Gian Clavell’s return boosts Colorado State

Perhaps the most important day for Colorado State’s basketball season occurred July 1.

That was when 6-foot-4-inch senior guard Gian Clavell was granted an extra season of eligibility by the NCAA. He played in 10 games last season before breaking his left hand.

At the time of his injury, Clavell was averaging 20.8 points and 6.9 rebounds.

“I feel it was a blessing in disguise when I got hurt,” Clavell said. “So I’ve been working for this the whole past year trying to recover. I’m finally 100 percent on everything, so that’s exciting. I’m very motivated.”

Besides Clavell, senior 6-8 forward Emmanuel Omogbo is the only other returning starter. He averaged 10.9 points and 8.0 rebounds for a Rams team that went 18-16, including 8-10 in the Mountain West. Conference media picked the Rams to finish seventh this season.

The Rams will have to replace Antwan Scott and Joe DeCiman, who combined to average 26.7 points and 9.5 rebounds.

Colorado State also plays a difficult schedule, with games at Stanford on Nov. 20, Colorado on Nov. 30, Kansas State on Dec. 17 and Long Beach State on Dec. 22.

“I’m not sure how we’ll do early,” coach Larry Eustachy said. “I wrote down eight different lineups the other day. We can be really long, and we can be really small. We can be in between. Some think scoring is going to be a problem for us, and I don’t think it is. We’ve got some guys that can score.”

But even the coach doesn’t know exactly what he takes into the season.

“I don’t think there’s a hell of a lot of difference between Reno (picked second) and us,” Eustachy said, “but we may finish eighth.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.