Defense the main focus for Rams in 2019-20

This is the third in an 11-part series previewing UNM men’s basketball opponents for the coming season. The series includes articles and capsules on all Mountain West Conference opponents published in the reverse order of the league’s preseason poll and concludes with capsules for each nonconference opponent.

Growing up, Nico Carvacho was that fan who looked at college basketball games and saw the guy on the court who seemed like he had been on that team forever.

Now, the 22-year-old Colorado State center who led the nation in rebounding last season (12.9 per game) has a lot of fans around the Mountain West checking old box scores trying to figure out how in the world the guy who has played in 100 games for the Rams, starting 97, and logged more than 2,700 minutes on the court could possibly be coming back to control the paint for another season.

“I’m not going to lie, I know I’m that guy and I hate being that guy,” Carvacho said with a big smile at the Oct. 15 Mountain West Conferece media summit in Las Vegas when a reporter told him he’s now that guy for fans around the league.

The thing about being that guy, though, is nobody ever says it about players who haven’t both produced, and done so for a long time.

Carvacho, who redshirted in the 201516 season and then was thrust into a starting role in the 2016-17 season in which the Rams basically used a 7-man rotation due to injuries, was voted by the media as a preseason All-MWC player while his Rams were picked to finish 9th in the 11-team league.

Carvacho said improving that team projection starts with teammates continuing to buy into second-year head coach Niko Medved.

“He’s for the players,” Carvacho said of Medved. “The culture, the ‘Team Together’ (mantra), it’s like a real life culture change, tradition we want to build for years to come.”

Medved has done the rebuild thing before.

At Furman, Medved took on a team that went 7-24 in 2013 and he led them to being a 23-win team in his fourth season.

At Drake, Medved took over a team that went 7-24 two seasons in a row, before improving the program to 17-17 in his only season there before CSU came calling after after the 11-24 season in 2018.

But Medved knows the rebuild only progresses if the defense steps up.

CSU’s effective 54.4 field-goal percentage ranked 32nd in the nation (out of 351 Division I teams) and jumped to 55.8 percent, tops during MWC play.

But on defense, that was another story, as Colorado State ranked 285th nationally, allowing teams a 53% field-goal percentage.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do on that end, but we know that’s the biggest step forward we’ve got to make,” Medved said. “… If you look at any league in the country, if you’re going to contend in your league, you’re going to be among the top couple teams in both offensive and defensive efficiency.”

CSU has eight newcomers, but Medved is excited about the potential of shooters around Carvacho in the middle.

“Expectation wise,” Medved said, “I think these guys feel like they can compete with anybody.”

“Last year, to say I was disappointed in the defense would be an understatement, but there’s a lot of factors that go into that. And I know that won’t happen to us again in that way.” — CSU coach Niko Medved