Pre-Game Talk: Craig Rasmuson
Compiled by Dave Brandon (Photo Courtesy UNC Media Relations)

Craig Rasmuson is in his 7th season as Head Coach of Northern Colorado, and has led the Bears to a record of 59-120. Prior to arriving at Northern Colorado, which is currently in its third year of Division One reclassification, Rasmuson was the Head Coach of Division 2 Lincoln Memorial for 5 seasons.

Besides building a program on the court, Rasmuson's players have also excelled in the classroom, as 12 of his 14 players at Northern Colorado who have exhausted eligibility left Greeley with a degree.

Rasmuson is our latest guest on this version of "Pre-Game Talk."

HHC: Thanks for joining us Coach. Have you ever been to Lincoln before or seen Nebraska play live?

CR: I have not seen them play live, but I’ve been to Lincoln, although I’ve never experienced the basketball environment there.

HHC: What brought you to Lincoln before?

CR: I was traveling through and recruiting a kid one time, but this was a couple of years back. But I went and toured the facilities, and walked the town to get a feel for it.

HHC: Well it’ll be nice to have you back! Talk about the challenges you have faced as you build your program to the Division One level?

CR: Well, it’s extremely challenging, but the fact is that we’re doing this thing the right way and with quality kids, and the players that are here since we made the transition have made it a goal to not just represent us athletically, but also get their degrees. So, we’ve taken our time to transfer from Division 2 level guys to Division 1 level guys, and I think we’re about half way there, if you will.

We only have had two or three true Division 1 classes. And, just the mental approach to it has been the toughest part, especially when we are really playing a lot of quality people from major conferences for a number of reasons. One of course is revenue. But two is TV exposure. We’ve got to play the games when we can get them, and that’s just the story when you are an Independent like we currently are.

So, it’s been a great challenge, and we’re seeing some life, although our record may not indicate that. But, I guarantee you this team we have now would beat last year’s team handedly. We know we’re going the right direction, and have a very supportive community and administration, and are excited about trying to build this thing, and joining the Big Sky (Conference) next year.

HHC: Talk more about joining the Big Sky Conference and what it will mean for your program.

CR: It’s the biggest thing to happen to Northern Colorado in the history of the institution, I firmly believe that. It’s a league that has the automatic bid (to the NCAA Tournament), and it’s a great natural fit for us in the fact that we’re very, very like institutions, as far as academically, enrollment sizes, and money that people are spending. So, its just great after three years of being independent and playing for just the simple things, like Player of the Week Honors.

Sometimes it gets tough to go ahead and keep the balance of “what’s the meaning of this game?” And obviously you love to compete and do it for the representation of your institution, but its tough when you ask your guys to play the Big 12, Big 10, and Pac 10 teams that we’ve had on our schedule. It mentally gets to you after awhile, but the experience will hopefully help us in the Big Sky.

HHC: Like every other team that has ever joined the Division One basketball, you have faced your fair share of losing the past three seasons. However, putting wins and losses aside, are you happy with your progress?

CR: I am. Just like I just touched on, I feel like we are a much better team than we were last year. I still think we are 3 players away, and we don’t have the size, and not just in our frontline, but also in our backcourt. We still have D-2 size there, with 5’10 and 6’1 perimeter players. Those things need to continue to evolve, and we don’t have the athleticism so far.

That’s one thing that I’m real impressed with Coach Collier’s group about, is the improving athleticism, and that’s why they’ve gotten so much better. We’re trying to do it from scratch here with a game plan in mind, and we want the timing to be when our schedule gets balanced, which will be next year. We only have one senior on our roster, and most of our most talented players are freshman and sophomores.

HHC: You have graduated 12 of 14 seniors at Northern Colorado, and dating back to your times at Lincoln Memorial, 26 of 31 players overall. How does this compare to wins and losses, as far as gratification goes?

CR: Well, that’s why I’m here, not only to win games, but also to evolve and develop young men who contribute to society. It was gratifying winning the championship at Lincoln Memorial, but every May when I get to sit in the stands and watch our athletes watch across that stage, that brings me the most joy, no doubt.

HHC: Before we talk specifically about some of your players, describe to us how Northern Colorado plays, both offensively and defensively? 

CR: Well, we’re an opportunistic team, if you will. We’d like to go ahead and have our defense really create our offense, at least initially. In half court, we’ll run our sets and basic motion. We haven’t had great balance in our scoring, and that’s why we haven’t had many wins so far. One night, one guy will score a lot and have a career night, but nobody else will. Against Eastern Michigan on Friday, we had balance in our scoring for the first time, so it really came together, and believe me, it’d been a long time coming.

Defensively, we play a lot of man to man, and we try to go ahead and take away things from the other team. But we’ll play some 2/3 zone, and kind of mix that in when needed.

HHC: What things does your team do well, and what things do you need to improve upon?

CR: I mean, I think we do a hand full of things well. I do think we’re a team that can score the basketball, but we need to keep evolving our chemistry. We did sign some JUCO guys this past year just because of immediate needs, and the three of them in particular are contributing very well for us. And, against EMU, we just finally had balance, and we talked to our guys about playing an “A” Game, and felt that we had 7 guys play “A” games.

When I evaluate from our first 14 games, we would have 2 or 3 guys play at that level (“A” level) on any given night. But, it’s a thing right now that feels good, because we’ve got the monkey off of our back and now we’ve got a heck of a challenge coming up with Nebraska, and then our schedule gets balanced because 7 of our last 12 games are at home, and against more like opponents, including some Division 1 Independents, and a couple Division 2 schools, which we would have liked to of scheduled sooner, but things just didn’t work out that way. 

HHC: You are led by two dynamic sophomores in Sean Taibi and Kirk Archibeque, who form a dangerous inside-outside threat. Talk about these players and what they mean to your team?

CR: They were part of our first D-1 recruiting class, along with Jared Lewis and Mike Gordy, who has been hurt the past six games, but hopefully will be ready for Nebraska. But those guys are really the foundation of our D-1 move, and they made a commitment knowing how tough the transition would be two years ago.

Kirk has struggled somewhat this year, but we’ve played people that have had great frontlines, and he’s 6’8 or 6’9”, and we’re playing 6’10, 6’11, and 7’0 guys down there. And, when he does beat somebody, there’s one waiting for him in the wings. People have done a decent job of taking him away, and we’ve had to go ahead and evolve him.  

Corey Lowe has stepped up and given us quality minutes, and he’s a big JUCO kid. (Sean) Taibi is a special player, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he could play most places in the country. He’s got the ability to go ahead and put the ball in the hole, and can really shoot and has evolved his game into not just being a shooter, but really putting it on the floor and getting to the basket. He’s struggled with turnovers, which has been our biggest nemesis, and in turn to have just 10 (turnovers) against EMU helped us win, obviously.

So, if we can just keep putting the puzzle together, I like our chances of finishing strong and with a better record.

HHC: We see that you have a player (Thanasi Panagiotakopoulos) with 17 letters in his last name. Do you even know how to pronounce it, and what do you guys call him?

CR: (Laughs) We call him T. But yes, I know how to pronounce it, its Pana*#*#*#*ous (something we can’t understand) and he’s a wonderful, wonderful guy in our program. He’s had one “B” in his entire college career, and is a very good addition to our program. We’ve started him a few times, but he unfortunately got injured early in the game against Kansas. But, we’re hoping to get him back soon and get him ready by Tuesday.

HHC: Finally, tell us what you know about Nebraska, and what you expect to see from them Tuesday night?

CR: To be quite honest, you’d be better off talking to me late tomorrow night (Sunday) about that. It’s either superstition or not being smart enough to keep it all organized, but I’m focusing on Northwestern right now (Sunday’s game for Northern Colorado, an 82-47 loss).

But, I know that they (Nebraska) are more athletic than they’ve been, and they are stronger. I’ve watched them a little on TV in the past, and they have a Princeton type philosophy, to a degree.

HHC: Coach, thanks a lot for your time, and best of luck to you the rest of this year.

CR: All right buddy, I appreciate you.

Dave Brandon is a columnist for Husker Hoops Central along with being webmaster.  He can be reached at dave@huskerhoopscentral.com.