Following a loss to Virginia Commonwealth on Dec. 14, the Colorado State men’s basketball team was 5-5 and it appeared prognosticators who determined CSU would finish no higher than seventh in the Mountain West Conference weren’t far off with their predications.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly where the season turned in the Rams’ favor, but they won back-to-back games against Radford and Nevada before right Christmas and those wins started a 17-4 run through the remainder of their regular-season schedule.

CSU enters its quarterfinal game Thursday in the Mountain West tournament not only coming off a program-record 18-4 mark in conference play but also having won its past seven games and 12 of its past 14.

But the Rams are still considered to be a bubble team as far as the NCAA Tournament goes. They hope a strong showing in this week’s conference tournament will solidify their worthiness of being one of the 68 teams selected for the big dance.

All they have to do is continue what they have done since the beginning of 2025, when they began to figure things out and answer the questions that accompanied them at the beginning of the season.

CSU head coach Niko Medved pointed to the games just before and just after Christmas as to when he felt the team was turning a corner.

“Obviously, us winning at Nevada was huge for us to go and get that against one of the preseason top teams in the league,” Medved said. “We kind of had a hiccup after Christmas but, honestly, when we went to San Jose State on New Year’s Eve, it was the last game of 2024, and we had a huge win. Really, ever since that, 2025 has been pretty good.”

Even though the Rams won their first three games of the season, they followed with three straight losses. They did get back on track with a pair of wins before heading to Boulder for what the players and Medved have referred to as the low point of the season, a 72-55 loss to CU.

Even before the season Medved warned that it might take a while for the Rams to gel as a unit, with several new faces on the roster joining returners Nique Clifford, Jalen Lake, Kyan Evans and Rashaan Mbemba.

“Anybody that listened to me and these guys that I did say early in the year that I thought it would be tough sledding early for this crew,” Medved said. “You could feel it, but I’m like, ‘This is a group that’s going to get better.’ I didn’t know how much better, but I did.”

Lake said the team that has been playing recently isn’t the same one that began the year 5-5.

“We’re just so much more connected as a team,” Lake said. “We just really started to trust each other, and it took a while for guys to really just buy in to their roles and just figure out the roles as well. It’s a totally different team from then to now.”

Medved added that the team’s commitment to defense played a big part in the turnaround. The team’s new additions began to make more of an impact as well. Transfers Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Bowen Born, Keshawn Williams and Ethan Morton became heavy contributors.

Clifford solidified himself as one of the conference’s top players by averaging a double-double almost every other game and providing valuable leadership as one of the team’s veterans. Evans, a sophomore, began to show his maturity filling the shoes of Isaiah Stevens, one of the best the program has ever developed.

“It’s super cool when you’re the old guy on the team and you just get to mentor them a little bit and show them the ropes,” Clifford said. “You want to leave the place better than it was before, and so I feel like that’s all our mindsets, just helping those guys out, making sure for next year, that they’re ready to go and they could take reins once we’re gone.”

While the conversation early in the season might have been about next year, the team’s late surge has put those thoughts on the back burner. The Rams have solidified themselves as a bid stealer, whether it is as the Mountain West tournament champion or an at-large selection.

“I think we’re really dangerous, especially when we’re playing together in our offense and then most importantly, just when we’re playing with defensive intensity, getting deflections, steals, turnovers,” Evans said. “I think that’s when we’re at our best, so when we’re playing well, we’re definitely going to be tough to beat.”

As the No. 2 seed, the Rams got a bye into the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament. They will face Nevada at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center. CSU defeated the Wolf Pack both times the teams met in conference play.