Medved seeking Moby Madness

FORT COLLINS» The fact the Colorado State men’s basketball team even had a media day this year speaks volumes about just how different things will be around Moby Arena this season.

After four years as the head coach at Furman and one at Drake, former CSU assistant Niko Medved takes over for the polarizing Larry Eustachy. The Medved era officially begins Nov. 7 against Colorado Christian, but before that fans have a chance to get a firsthand look at the Rams on Saturday morning when they hold an open scrimmage before the school’s homecoming football game later in the day.

Medved wants to reestablish homecourt advantage at Moby.

The good, the bad and the ugly, Medved has seen it all when it comes to the Rams’ homecourt advantage, or lack thereof. He joined Tim Miles’ staff in 2007 and saw the program go winless in conference, when you couldn’t pay fans to come to games. He was also here to witness how Moby can be one of the premier venues in the conference during the team’s consecutive NCAA Tournament seasons in 2012 and 2013.

Coming off the team’s worst home record (88) and attendance (3,341 per game) in a decade, reestablishing Moby Madness is a top priority for Medved as he returns to Fort Collins.

“Eventually you want to have the expectation to win everywhere, but it starts with having a great home court,” he said. “Clearly this community will support it if we’ve got a good product out there. I’m excited about that, and hopefully we can start that process of building our fan base back up.”

Nothing will drum up support better than a winning team, but the Rams feel their style of play will also help.

“I think our offense is gonna be a lot of fun to watch,” redshirt junior forward Nico Carvacho said.