Three takeaways from Fresno State’s loss at Colorado State to open Mountain West play

Fresno State has 10 new players this season, remade its backcourt with three Division I transfers. But the Bulldogs looked a lot like they did a year ago on Monday in a 75-53 loss at Colorado State in their Mountain West Conference opener, struggling to play inside out and whiffing on a lot of looks from the 3-point line, open more often than not.

The Rams packed the paint and ran double teams at 7-foot sophomore Orlando Robinson just about every time he touched the ball, which left Fresno State (2-1, 0-1 in the MW) playing a little too fast and shooting threes when it was not turning over the basketball.

The Bulldogs took 23 of 49 shots from the 3-point line, hitting just four 17.4%. Last season 49% of their shots were threes, the seventh-highest percentage in the nation, and they made only 34.0%.

They also had 22 turnovers against the Rams (4-1, 1-0), their most since they had 23 in a loss at San Jose State on Jan. 7, 2017, and those miscues fueled Colorado State at the other end. The Rams scored 31 points off turnovers, and had a 19-point advantage on the Bulldogs there.

Here are three takeaways from the game …

‘DOGS HAVE SEEN THAT SHOW BEFORE

Fresno State obviously has not had a lot of practice time and had to postpone five non-conference games due to COVID-19. It also was playing at altitude and against a Division I opponent for the first time, which might have played into the poor 3-point shooting.

But it proved last season the three-ball is a tough way to go for a team that struggles to make shots.

The Bulldogs hadn’t when beating NAIA William Jessup and NCAA Division II Fresno Pacific. But do they have the shooters with the consistency to avoid another 4 of 17 down the line?

Robinson, who had a third consecutive double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, is an improving passer out of double teams and they have guards who can penetrate and kick to open shooters. But if no one can make a shot, the Bulldogs will continue to struggle.

“I thought the right guys shot them, I just thought they shot them too quick,” coach Justin Hutson said.

The career stats are not all that promising. Going into the game on Monday, Deon Stroud had hit 25% of his career 3-point shots (10 of 40), Isaiah Hill 26.7% (16 of 60), Devin Gage 27.2% (25 of 92), Junior Ballard 33.9% (60 of 177) and Anthony Holland 35.9% (33 of 92).

Surprisingly, the 17.4% is not all that close to the worst Fresno State has shot the three over the past five-plus seasons …

• 0.56% vs. New Mexico (1 of 18), Jan. 2, 2016
• 11.8% vs. Pepperdine (2 of 17), Nov. 13 2015
• 11.1% at Utah State (2 of 18), Jan. 28, 2017
• 14.3% vs. Menlo (2 of 14), Nov. 30, 2016
• 16.7% vs. Montana State (2 of 12), Nov. 26, 2017
• 17.4% at Colorado State (4 of 23), Dec. 28, 2020

TURNOVERS CRUSHED BULLDOGS

The lack of time the Bulldogs have had on the floor together was evident in the way they foundered at the offensive end.

“Experience is the best teacher,” Hutson said. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t disappointing. We definitely have some talent and we have to play with more discipline and more poise. We have to take care of the ball … turnovers in any sport, if you turn the ball over too many times you’re going to lose in that sport and that’s the first thing you’re going to look to and that’s the first thing you have to stop.”

There were signs that could be a problem, even in their non-Division I victories against William Jessup and Fresno Pacific. The Bulldogs went to Colorado State with an assist to turnover ratio of 0.61, the worst in the Mountain West Conference and tied for 314th of 329 in the nation.

The Rams took advantage toward the end of the first half, after Fresno State had cut an early deficit to two at 20-18 with 5:46 to go. Colorado State went on a 12-0 run, and the Bulldogs never really recovered.

“I think it happened as a result of two things,” assistant coach Keith Brown said. “One, it was either off turnovers or shot selection and, you know, poor shot selection is not much different than a turnover and it creates number opportunities and that’s when they got out and ran.

“They’re one of the best transition teams in the conference in terms of quick-strike, blood mentality and then finding open shooters, and they made shots. That’s their strength and that’s what they go to and that’s something we were trying to negate, but it’s hard to negate if you don’t take care of the basketball.”

ROBINSON REBOUNDS

Robinson had difficulty with double-teams early in his career, but rebounded nicely from a 5 of 17 game against Fresno Pacific.

The sophomore hit 5 of 8 shots in scoring 14 points, and could have had more had he knocked down a higher percentage of his foul shots. He was only 4 of 9 at the free throw line, the Bulldogs 9 of 19.

“They are a physical team, and it was no surprise at all how they were going to guard him,” Brown said. “That’s the way they prepared to play last year and I thought he made some good reads and good decisions and we did a good job of getting the ball to him in areas where he could operate.

“There certainly are things he could do better, but in general I thought he handled the double-teams well and found open men. I’d like to see him maybe get more on the offensive glass, especially when he’s in the high-post area. We had a couple of opportunities where shots were taken from the perimeter that didn’t go in … I thought he handled it pretty well. I think he’ll handle it even better on Wednesday.”

NEXT FOR THE BULLDOGS

Where and when: Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colo.; Wednesday, 1 p.m.

Streaming/Radio: Mountain West Network/ESPN940AM

Records: Bulldogs 2-1, 0-1 in MW, Colorado State 4-1, 1-0

Series: Colorado State leads 19-16

This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 7:06 PM.