By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
With their 78-70 win over Memphis on Friday, Colorado State extended its winning streak to 11 games and advanced to the round of 32 for the first time since 2013.
Kyan Evans had himself a night for CSU as the sophomore scored 20+ points for just the second time in his career with a career-high 23.
The Rams showed they were the better team on Friday and did not allow the Tigers to push things. CSU won the points off turnovers, committing just 10 on the game while keeping Memphis from dictating the tempo.
No. 12 Colorado State vs No. 4 Maryland
Sunday, March 23
4:10 pm PT, TBS
West Region, Seattle
Against Maryland, the Rams will have an entirely different challenge ahead of them. This is a Terps team with the talent—including a star in freshman center Derik Queen—to make a deep run.
Queen gives the Terps a significant advantage inside. Maryland also has a proven distributor on the outside in Ja’Kobi Gillespi.
Gillespi can find opponents, and if the Rams sag too much on Queen, the guard will make them pay from the perimeter.
Colorado State needs to force some turnovers and get Maryland playing from behind.
The Terps are committing a turnover on just 14.1% of possessions, ranking 20th in the nation. In the last three games, they have turned it over just 5.7 times per game.
CSU needs a big game from dynamic guard Nique Clifford, who is averaging 18.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. His 8.2 defensive rebounds per game are the third most in the nation this season.
Clifford’s ability to prevent second-chance opportunities and get Colorado State moving in transition will be critical.
The Rams are a very good shooting team from inside the three-point arc, ranking 26th in the nation, shooting 56.3% on two-point FGs, and 61.5% on non-blocked two-point shots.
Maryland is blocking 7.7% of opponent shots this season and has been even better of late at the rate of 9.2% in the last three games.
They rejected 10.7% of GCU’s shots in their dominant First-Round win.
If you have followed my work this season you know that I have been high on Colorado State since the New Year. I picked them to win the Mountain West Tournament and selected them to knock off Memphis.
However, I think this one could be the end of the line for the Rams as Maryland is not a good matchup for them.
writes about various topics for SuperWest sports, including stats and records, college sports, and motorsports. He also founded and runs the Sports and Entertainment Research Center (SERC).
