FORT COLLINS — There is a tinge of improbability to what the Colorado State basketball team has accomplished this season.
The Rams are 11-4, the best start in coach Tim Miles’ era.
They started the week No. 27 in the RPI.
And they are doing all of this with only nine or 10 available players on a given night, and with just two players taller than 6-foot-6 — and one, 7-foot Trevor Williams, who is out indefinitely with chronic back issues.
And now CSU takes all of that into conference play. The Rams open their Mountain West conference schedule tonight against TCU at Moby Arena as one of the last teams in the nation to begin conference play.
CSU has improved its conference record every season Miles has been coach, from 0-16 in 2007-08 to 9-7 last season. Nine wins in conference this season, with a couple of well-placed victories over highly regarded teams such as UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico, would give CSU around 20 for the season and a legitimate chance to make the NCAA Tournament.
But that’s a long way away. The always-grueling conference schedule is just beginning, and Miles has been impressed with what he’s seen from conference opponents.
“I think it’s (the MW) better than ever — again,” Miles said. “You keep saying that, but the teams keep winning and keep doing good things. Winning percentage is what you look at. I’m not sure that in my five years we’ve had a better winning percentage from top to bottom. … It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Miles deflected inquiries into how many wins he thinks the Rams need in order to be in good position for an NCAA berth.
“(I’ve) just tried to stay with the process with these guys,” Miles said. “We thought last year was a ‘teachable moment’ type of season, which was, ‘This is what it’s like, this is what you have to do to try to be an at-large team.’ And I thought it was educational for the guys, but I also think it wore on them. Now you don’t have to do that as much.
“So, we’re just talking about trying to win every game, trying to get a little better at what our weaknesses are, and kind of stick to the process rather than worry about, ‘We need to get to eight.’ ”
CSU has momentum, having won six consecutive games.
“I think we kind of expected the success we’re having,” guard Wes Eikmeier said. “I think that tough schedule we had at the beginning of the year, that run when we played Stanford, Duke, Northern Iowa on the road, that’s good preparation for successful stretches like this.”
Said guard Dorian Green: “Our confidence is high. We have good team chemistry. I think that this little run we’ve been on is guys getting in rhythm and playing well. I think we have good momentum and good confidence, so we’re just going to try to keep this rolling going into conference.”
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
