that also won fewer than 17 games — Boise State guard Justinian Jessup (3.9 Win Shares) being the other. More context: Among Rams this decade, only Colton Iverson in 2010-11 (5.7); Emmanuel Omogbo in 2016-17 (5.3); J.J. Avila in 2014-15 (5.1); and Andy Ogide in 2010-11 (4.5) have accounted more Win Shares in a single season than the big lug has this winter.

“(I like) his work ethic, (how) he goes after rebounds out of his own area,” former college basketball coach and CBS Sports analyst Pete Gillen says of Carvacho, noting that he even reminded him a little of a post star from a generation back: Villanova’s John Pinone, a 6-foot-8 grinder who helped power Rollie Massimino’s Wildcats to a pair of NCAA Elite Eights from 1979-83.

“Same thing — Nico might be a little bigger,” Gillen says. “Not a sky-walker, great hands, quick feet and (he) can score either hand around the basket. (Can) protect the goal. He’s got good ingredients. He’s gotten better and better.”

Medved thinks the biggest gains have come between the ears, that Carvacho — who nearly doubled his points per game from 9.2 as a sophomore to 16.2 this season — has been making better decisions around the rim, passing smarter, and playing with more assurance in general.

He’s also finishing with authority. According to Hoops-Math.com, Carvacho’s field-goal percentage on shots at the rim shot up from .608 in 2017-18 to .660 during this season — and that’s without the use of a healthy left shoulder, an injury the Rams’ center plans on addressing in the offseason, he stresses, “so that maybe a jump shot comes in next year.”

“It’s just something that you have to embrace, that you’re the guy, you want to be that guy,” Medved said. “And just embracing that, understanding what it is — they’re going to get physical with you, they’re going to double you, they’re going to make it difficult on you. But then take that as a compliment, take that as a challenge and go out every night. Because if you want to be a great player, you have to accept and want that. And I think he does want that.”

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He wants to put down more markers, topple more records, blaze his own trail through the Horsetooth Reservoir.

“Just leaving a legacy, I can show my kids or my grandkids, hopefully that my records will still be there and continuing,” said Carvacho, who took CSU’s career rebounding record from Pat Durham on Feb. 12. “Just being able to do that, and maybe being even not just one of the best players at Colorado State but in Mountain West history, that’s always cool to see for years to come.”

In hindsight, he thought Medved was cool, too. Especially how the new coach made a point to hit him up early while also giving just enough light to allow Carvacho to find his own way home.

“I think that, at the end of the day, he trusted (us),” Medved says, “and decided to take a leap of faith and buy into it.”

We need to meet. Here’s my number. Call me.

“As soon as they got here, I started working out with them, started doing all that,” Carvacho recalls. “Going out to eat with them, and getting to know them and doing all that stuff.

“If you transfer, you never know if you’re going to get that waiver to play right away. And I didn’t want to lose a year. Not only that, I just know how good of guys they are and I believed in them.”

These days, that faith is a two-way street. Another promise kept.

“You know, once I committed to stay here, I didn’t think about anything else,” Carvacho says. “You can’t really say, ‘What if I went there, what if I did that.’ You don’t have time for that. You have time for what’s now. And what’s here.”