Colorado State Basketball: Rams Still Need to Prove Themselves

After being picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West Conference to start the season, the Colorado State Rams find themselves tied atop the standings with a 2-0 mark in league play. While this is progress, celebration might be a bit premature.

The Rams are currently 11-5 overall, undefeated at home and on neutral sites, but an atrocious 1-5 on the road, including an embarrassment at Fresno State where CSU only managed to score 13 points in the first half.

With a couple of lucky escapes against San Francisco and Denver at home inside Moby Arena, it wasn't until the Rams earned their first road victory of the season, and only the second win in conference away from home during head coach Tim Miles' tenure, to open MWC play against Wyoming when things appeared they might be looking up.

It was the first time Miles had defeated the Cowboys during the regular season and junior Andy Ogide finally started to look like the player everyone has expected him to be, as he led all scorers with 22 points and was perfect from the free throw line.

During the Rams' next contest, they hosted Air Force and Ogide was once again the high scorer with 13 points, as Colorado State went on to route Air Force 70-48 and move to 2-0 in MWC play for the first time since 2003. Coincidentally, 2003 was the last time CSU went to the NCAA Tournament.

For his efforts last week, Ogide earned Co-Player of the Week honors in the Mountain West Conference.

What CSU has done thus far is fantastic, especially compared where the Rams have been the past few years. Still, celebrating too much could get Ram fans into trouble given the fact the teams they've beaten aren't exactly the best in the conference. Heck, Air Force might even be worse than some D-II RMAC schools scattered across the Centennial State.

Colorado State's next game will be the one to judge how much progress CSU has made as the Rams travel to Provo, Utah to face BYU at the Marriott Center. The Cougars are led by the MWC's leading scorer, Jimmer Fredette, and forward Jonathan Tavernari can always be a threat, especially from the outside. Tavernari shared MWC Player of the Week honors with Ogide last week.

Win or lose, CSU vs. BYU will be a game for the Rams to really gauge where they are as a team playing in a tough environment against a Top 25 opponent. Colorado State just better make sure that if they do fall to the Cougars, they don't let it tailspin their season like the football team did.