By Keanu Haghighi (@KeanuHaghighi):
Coming off a road loss against Utah State, San Jose State’s men’s basketball (3-9, 0-1 MW) looks to bounce back as it hosts Colorado State (7-7, 0-1 MW) Saturday afternoon for its conference home-opener.
The Spartans are 0-15 against the Rams in program history, a stain that dates back to 1969 when the teams first met.
Currently, the Rams have three players averaging double-figures in Prentiss Nixon, Deion James and Che Bob. SJSU’s only player who’s averaging in double-digits is junior forward Ryan Welage, who ranks fourth in the conference with 18.3 PPG.
Welage doesn’t have a pleasing past against the Rams however, as they’ve been known to put pressure on him and limit him in the scoring category. He has just 25 total points in five career meetings against Colorado State.
Last season, the Spartans fell to the Rams by five points at home and by nine on the road, but help from former forward Brandon Clarke kept the SJSU close as he had 24 points in each contest.
Head coach Jean Prioleau’s main focus entering the season was defending and rebounding. Although that’s been solid, the same can’t be said for SJSU’s offense, as it ranks last in the Mountain West in points per game with 67.5.
The Spartans looked fantastic on the glass in its conference opener as it outrebounded Utah State 40-23, which improved SJSU’s average rebounding margin to +8.8 this season.
SJSU will look took take advantage of the Rams’ fragile defense who ranks dead last in the Mountain West and allowing 77.6 PPG.
It will be a test to see which strategy prevails in this contest of last place scoring offense against last place scoring defense.
Tip off is at 2 p.m. inside the Event Center.