Top freshman college basketball players to watch ahead of March Madness
As March Madness approaches, a standout freshman class is already shaping the tournament picture. Here are four rising stars poised to make an impact on the national stage.
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Shot after shot hit the rim. Or rimmed in and out.
With each miss, the Arena Auditorium crowd raised its decibel level just a little bit.
The once-dynamic shooting attack of the Colorado State men’s basketball team abandoned it in the worst way Jan. 31 in a 68-57 loss at Wyoming.
“They punched us in the face and we kind of weren’t ready for it. They started the game off strong and we started slow,” CSU star Kyle Jorgensen said.
The Rams started slow (down 13-3 early) and slowly chipped away. It was a four-point Wyoming lead at half. For the first 10 minutes of the second half the CSU deficit was between four and eight. Wyoming couldn’t pull away, but CSU couldn’t fully close.
Then the wheels fell off. Wyoming went on a 12-0 run in the middle of the second half and the lead ballooned to as much as 16 (54-38). CSU tried to make another comeback attempt but the Wyoming lead was never less than eight in the final 10 minutes. The Rams never led in the game.
Here are takeaways from the game.
Colorado State’s shooting touch has gone away
CSU was the most efficient offense in the nation for most of nonconference play as the Rams started 9-2.
Things unraveled early in Mountain West play offensively, but at the time it felt like injury to star Kyle Jorgensen could largely give the Rams an explanation for why.
But now it’s clear the offense is struggling mightily. CSU (12-10, 3-8 Mountain West) is back to full health but things aren’t clicking.
Turnovers have been one demon, with CSU losing the ball 15 or more times in six games this season (five of them in MW play). Turnovers weren’t the main issue in this one (there were 10 CSU turnovers).
Now shooting woes are a big concern, particularly from 3-point range. CSU was 8-30 (27%) from 3-point range last game in a 23-point loss at San Diego State.
It was even worse in Laramie. CSU hit just one of its first 14 3-pointers. Concerningly, the looks were generally open and to what CSU would consider its best shooters.
CSU coach Ali Farokhmanesh said the Rams were a bit 3-point happy early (seven of their first 10 shots were from deep) but from there took good looks outside.
“It makes it really hard when you’re missing shots,” Farokhmanesh said. “We missed a lot of shots tonight that honestly I can’t complain a whole lot about most of them.”
But basically everyone was missing.
The Rams finished 4-23 (17%) from 3-point range and Kyle Jorgensen (2-6) was the only one to hit multiple 3-pointers.
CSU still entered the game 5th in the nation in 3-point efficiency at 41% but the number dropped to 35% in Mountain West play (and will go down further after this one).
Good shooters didn’t become bad shooters in a span of a week or two, but the Rams are low on confidence and low on makes.
The Rams started attacking the paint to some level of success and outscored Wyoming 36-14 in the paint. The teams reversed roles, with good two-point team Wyoming shining from 3-point range and good 3-point team CSU only scoring on two’s.
“If you would have told me we beat them 36-14 before the game started I would have thought we probably would win by 20,” Farokhmanesh said.
CSU has shot 37% overall from the floor the last two games and 23% from 3-point range.
Wyoming role player leads Cowboys
Wyoming (13-9, 4-7 MW) guard Khaden Bennett entered the night averaging nine points per game and shooting 29% from 3-point range.
He hit his first three 3-pointers to reach his season average scoring.
The points kept coming. Bennett went 6-8 from 3-point range and scored a season-high 22 points and he also snagged 10 rebounds.
“They had a guy that hasn’t shot well all season go 75% from 3, so sometimes that’s basketball,” Farokhmanesh said.
That’s an elite performance to win a rivalry game.
Wyoming makes just eight 3-pointers per game but hit 12 of them in this one. The Cowboys are a 32% shooting 3-point team and hit just shy of 50% (12-25) against CSU.
Much-needed bye for Colorado State
It’s fair to say the Rams are reeling a bit. This is now three losses in a row and defeats in five of their last six and the Rams appear to be battling confidence issues.
“It looks like it,” Farokhmanesh said on if CSU is lacking confidence. “That happens. That’s the ebbs and flows of sports. There’s ups and downs. You can’t buy into that. You have to remember who you are and what you do every single day.”
This game, where CSU was a narrow one-point underdog, was the start of a shift in schedule where the Rams would mostly play the lower tier of the league.
This is, obviously, a bad start to that stretch. Still, CSU will look ahead to turn around the record.
The Rams have a midweek bye, which feels like a much-needed time to reset and then CSU will face struggling San Jose State (7 p.m. Feb. 7 at Moby Arena).
CSU must start stacking wins to get the season back in the right direction.
“We’ve got to look in the mirror a little bit and realize, too, people scout us at a high level,” Farokhmanesh said. “That’s what the Mountain West is. We can’t just rely on what’s worked in the past. We have to adjust to what’s happening.”
Sports reporter Kevin Lytle can be found on social media on X, Instagram and Threads @Kevin_Lytle and on Bluesky.
