2024 NCAA Tournament: #10 Colorado State Blows Out #10 Virginia 67-42
The Rams made a statement for the Mountain West
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CSU leaves their mark.
The entire basketball community said the Mountian West was underseeded in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The committee basically said prove it. And the Colorado State Rams took that personally. They came into Dayton on a mission and walked out with a giant confidence gaining 67-42 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers.
Next Stop Charlotte! #TeamTogether x @AlpineGardens pic.twitter.com/zAC5aZIMML
— Colorado State Men’s Basketball (@CSUMBasketball) March 20, 2024
First Half
The game started out in typical Virginia fashion with the under 16 timeout having a score of Virginia 4 – Colorado State 2. Then Isaiah Stevens made a three, one of just two field goals in the game for him, to give the Rams the lead for the rest of the game. Joel Scott, Nique Clifford, and Patrick Cartier led the way for the Rams in the first half offensively. The Rams shot 50% from the floor and 43% from three, which against a Virginia defense is fantastic.
The real story of the first half was Virginia’s shooting. It was part just missing shots and part CSU defense. Virginia went almost an hour of real time with out scoring a point. Reece Beekman made a free throw with 9:20 left on the clock in the first half and they didn’t score again until Beekman made a jump shot at the 16:37 mark of the second half. A 12:43 stretch of no points for the Cavaliers.
You know how bad it has to be for the broadcast to mention the ACTUAL TIME since you last scored?
This was almost an hour of real time. pic.twitter.com/3YietGOi6U
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) March 20, 2024
Second half
You would think Virginia would do better in the second half and they did. It’s just Colorado State continued to dominate the game. Anytime the Cavaliers went on a run, the Rams came right back. Reece Beekman was able to get to the line more in the second half which pushed his point total into double digits, but the Rams were able to hold everyone else to seven or less points.
Nique Clifford and Joel Scott both came away with double-doubles, with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 23 points, 11 rebounds respectively. The Rams made all the necessary plays even without Isaiah Stevens having a large impact. He drew Virginia’s toughest defender and was held to just five points, but he chipped in six rebounds and four assists.
EVERYTHING is working tonight for the Rams 🙌#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/D8LNHbzlfh
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2024
Final thoughts
This was just a great performance from a Rams team that definitely need this type of performance after the past few months. They also fired a shot at the commitee for underseeding the Mountain West like they did. Everyone was watching and it became the talk of the sports world on twitter.
Some fun facts from Reddit, courtesy of u/longconsilver13:
- UVA had 42 points and 42 missed field goals.
- UVA over 40 minutes only outscored second half Colorado State by just 2 points.
- If we take out Colorado State’s highest scorer, they still win by 2.
- UVA scored 12 points fewer than their NET ranking.
- And one from u/morrisjr1989, CSU had more rebounds than Virginia had points (CSU had 43 rebounds).
St. John's, Indiana St, Providence and Pitt rn watching Virginia pic.twitter.com/WUWNnF08Vt
— FanDuel (@FanDuel) March 20, 2024
Next UP
The Rams now travel to Charlotte to face the Texas Longhorns and a couple familiar faces. Former Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry is the Longhorns head coach and the Rams will see former Oral Roberts guard Max Abmas as well.
This will be a matchup of two very similar teams and almost a complete opposite game from the Virginia game. If you look at the stats, both teams are very similar across the board. The other player to watch for Texas is Dylan Disu, the 6’9″ 225lbs forward is shooting 50% from three. So this will be a fun one.
Thursday, March 21st 4:50 pm MT in Charlotte vs #7 Texas
