DENVER – Heading into a difficult road game at Nos. 10 and 9 Colorado School of Mines, the focus is clear for the MSU Denver men's basketball team.
"We're getting back to the basics on defense," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "We've been steadily improving offensively, but our defense has lost its way – especially last weekend. We've got to get back to guarding the basketball, being in help position and having solid rotations. We have to be more disciplined on that end of the floor."
Colorado School of Mines (9-1 overall, 3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), with its deep and diverse roster, won't make it easy in the 7 p.m. game Saturday at Lockridge Arena.
The Orediggers are so deep that guard Brendan Sullivan, the 2020-21 RMAC Player of the Year, is only their third-leading scorer, behind Division I transfers Adam Thistlewood (Colorado State) and Sam Beskind (Stanford). Thistlewood, a 6-foot-8 sharpshooter, was a four-year starter for the Rams, while the 6-4 Beskind started four of 29 games last season for the Cardinal and was the Pacific 12 Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
"They're a talented team, a really good team, and they play well together," Ficke said. "They're an older team, and they're deep. Their starting five is as good as anyone in the conference, and they're very disciplined. Honestly, they're just a better version of what we saw last week against South Dakota Mines – high IQ players with a lot of basketball savvy who are talented enough to beat you in a lot of different ways."
MSU Denver rallied from an 18-point first-half deficit to take the lead late against South Dakota Mines on Saturday before eventually falling 93-88. That was one night after the Roadrunners hung tough with top-five foe Black Hills State before succumbing 84-62. The following night Black Hills State beat Colorado School of Mines in overtime in a battle for first in the RMAC.
"The biggest thing for us the last two games is that we really struggled to take away other teams' two best players – and really that's happened in three of the last four games," Ficke said. "We have to make other people beat us with their third, fourth and fifth options."
That will be a challenge against an Orediggers team that has multiple options.
MSU Denver is 4-6 overall and 1-3 in the RMAC before facing its second top-10 opponent in eight days, but at least the Roadrunners will have good health on their side.
Illness stunted both preparation and playing time for multiple players last weekend. And a somewhat normal week, plus an extra day of practice since there is no Friday game, could put MSU Denver in a better competitive situation.
"The extra day gives guys a chance to get back closer to full strength, to get their wind back," Ficke said. "It's another day for them to be that much further from their last symptom. So we'll be closer to full strength, and the last time we were full strength (an 84-78 win on the road against a Colorado Mesa team receiving votes in both polls on Dec. 3), we looked pretty good. We're hoping we can get back to that soon."
While senior wing
Tyrei Randall continues to lead the team in scoring at 16.4 points per game, multiple new and young players continue to impress. The list includes true freshman wing
Yaw Reneer, an athletic 6-5 wing who can defend multiple positions.
A late-summer addition, Reneer was uncertain if basketball would be part of his future before accepting MSU Denver's offer. Ficke had a connection with Reneer's AAU coach and was thrilled that he was still available late in the recruiting process.
"We are looking forward to him becoming an inside-outside threat, where he can take a guard into the post or draw a taller defender out to the perimeter," Ficke said. "He has great playmaking ability and he's very unselfish – almost too unselfish. I love his game and the potential for it to grow and get a little better every year – to the point where people are going to wonder how we got him here."
