Colorado State men’s basketball has signed Golden forward Adam Thistlewood to a National Letter of Intent, .

A great day for the as signs his first recruit to a National Letter of Intent, as @athis_31 will join the program next year as a freshman! Welcome Adam to the Ram Family!

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— Colorado State Men’s Basketball (@CSUMBasketball)

Thistlewood — a 6-foot-7 prospect formerly signed to play for Medved’s Drake team —��averaged 22.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.5 blocks per game as a senior last season. He is the first player to sign at CSU since Medved replaced Larry Eustachy as the Rams’ head coach. Thistlewood chose CSU over scholarship offers from Air Force, Army, Cornell, Davidson and others.

“Adam is the entire package,” Medved said in a news release. “He’s a talented player, a terrific student and a terrific human being. He is going to fit in great as player and into our culture that we are trying to build at Colorado State. Adam is a versatile player with size who can shoot, handle and pass the ball and can do a lot of things that effect winning. I can’t wait to have him in the program next year.”

Thistlewood is also the first in-state high school player to sign at CSU since 2014 when J.D. Paige (Rangeview) and Toby Van Ry (Fort Collins) joined the team.

Roster moves. CSU guard Raquan Mitchell — a South Plains (Texas) College transfer who averaged 7 points and 2.9 rebounds as a junior last season —��has announced he will transfer from the program. Mitchell joins guard Prentiss Nixon as the second player to leave the team this offseason.

Rams forward Kris Martin posted on Twitter that he would transfer to Oklahoma, but Martin will now return to CSU, Medved said. Martin sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules. He previously averaged 13.7 points as a sophomore at Oral Roberts.

Air Force athletic director Jim Knowlton has accepted the same position at the University of California, .

Knowlton spent three years at Air Force and is credited with leading fundraising efforts for ongoing renovations at Falcon Stadium, the creation of a concert series on campus that has drawn acts such as Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton, and consistently high marks in the Learfield Director’s Cup standings.

Knowlton,��a 1982 West Point graduate, is set to be introduced as California’s athletic director at a 1:30 p.m. Monday press conference. His official start date is May 21.

Jim Knowlton named new Director of Athletics .

"We will excel in the classroom, on our campus and in our community, and incorporate dignity and respect in all we do."

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— UC Berkeley (@UCBerkeley)

“I am thrilled to join the University of California, Berkeley family,” Knowlton said in a news release. “I am thankful for the trust and confidence of Chancellor (Carol) Christ, and am extremely impressed with her vision along with the passion, commitment and dedication of the entire search committee. I look forward to connecting with our exceptional student-athletes, faculty, coaches and staff on campus, along with our alumni, supporters and the Berkeley community.

“Cal has all the ingredients to be incredible on and off the field and I’m excited for the challenge to have our athletic teams and student-athletes win the right way at the highest levels. We will excel in the classroom, on our campus and in our community, and incorporate dignity and respect in all we do.”

Air Force plans to name an interim athletic director at a later date.

Colorado State forward Nico Carvacho, the Mountain West����ap leading rebounder last season (12.3) during league play, will return to the Rams after exploring his transfer options.

Carvacho posted a message Saturday on Twitter that included: “After getting to know Coach (Niko) Medved and staff, talking with my family and praying, I have decided to stay in Fort Collins and remain a Ram! Ready to work and get back to the top!”

— Nico Carvacho (@NicoCarvacho25)

Carvacho, a redshirt junior next season, earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors last season by coaches and the media. He tallied 10 double-doubles against conference opponents, and against San Jose State, he scored 26 points with 20 rebounds.

Carvacho’s return bolsters a roster that will not include Prentiss Nixon, the Rams’ leading scorer last season, who announced on Friday he will transfer.

Colorado State men’s basketball coach Niko Medved’s assistant coaching staff is complete.

The school announced late Friday that Dave Thorson — an accomplished Minnesota high school coach that spent last season with Medved at Drake — will round out the Rams’ staff. Thorson joins��JR Blount and Ali Farokhmanesh, also former Drake assistants.

Colorado State men’s basketball has completed the coaching part of the staff with the addition of assistant coach , announced today.

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— Colorado State Men’s Basketball (@CSUMBasketball)

“Dave is a person I have known and admired for a long time,” Medved said in a news release. “He is a tremendous coach and person and was one of the most successful coaches in Minnesota high school basketball. He brings that wealth of knowledge and character to our program here and I am excited to have him here at Colorado State as he will be a key part of achieving our goals.”

At��DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, Thorson won nine state championships, the most by any coach in state history, over a 23-year career.

“The opportunity to work for Niko and with a fantastic staff, representing a university like Colorado State, is basketball nirvana for me,” Thorson said. “Rita, Ella Ray, and I are ecstatic to be a part of the Ram family. We look forward to calling Fort Collins home.”

Thorson also tweeted that CSU will retain��Pierce Hornung, the Rams’��director of player development the last two seasons, but the school has not announced in what role.

Take Note Ram Nation: Great to be a part of a staff with . Love his approach & legacy he brings to Ram Basketball. Ram BB Staff synergy is overflowing!

— Coach Dave Thorson (@GrindersWinDT)

Colorado State men’s basketball is losing its top scorer last season to transfer.

Prentiss Nixon — a starting 6-foot-2, 185-pound CSU guard — announced late Friday on Twitter that he intends to leave the program and play elsewhere his senior season.

Nixon posted a message that included: “I would like to say thank you and I appreciate all the great times and memories I have made during my time at Colorado State. But a business decision had to be made for the betterment of my family and I.”

Thank You CSU

— Prentiss. (@2prent_)

Nixon, a Bolingbrook, Ill., native, is one of only 28 players in CSU history with at least 1,000 career points (1,058). He led the Rams in scoring last season with 16.1 per game a CSU finished 11-21 (4-14 Mountain West) through the turmoil that led to head coach Larry Eustachy’s resignation. Nixon was an ardent supporter of Eustachy, even writing in black marker on his game shoes several times: “#FreeLarryE.”

Nixon is the second player to announce transfer plans since Niko Medved was introduced as the Rams’ new head coach, joining forward Kris Martin. Center Nico Carvacho also made it known he will explore his transfer options with the possibility of a return to CSU still in play.

Nixon will likely be forced to sit out one season per NCAA rules unless he receives a hardship waiver.

Jase Herl navigated the final six games of Colorado State’s tumultuous men’s basketball season as interim head coach and was not retained on staff when the Rams hired Niko Medved to lead the program.

But Herl did not remain unemployed for long.

Herl will join the coaching staff at Missouri State, , as an assistant under first-year head coach Dana Ford.

Herl was in his second season as a CSU assistant when on Feb. 10 he was asked to replace then interim coach Steve Barnes, who joined then head coach Larry Eustachy on paid administrative leave through the course of an internal investigation into Eustachy’s conduct that ended with his resignation.

Herl won his first game as interim head coach against San Jose State,��90-79, but CSU ended the season with five-straight losses to finish 11-21 (4-14 Mountain West). Herl — a Goodland, Kan., native once in line to run the family car dealership — has a strong junior college recruiting background and previously served as head coach at��Northwest Kansas Technical College and as an assistant at South Plains (Texas) College.

CSU has since announced the hiring of former Drake assistants JR Blount and Ali Farokhmanesh to its men’s basketball coaching staff.

Ty Evans is doing his best to stay in the moment.

The Palmer Ridge quarterback is wrapping up the final classes of his junior year, and in about nine months, he is verbally committed to enroll early at Colorado to begin his college football journey in Boulder. But there is another state championship to win. Endless game knowledge to improve. More memories to make.

“This is the last time that it will just be for fun,” Evans said. “That����ap special.”

Just don’t get it twisted. Evans is all business in his pursuit to dominate major college football like he does class 3A Colorado high schools. And by the time he takes the first fall snap for Palmer Ridge in 2018, it����ap likely Evans will face an increasingly difficult scholarship decision — CU or a national power?

Since Evans (6-3, 190) pledged to the Buffs in January, offers have rolled in from Michigan, Ole Miss, Alabama, Texas A&M and others. Will Evans take official visits?

“I’m just trying to get through my junior year and focusing on finishing that out strong,” Evans said. “Official visits are so far in the future. I know you can take them in the spring, but if I was going to, I would take them in the fall. That����ap so far down the road.”

For now, Evans aims to build off the success of a breakout year with 3,627 yards passing and 42 touchdowns. His offseason regimen includes weight lifting every day after school and regular visits to Ground-Up Sports Performance in Colorado Springs for speed training. Evans will also travel to Dallas later this month to compete in an Elite 11 regional camp with the goal to reach the national finals in Los Angeles.

https://twitter.com/GroundupSP/status/973576535750754305

“Getting more consistent and more accurate is something that quarterbacks always try to work on,” Evans said, “but I’m really just trying to take my game to the next level and get as much football knowledge as I can.”

Despite the growing national spotlight, Evans remains committed to CU with high praise for the Buffaloes’ direction. CU quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper had offered Evans a scholarship at South Carolina prior to his release from the school, and the pair has maintained a strong connection since being reunited.

“What they’re doing at Colorado really fits my game style perfectly,” Evans said. “With (Steven) Montez and (Sefo) Liufau, the kind of quarterbacks they are I can see myself becoming. I think that I really thrive in an offense like that giving a lot of decisions to the quarterback.”

Evans is currently ranked the No. 10 pro-style quarterback in the nation ��for the class of 2019.

The Colorado Buffaloes and Colorado State Rams enter the 2018 football season with renewed hopes for conference championships, but if ��is any indication, it will be another long and arduous season for both programs.

The FPI is “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season,” according to ESPN. Results are based on “10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule.”

The preseason prognosis for CU and CSU? Not good.

The Buffs are ranked No. 79 nationally in the FPI with a projected win total of 4.1 — a decline from CU’s five victories a year ago. The Buffs were also given a zero-percent chance of winning the Pac-12.

The Rams check in at No. 105 on the list, but with slightly higher expectations. CSU is projected to finish with 4.3 victories, which would end the program’s streak of five consecutive bowl games. The Rams are given a 0.3-percent chance to win the Mountain West.

Just how accurate is the FPI forecast? ESPN performed for 780 college football games and discovered the average margin of victory was 12.4 points different than their predicted margin of error, so by no means is it a perfect science. Yet it’s clear the national outlook on CU and CSU’s upcoming seasons are grim.

Here’s a look at how the Pac-12 and Mountain West shake out on the preseason FPI.

PAC-12

FPI rank; Team; Projected wins; Probability to win conference title

6; Washington; 10.6; 51.6%

13; Stanford; 8.4; 10%

15; USC; 8.7; 25.4%

23; Oregon; 8.3; 3.8%

27; California; 7.7; 2.7%

32; Utah; 6.9; 2.5%

42; Arizona; 7.4; 0.5%

48; UCLA; 5; 0.5%

51; Arizona State; 5.2; 0%

52; Washington State; 6.1; 0%

79; Colorado; 4.1; 0%

100; Oregon State; 2.2; 0%

Mountain West

FPI rank; Team; Projected wins; Probability to win conference title

37; Boise State; 10; 55.1%

59; San Diego State; 8.5; 18.5%

63; Fresno State; 7.6; 12.9%

71; Utah State; 8; 6.9%

85; Nevada, 6.8; 3.1%

87; Wyoming; 6.4; 2.4%

101; Air Force; 4.8; 0.3%

102; UNLV; 5.8; 0.4%

105; Colorado State; 4.8; 0.3%

114; New Mexico; 3.9; 0%

119; San Jose State; 3.2; 0%

The relationship between major college sports and academics has long been contentious.��Does the system need to change?

That topic will be addressed in Boulder this week as part of a panel discussion hosted by the��Colorado Athletics Sports Governance Center titled: “Are Big-Time College Athletics Compatible with Academics?” The event will be held from 7-9 p.m. Thursday at the Champions Center on campus inside the��third-floor Petry Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

CU men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle will participate in the conversation alongside a wide-ranging panel of speakers.

• Jay Smith (University of North Carolina professor and co-author of ).

• Victoria Jackson (Former NCAA championship runner and Arizona State professor working on the book project��).

• Kris Livingston (CU associate athletic director for student services).

• Joe Jupille (CU faculty athletic representative).

Roger Pielke Jr., director of CU’s Sports Governance Center, provided a synopsis of what the event hopes to accomplish .

“The goal for the evening is educational, with a wide ranging and open discussion of these challenging and important issues. You should feel free to address the question posed as the title of the panel discussion in whatever way makes the most sense to you. It is intentionally provocative and ideally we will have some debate as well as conversation. In the unlikely event that we do not solve all the problems of college athletics, I’d like the audience to go away with a deeper and perhaps more sophisticated understanding of the challenges, issues, opportunities.”

Academic integrity for college sports in Colorado has entered the spotlight on several occasions in recent memory.

• Colorado men’s basketball freshman Evan Battey last season because he did not complete high school within the four years required for immediate eligibility.

• The Northern Colorado men’s basketball team received three years of NCAA probation��after it discovered the program had completed coursework for prospects, paid for classes��that players needed to become academically eligible and arranged off-campus practice sessions with an academically ineligible player.

• The Colorado State men’s basketball program was for the entire 2017 spring semester.

Colorado State’s offensive line just got bigger. A whole lot bigger.

T.J. Roundtree, a senior 6-foot-6, 315-pound Louisville offensive tackle, will join the Rams as a graduate transfer with immediate eligibility this fall, . The Gainesville, Fla., native appeared in 18 career games over two seasons at Louisville after transferring in from��Eastern Arizona Community College.

NEWS: has announced the addition of 6-foot-6 OL T.J. Roundtree as a graduate transfer for the 2018 season.

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— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball)

Roundtree — the Rams’ second graduate transfer this fall, joining��Washington��quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels —��fills an essential need at CSU after its offensive line graduated starters��Jake Bennett, Zack Golditch and Trae Moxley from last season.

CSU’s spring game is slated for April 21.