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Colorado State Rams (2001: 15-13)

The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I teams, be sure to order the 2001-02 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.

For the last four years, the Colorado State basketball program has been in a bit of a slide. The number of wins has gone down every year while the RPI rating has gotten worse every year.

Instability in the program has been part of the reason. The Rams have gone through three coaches with Stew Morrill leaving to go to Utah State, Ritchie McKay leaving for Oregon State after two years and finally Dale Layer taking over for McKay last year.

Layer inherited a veteran team with several starters back but no real stars and not a lot of talent in the frontcourt. Still, the team held together well and some called it an overachieving team to get to 15-13. After the season Layer had no complaints, saying his team "couldn't have worked any harder.''

The Rams started off 5-0 for the first time since 1971, with a road win at Washington State the most significant, but they came back to earth with a 23-point loss to eventual NCAA Tournament entrant Creighton. After going 9-4 in non-conference play, the Rams started off league play with a tough one-point loss to Wyoming and later lost to the Cowboys by only two on the road. Losses at New Mexico and Air Force were both by one point. Reverse those four losses and the Rams would have tied for the conference crown and finished with 19 overall wins.

Over the last couple of years, the Rams have been one of the nation's best shooting teams, ranking 11th in three-point shooting last year after leading the nation the year before. However, a lack of a productive inside game with no legitimate center hurt them against some of the big, bruising teams in the Mountain West Conference.

With sharpshooters like Jon Sivesind, Ron Grady and Aki Palmer gone, the Rams will have to reload in the backcourt and try to become a more balanced team, instead of relying so much on their outside shooting. Besides the three guards, the Rams also lost 6-10 forward David Fisher, the second-leading scorer last year at 11.7 points per game, and forward Garrett Patik, who started every game but one and led the team in rebounding (6.0), while scoring 7.8 points per game.

Backcourt

Among the newcomers, one who might make the biggest impact is junior college transfers point guard Joe Macklin.

Macklin is a 5-11 junior from Barton County (Kansas) Community College who led his team to the NJCAA Tournament. Layer said he has a chance to start or he could back up Birley if he plays the point.

"He showed an ability to be an up-tempo player on a very good team last year,'' Layer said. "He's a good defender who gives us more quickness on the perimeter and a different dimension than we've had in recent years.''

Jon Rakiecki is a red-shirt freshmen who is ready to play after biding his time last year. Rakiecki is a 6-3 shooting guard who was considered one of Colorado's finest players during his career at Fruita Monument High School. He earned all-state honors twice and led his team to four consecutive state tournament appearances.

"Jon is a very athletic, explosive scoring guard who could have played for us last year if we didn't have two or three guys just like him,'' Layer said. "He's a very good shooter and should play a lot for us this year.''

A player who could make an impact for the Rams is 6-5 sophomore forward Ronnie Clark, who was the player of the year at Florida Southern College two years ago.

Unfortunately, he won't be eligible until after the first semester, which means he'll miss the first nine or 10 games as well as the practices. Layer expects Clark to "definitely be in the rotation'' but it may take him awhile for him to get warmed up.

Frontcourt

The one returning starter is 6-8, 225-pound junior Brian Greene, and even he wasn't a full-time starter in 2000-2001. Greene, a home grown star from Horizon High School in Thornton, Colo., averaged 7.8 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 50.9 percent from the field. His best game was a 15-point, 15-rebound performance against Wyoming, but a sprained knee a couple of games later set him back and hindered him for the rest of the season.

Andy Birley (5.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg) made an instant impact as a freshman two years ago when he made 48.2 percent of his three-point shots and ranked among the nation's leaders all season. The 6-4 junior combo guard couldn't duplicate his freshman success last year as his shooting fell off to 35.7 percent from three-point range and 39.1 percent from the field, down from 47.5 the year before. He struggled a bit when he had to play the point last year, but still had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team with 76 assist to 45 turnovers.

The only other returning players are sophomore Jonathan Sanders (1.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg) and senior Matt Brown (3.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg).

The 6-7, 195-pound Sanders, who was a highly-touted recruit out of Denver, can play two positions, but he's different from most in that the two positions he plays are point guard and small forward.

That's because of the way he plays -- he's a very good passer who likes to drive and slash to the basket, but he isn't known as a great outside shooter (33 percent field-goal shooting last year). His size is more suited to the small-forward spot, but if his ball-handling skills are solid enough, he can be a valuable weapon as a 6-7 point guard.

The 6-9, 215-pound Brown came from Southern Idaho Junior College, where he shot 65 percent from the field, after spending a year at Stephen F. Austin. He saw action in 24 games last year. He's not expected to be a main contributor this year, but he can provide some inside muscle for he Rams.

Bottom line

Replacing four starters and five of your top six players isn't easy for any basketball program and for one that finished barely above .500 last year, it could mean disaster.

The Rams will be missing 52 points from last year's team which averaged just 69 per game, with just one starter back in Greene.

Layer did an admirable job coaching last year with his undersized team, but the Rams were able to prevail in several games because of their outstanding shooting. Unfortunately many of those fine shooters have graduated and the Rams will have to find more ways to win ball games with an inexperienced bunch of players this year.

The Rams' record of nine consecutive winning seasons and nine straight years with at least 15 wins could come to an end this year. CSU has some talent coming into the program, but if the new players don't come together in a hurry, the Rams may be fighting to stay out of the Mountain West cellar this year.