Game Preview: San Jose State at Colorado State

Colorado State (12-8, 4-3) looks to build off of their win Saturday night against Utah State as they welcome the Spartans of San Jose State (9-9, 2-5) to Moby Arena. The Rams are still working out the kinks in their seven man rotation/seven scholarship team where mistakes and fouls must be limited.

San Jose State has already equaled their win total from a year ago and are led by sophomore forward Brandon Clarke who is making a strong case for Mountain West player of the year. Clarke is second in the conference in scoring (18 points per game), fifth in rebounding (8 per game), first in field goal percentage (60%) and second in blocked shots (2.4 per game). Not to mention that he’s been over 50% shooting in his last 10 games.

Clarke will see a lot of Colorado State’s senior forward Emmanuel Omogbo. Omogbo is coming off of the best game of his career this Saturday where he scored 20 points to go along with his 16 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the season. He is averaging a double-double this season and is getting plenty of help offensively from senior guard Gian Clavell and sophomore guard Prentiss Nixon.

With only a seven man rotation, controlling the tempo of the game is going to key for Colorado State. The Rams controlled the tempo against Utah State and combined with a solid defensive outing were able to come away with the win. If they can do those two things and clean up some of the mistakes they should beat San Jose State for the 8th straight time.

Colorado State beat San Jose State 76-71 early this year. Tip off for their second matchup of the season is Wednesday January 25th at 7pm MST and can be seen on ROOT Sports.