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  • Grading The Week: Nuggets’ Jamal Murray sure looks like NBA All-Star to us

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    It’s Jamal Murray’s Team World. The rest of us are just living in it.

    Or rather, living in the glow of what might be the Nuggets guard’s best-ever start to a regular season — best statistical start, at any rate.

    While the Nuggets themselves are coming off a schizophrenic and inconsistent week, to put it kindly, after home losses to Sacramento and San Antonio, the Blue Arrow has quietly been tying a bow around his most productive November ever.

    Friday night’s 37-point performance against the Spurs at Ball Arena pushed No. 27’s scoring average over his first 12 games of the month to 23.2 per contest — easily his best clip for the month of November since the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Jamal Murray: budding All-Star — A-minus.

    From Nov. 1-Nov. 28, Murray was connecting on 48% of his attempts from the floor and 40.4% from beyond the arc. As of Saturday morning, his November averages were 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 3.0 treys per tilt.

    If that sounds like a healthy jump from a year ago at this time, that’s because it is. Murray in November 2024 averaged 17.8 points, 6.7 dimes and 2.2 3-point makes over 10 games. In November 2023, Maple Curry averaged 12.5 points, 6.3 assists and 1.5 treys over just four appearances.

    Given that Murray is a historically slow-(ish) starter, Team Grading The Week (GTW) wanted to pause form stuffing our respective faces with turkey sandwiches and tip some collective caps in the Blue Arrow’s direction.

    For one, Murray promised that a dedicated summer of good health plus a intense workout schedule would lead to a better opening two months of the regular season. He’s been true to that word — so far, so good.

    For another, here’s hoping that yet another tweak in the NBA’s All-Star game format opens up a window for Murray to finally make the cut at age 28.

    Instead of conference-vs.-conference matchups, the main competition on ASG weekend will be a Team USA vs. Team World tourney. Only instead of two teams, there will be three teams comprised of eight players, with no positional restrictions, who will face off in a round-robin format.

    With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32.6 points, 6.6 assist per game as of this past Friday) almost a lock to take up at least one Team World backcourt spot, Murray is going to have to keep this pace up to join his fellow Canadian at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., come mid-February. But with each passing week, Murray gets that much closer to crossing the threshold from almost to All-Star.

    Tad Boyle’s still got it — A.

    New DU men’s hoops coach Tim Bergstraser sure got the GTW crew’s attention earlier this month by beating CSU Rams and Ali Farokhmanesh in FoCo. Steve Smiley’s UNC Bears men’s basketball team improved to 6-1 this past Wednesday with a victory at Air Force. Thanksgiving weekend means we’re going to finally get some meaty inter-conference matchups on the hoops front, and no local men’s team has stepped up over the past few days the way GTW’s old pal Tad Boyle has with CU.

    Between Nov. 21-28, the Buffs (7-0) knocked off UC Davis at home by 16, then went to Palm Desert, Calif., for a holiday tourney — taking out a good San Francisco team by 10 and following that up with an 81-68 victory over Washington on Friday thanks to Bangot Dak’s 15 points and 11 boards.

    It’s too early to draw deep conclusions on the men’s hoops front locally, but not too early to dream. As of late Friday night, CU’s good week had moved the Buffs up to No. 65 on KenPom.com’s computer rankings, just ahead of CSU at No. 68. With both rivals needing a “name” win on their respective resumes before Christmas, the Rocky Mountain Showdown at Moby Arena on Dec. 6 figures to be, to paraphrase Russell Wilson, awfully spicy.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CSU Rams lose ninth game of season, falling at Boise State

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    With the loss, the Rams fell to 2-9 on the season and 1-6 in the Mountain West Conference

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    Nathan Wright

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  • CSU Rams football coach short list: Who could replace Jay Norvell?

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    Since Canvas Stadium opened, the CSU Rams football program has tried the SEC route. It’s tried The Urban Meyer Family Tree. It’s tried a safe, steady hand with Mountain West bona fides. None of those paths have led to a consistent conference championship contender whose results have matched the ambitions of CSU’s $220 million football home.

    So with Jay Norvell out, where does Rams AD John Weber turn now? Here are nine candidates CSU should have on his short list:

    Tony Alford, Michigan running backs coach/run game coordinator: If it’s about family, nobody bleeds green the way Alford, who played running back at CSU from 1987-90, still does. At 56, he’s been looking for a chance to put a stamp on a program of his own.

    Matt Lubick, Kansas co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach: Speaking of keeping it in the family, the son of CSU icon Sonny Lubick remains a fan favorite at age 53. Time to come home?

    Jay Hill, BYU defensive coordinator/associate head coach: Not young (50), but we already know what his Cougars can do (and have done) to CU. Bonus: Has head coaching experience, posting a 68-39 record as the top man at Weber State from 2014-22.

    Jason Candle, Toledo: Matt Campbell’s successor was supposed to find his Iowa State a while ago, having produced four seasons of at least nine wins with the Rockets since 2017. He’s still there. Although, as he’s got a contract through 2028, so he probably won’t come super-cheap.

    Collin Klein, Texas A&M offensive coordinator: At 36, the former Loveland High star and Heisman Trophy finalist is a rising star and a good guy, to boot. If Rams fans want to “lock the gates” for local recruits, this could be the guy.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Ali Farokhmanesh is losing his voice, but not his love for CSU Rams

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    FORT COLLINS — The voice bobbed and weaved like a cornered boxer. Sentences that started as butter finished with the scrape of burnt toast.

    Ali Farokhmanesh looked great Saturday at Moby Arena, wearing a calm smile and a white CSU polo. Dude sounded like holy heck.

    “I mean, (I’m) yelling more than I was, talking more, just constantly talking,” the new Rams men’s basketball coach told me after his squad scrimmaged for the public Saturday, the warm-up act for a Homecoming football tussle against Hawaii.

    “So I think that’s the biggest adjustment. That’s the biggest thing I had to figure out is how to get my voice to stay. Because the first event we did in downtown (Fort Collins), it was gone. I started like shaking up and down. I sounded like I was going through puberty again, like …”

    “That Brady Bunch song?”

    “Pretty much,” he laughed. “If you can find something for my throat to fix that, let me know.

    “I always joke with our guys, though, I’m saying our body language matters and how you respond to refs, how you talk to them. Well, then, I shouldn’t lose my voice because I shouldn’t be (yelling). We’ll see how it goes on November 3.”

    As Peter Brady once sang, when it’s time to change, then it’s time to change. Farokhmanesh, 37, is re-arranging who he is and what he’s gonna be.

    No Nique Clifford? No Niko Medved? No problemo. For now, anyway.

    If CSU football feels a bit like a marriage that has lost its spark, Rams hoops is still ensconced in nuptial bliss. You’d be hard-pressed to find a heart in Fort Fun that doesn’t love Farokhmanesh. And Ali’s family.

    Although a first-time head coach, Farokhmanesh is working overtime these days to stay out of his wife Mallory’s doghouse. The other night, she caught him falling asleep while watching practice film. All parties agreed he could pick it back up at 5:30 in the morning.

    “I feel like I try to have a balance, right?” Farokhmanesh said. “Which you never really do, but you’re always fighting for. So, she does a good job of managing that with me, too. I think she helps me a lot with that.”

    Colorado State’s Jevin Muniz drives to the basket during an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday at Moby Arena. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

    On the court, with a half-dozen new faces, the Rams’ lineup is a work in progress. Rotations are in flux. Medved’s fingerprints are still there, but with tweaks and tucks — some spread, some motion, constant movement.

    Farokhmanesh was the boy genius with the whiteboard on the sidelines, feeding the Niko machine. On Saturday, that board was in the hands of assistant coach Cole Gentry. Besides work-life balance and trying to do too much all at once, the next biggest challenge for first-time coaches is delegating authority. Giving up the stuff they used to obsess over.

    “I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job (with that),” Farokhmanesh said. “I’m not doing the subs right now. I’m not doing the baseline out of bounds (plays) now. Those are all things I did before. I’ve given up the board. But I’m still going to have a say in all of it. So, it’s giving it up, but it’s also like, you’re still involved. I don’t know. It’s just different.”

    The Ali Era’s “soft” opening is a tricky one: The Rams play an exhibition at Creighton on Oct. 25 in advance of the Nov. 3 home lid-lifter against Incarnate Word.

    Farokhmanesh and Jays coach Greg McDermott are both Northern Iowa Panthers, which is fun. Creighton just beat Iowa State in an exhibition by 13 this past Friday, which is … yeah, not so fun.

    “And after what they did in Iowa State, I’m a little more nervous,” the Rams coach said. “If we want to be an NCAA Tournament team, you’ve got to play teams like that. Does that help us to just go scrimmage a D2 (school)? Does it? We’ll get something out of it. But I want to challenge our (guys), and I want to put them on a stage. Because if we want to play at the highest levels, we’re going to have to beat people on those stages and compete with them.”

    Farokhmanesh, long one of Medved’s best teachers and recruiters, is already taking names on the recruiting trail. Reported 2026 commit Pops Dunson, a 6-foot point guard out of Douglasville, Ga., is the highest-ranked prep signee for the Rams this century, according to the 247Sports.com database.

    “If you’ve got time, he’s in here working with you,” said CSU forward Rashaan Mbemba, who leads the Rams roster in returning minutes with 615 (19.2 per game) and returning points (7.0 per game). “And I think that’s something you’ve got to really appreciate. I mean, he has four kids, he has a wife. Being a head coach, a husband, a dad. Now he’s also like, kind of, for a lot of guys, he’s the first person to talk to. As a team and as a community, we really appreciate that.”

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CSU linebacker Jacob Ellis ‘playing for a higher cause’ in final year with Rams

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    FORT COLLINS — Randi Ellis can remember the sounds radiating from the family’s garage early each morning.

    Music bumping at full blast. Dumbbells clashing. And the thump, thump, thumping of her brother’s hands pounding a heavy bag.

    “He knew that one way or another, he was going to follow in our father’s footsteps,” Randi said of her younger brother, Jacob.

    This fall in Fort Collins, Jacob Ellis is playing his final year of college football with boxing in his blood and his late father in his heart.

    The new CSU linebacker’s grandfather, Jimmy Ellis, was a world heavyweight champion. And Jacob’s father, former Ohio State tight end Jeff Ellis, has been Jacob’s primary motivation since Jeff died of pancreatic cancer during his son’s junior year of high school.

    Those two family backstories are Ellis’ fuel as the Iowa State transfer chases the same success he found in 2021, when he emerged as one of the best junior college players in the nation at Iowa Western.

    “My hope for this year is to have that (NJCAA) national defensive player of the year Jacob come back out,” Ellis said. “But most importantly, I want to help this team win, and to continue to play for my last name. Play for the name on the front of the jersey, but also on the back of the jersey.

    “I play with a lot of passion and with my emotions on my sleeve. Rams fans are going to see me continuously remember my ‘why.’ ”

    Ellis trained like his grandfather ahead of his season, building himself up with boxing gloves and hill sprints.

    In his hometown of Sacramento over the summer, Ellis sparred with other local players in the garage gym of his trainer, Bob Sebring. Then, Ellis ran up and down Sebring’s property to the point of complete exhaustion.

    “When we’re sparring, we’re working on footwork, our hand speed in and out, because it all translates over to when an offensive lineman comes to block you and how fast can you get your hands on him and how fast can you get his hands off of you,” Ellis said. “After we get done boxing, we run the hill five, six times.

    “A couple times, I almost fell down (and passed out) because of how much I pushed my legs and my body to the limits.”

    After eight starts over three seasons at Iowa State, Ellis is set up for a big role with CSU. One of the team captains, he quickly emerged as a leader for a rebuilt Rams defense.

    Colorado State Rams linebacker Jacob Ellis (44) runs drills during practice on campus in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Aug. 19, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

    “Jacob’s come in and been a force,” fellow linebacker and captain Owen Long said. “Not only with his play, but his knowledge for the game and his leadership has been something that has rubbed off on me and everyone. Throughout fall camp, there were times when he’d call out a play before it even comes. He helps the defense play three times faster.”

    As he’s done throughout college, Ellis will continue to write “RIP DAD” on the tape on his wrist, in addition to the date his father died. Jeff Ellis coached his son throughout Jacob’s childhood. The linebacker says he wouldn’t be playing Division I football without his father’s influence.

    “I always feel his presence with me,” Ellis said. “That helps me so much when I’m out there. When I’m tired, when I have a bad play, I just look down at my tape.”

    Ellis didn’t get to know his grandfather as well. Jimmy Ellis battled Alzheimer’s disease at the end of his life and passed away when Jacob was in middle school. But the reminders of Jimmy’s fame in the ring were everywhere around Jacob’s childhood home.

    Jimmy, one of the lightest heavyweight champions ever, was a sparring partner with Muhammad Ali. He held the World Boxing Association belt from 1968-70 and fought some of the biggest names in the sport, including Ali, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. He was 40-12-1 as a pro before retiring in 1975.

    In this July 27, 1971, file photo, Referee Jay Edson, left, keeps an eye on the fight between Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Ellis, right, in the 12th round of their heavyweight fight in Houston. (AP Photo/File)
    In this July 27, 1971, file photo, Referee Jay Edson, left, keeps an eye on the fight between Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Ellis, right, in the 12th round of their heavyweight fight in Houston. (AP Photo/File)

    “I’ve gone to the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville and seen my grandfather in there, so the Ellis legacy is something I take a lot of pride in and it’s something I want to continue,” Jacob Ellis said. “It’s my job to continue that legacy in the sport of football.”

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    Kyle Newman

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  • Keeler: CSU players, including QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, need to stop writing checks Rams football can’t cash

    Keeler: CSU players, including QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, need to stop writing checks Rams football can’t cash

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    FORT COLLINS — Surely, Kansas State wasn’t allegedly offering CSU quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi $600,000 in NIL money just to hand off and get the heck out of the way.

    “I have slowed the game down on offense a little bit,” Rams football coach Jay Norvell explained Monday at Canvas Stadium, “because we were playing some really talented people these first three weeks and I felt like, to give our defense a chance, I needed to slow down the game a little bit and run it a little bit more.”

    The problem isn’t that the Rams are fighting Shedeur Sanders. The problem is that they look as if they’re fighting themselves.

    Air Raid? Smash-mouth? None of the above? Hey, it’s good to be multiple. But over the last 11 months or so, the Rams offense has often looked downright schizophrenic.

    Consider: In the first four series of a bonkers 2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown last September, CSU threw it 11 times. In the first four series of a boring first half this past weekend in the ’24 Showdown, a 28-9 CU victory, the Rams aired it out just five times, officially.

    At home. Against one of the two schools your alums want desperately to beat most. In front of a rocking, ravenous and rare sellout at Canvas Stadium.

    And yeah, we know — personnel played a factor. Last year’s Rams took on CU and the Sanders family with Dallin Holker at tight end, wideout Louis Brown IV and a healthy Tory Horton. CSU this past weekend had no Holker, no Brown and Horton (groin) toughing it out on basically one good leg.

    But when you’ve been touting your QB1 as a Power 4-level signal-caller, and then can’t trust him to air it out against a Power 4 defense, red flags start popping up everywhere. Everybody’s credibility suffers.

    “(We) need to get our playmakers involved, we need to get it going offensively,” Norvell continued. “And we’ve got talent. We can score. And we need to respond to that.”

    “Are you saying you’re going to take a more aggressive approach from here on out with how you attack teams?” the coach was asked.

    “No, I’m telling you that I think we had hard matchups, and I don’t think we matched up very well,” Norvell replied. “And I was trying to minimize that — and that’s what head coaches do.”

    Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) and CU cornerback DJ McKinney (8) bring down Colorado State Rams running back Justin Marshall (29) in the first quarter at Canvas Stadium in Ft. Collins, Colorado Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    Fortunately, there’s all kinds of time left, nine games, with which to hammer out a new narrative. The Mountain West looks top-heavy, and CSU won’t play two of the three programs — UNLV and Boise State, Fresno State being the other — expected to vie for the league crown.

    More hope: The Rams have already faced the two most talented two rosters they’ll see all year in No. 1 Texas and CU. Although if the point was to save some arrows in the quiver for league play, after last Saturday, it might be good for Norvell to start firing off a few.

    “We’ve got a lot of season left,” the coach said, “and we’ve got all of our goals in front of us that we want to accomplish in our conference and in the remaining nine games.”

    All true. But assuming this weekend’s visit from 0-3 UTEP gets the Rams (1-2) back to .500, it’s also not crazy to wonder if a visit to future league rival Oregon State (Oct. 5) and a home test with San Jose State (Oct. 12) leaves CSU at 2-4 heading into a tussle at rebuilding Air Force (1-2). It’s not unreasonable to wonder whether the CSU administration, after that CU stinker, will have everybody’s back if — if — the Rams are somehow 2-5 with three winnable home games (New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah State) left on the docket.

    Norvell knows the score. He’s got a president and athletic director who didn’t hire him, and the former isn’t messing around.

    The Pac-12, or what’s left of it, awaits.

    “I’ve felt pressure since the day I started being a coach,” Norvell said. “I mean, that’s just part of it.”

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Ex-CSU Rams coach Steve Addazio joins ESPN as analyst

    Ex-CSU Rams coach Steve Addazio joins ESPN as analyst

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    The Daz is joining the Disney family.

    Former CSU Rams football coach Steve Addazio, whose Fort Collins tenure was short and tempestuous, is transitioning to television. ESPN announced that Addazio has joined the network as a college football analyst and will start calling games later this month.

    Addazio posted a 4-12 record at CSU from 2020-21 and had a 61-67 career record as a head coach with the Rams, Boston College (2013-19) and Temple (2011-12). He was fired at CSU in December 2021, a few days after completing a 3-9 season and after being ejected from a 52-10 home loss to Nevada, then coached by Jay Norvell.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CSU Rams lose to Nevada on buzzer-beater

    CSU Rams lose to Nevada on buzzer-beater

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    FORT COLLINS — Just when it looked like Colorado State had completed a second-half comeback to send its game against Nevada to overtime, the Wolf Pack made sure extra time would not be needed.

    Isaiah Stevens drained a jumper to tie the game at 74 with 2.8 seconds remaining, but the Wolf Pack banked in a half-court 3-pointer at the buzzer to claim a 77-74 victory Tuesday night at Moby Arena.

    It was CSU’s first Mountain West conference loss at home and just its second loss at home this season. It was also CSU’s third straight loss overall on the heels of an 0-2 road trip last week at New Mexico and UNLV.

    The Rams dropped to 20-9 overall and 8-8 in the Mountain West with two games remaining in the regular season.

    “Basketball can be unforgiving sometimes,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “Tonight was a gut-punch. There’s no other way around it.”

    Trailing 39-28 at halftime, the Rams scored the first four points to cut the Wolf Pack lead to 39-32 and then cut it to five at 42-37 on a layup by Patrick Cartier with 14:21 remaining in the game.

    But a 3-pointer followed by three free throws from a foul on a 3-point attempt pushed the Wolf Pack’s lead back to double digits at 48-37 with 13:20 left.

    CSU got back within five after a three-point play by Patrick Cartier made it 53-48 with 10:15 remaining. The Rams got that close a few more times, the last coming on a free-throw by Jalen Lake with 4:19 remaining that made it 63-58.

    With 3:23 remaining, the Rams got within two at 63-61 on a three-point play by Stevens, but the Wolf Pack answered, as they did all game, with four straight points to extend their lead to multiple possessions again.

    Finally, the Rams got within striking distance, pulling within three on a 3-pointer by Nique Clifford with 22 seconds left and then two on a jumper by Stevens with 11 seconds remaining and then tied it on another jumper by Stevens with just under three seconds left.

    Colorado State’s Nique Clifford puts up a shot against Nevada on Tuesday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

    Then Nevad’s Jarod Lucas, who missed a pair of free throws between Stevens’ two jumpers, raced down the sideline, heaved the ball from halfcourt and banked it in.

    “It was a heck of a game,” Stevens said. “We kept fighting. I give our team a lot of credit, but we just didn’t make that last play.”

    Stevens led the Rams with 23 points. Joel Scott added 15 and Clifford 10.

    CSU led for the first 1:51, but after Nevada took a 5-3 lead on a 3-pointer, the Rams never led again in the opening 20 minutes.

    The Wolf Pack extended its lead to five before the Rams were able to whittle it back down to one at 10-9 after a 3-pointer by Clifford with 13:40 left in the first half.

    Nevada took a seven-point lead at 29-16, but the Rams cut their deficit to four at 30-26 on a jumper by Lake, but CSU would get no close than that before halftime as the Wolf Pack closed the period on a 9-2 run to take an 11-point lead into halftime.

    Five first-half turnovers and a 39.3 shooting percentage from the field hurt the Rams in the first half. They were also only 5-for-12 (41.7%) from behind the 3-point line and got to the free-throw line once. Joe Palmer made one of two on that lone trip to the stripe.

    Stevens had 10 points to lead the Rams in the first half.

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    Nathan Wright

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