FORT COLLINS — It was less than a year ago when Colorado State coach Niko Medved declared that Isaiah Stevens’ No. 4 should go into the rafters of Moby Arena.

It was following Stevens’ final home game for the Rams, a day of celebration for a five-year career that featured countless broken records, multiple NCAA Tournament appearances and plenty of memories.

The player who was going to be tasked with replacing maybe the best player in program history as the team’s next starting point guard — Kyan Evans — was there for all of it as a freshman averaging only eight minutes per game.

No pressure, kid. But that was always the plan for the CSU coaching staff and there was a reason they identified him years ago as potentially the next great Rams point guard.

“We always had confidence in him and what he was gonna become,” CSU associate head coach Ali Farohkmanesh said. “Sometimes when you’re young, you don’t see that when you’re going through the struggles. For him to finally realize that he needed one game to break out of it and it was the (Loyola Marymount) game, really. You could tell that was the moment where everything started to turn the corner for him.

“The last six weeks, he’s been passing the ball well, he’s in control of the game. I think the game has slowed down for him.”

It’s not a coincidence that Evans’ improved play has coincided with the Rams’ hot start (8-2) to Mountain West play, which began with the sophomore scoring a career-high 16 points in an important road win at Nevada.

After a rough stretch in November, Evans has shot over 45% from 3-point range in each of the last two months and just recently set single-game career bests for assists (8) and rebounds (6) in CSU’s dominant win over Air Force earlier this week.

“That’s what we thought he was the whole time,” Farohkmanesh said. “He’s proving it now, but we believed in that and he needed to believe in that more.”

Evans said an increased level of confidence has helped and now he’s fully reacclimated to a similar big-minute role he was used to in high school and with his AAU teams.

Oh, and it turns out he did learn a few things from Stevens while watching from the sidelines last season.

“I knew what I was coming into playing behind (Stevens),” Evans said. It wasn’t difficult, I would say, as much as I just took it as a learning experience and just grew from it.

“He was just a great role model for me in my freshman year. A lot of college guards don’t get that. Nowadays, everyone is playing behind a fifth-year (player) and I was blessed to play behind a great fifth-year so that was just even better to learn.”

Whether it was guarding him one-on-one in summer workouts, getting extra work in with him before practice or picking up on how he talked to his teammates, Evans was a sponge to everything Stevens was showing him — and the CSU coaching staff took notice.

“I thought he was great,” Farohkmanesh said. “He got better during the season, but people probably didn’t notice it as much. He learned how to work out, how you approach a workout, the intensity of what you’re trying to do, the intentionality of what you’re trying to do and that’s carried over to now.”

What he is now is someone who is playing a big role for a team that has aspirations to win the Mountain West. He’s still playing second fiddle to conference player of the year candidate Nique Clifford, but Evans is showing what the Rams coaches saw when he was a recruit: someone who affects winning.

“That was the number one thing (for him) as a point guard,” Farohkmanesh said. “It’s like the quarterback — the quarterback that wins is usually a good quarterback. It’s the same thing with a point guard and he fit that mold right away. Then, he had some swagger to him, to be honest. His parents are great people, too. The whole encompassing thing of what he is is really similar to Isaiah, really.”

There are things that Evans does better, too, particularly on the defensive end. Having elite perimeter defenders like Clifford, Jalen Lake and Ethan Morton helps, but Evans is developing into an excellent point-of-attack defender and someone has figured out how to be effective in every facet of the game.

“That’s what makes him special and why he’s got a chance to be so good in this league,” Farohkmanesh said. “He truly can be a two-way player. He’s not just a scoring, passing, playmaking point guard. He can guard on the other end of the floor, also. If you can do that and do the other things he’s been doing, you’ve got a chance to be special.”

The list: Top 5 underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) in the Mountain West

1. Dedan Thomas Jr., UNLV

The Mountain West co-freshman of the year from last season has continued to make steady progress in his sophomore season and what would’ve been his freshman season had he not reclassified to join UNLV a year early. He’s sixth in the conference in scoring at just over 16 points per game and third in assists at 4.7 per game.

2. Miles Byrd, San Diego State

After coming off the bench for an NCAA Tournament team last season, Byrd has become the latest star for the Aztecs. He’s a legit two-way player, averaging 14 points, four rebounds and two steals per game. Anyone who watched him dominate against CSU with 25 points and seven steals knows who good he is.

3. Mason Falslev, Utah State

One of the key players who stuck around after coach Danny Sprinkle left for Washington last offseason, Falslev has continued to make an impact for a surprise Aggies team on their way to another NCAA Tournament appearance. Falslev does a little bit of everything for USU and has improved in just about every regard, averaging over 15 points and six rebounds and just under four assists per game.

4. Zaon Collins, Fresno State

After spending one season at the junior college level, Collins has made an instant impact at Fresno State. Even though the Bulldogs sit near the bottom of the conference, they appear to have found a building block for the next few seasons in Collins.

5. Kyan Evans, Colorado State

Evans’ numbers — 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game — don’t stand out as much as everyone else on this list, but his role on a team near the top of the conference standings can’t be denied. His numbers have gotten better in Mountain West play and he’s proven capable of being the second fiddle to Nique Clifford on any given night.

Upset of the week

Arizona 86, No. 3 Iowa State 75, OT

While this might not technically count as an “upset” considering the Wildcats were favored going into the game and have been red-hot to start Big 12 play, it’s an excuse to talk about arguably the best game of the season to date. Down by three in the waning seconds and with no timeouts, Caleb Love hoisted a prayer of a shot from beyond half court that went in and forced overtime. From there, Arizona went on to roll to a massive win over an Iowa State team that has looked like the Big 12’s best shot to win a national title all season long.

Mid-major minute

Every college basketball fan remembers the 2006 George Mason Patriots — the original Cinderella to crash the ball (the Final Four). Well, the Patriots could be headed for the first trip back to the NCAA Tournament since 2011. At 16-5 overall and 7-1 in conference play, George Mason is atop the standings in the underrated Atlantic 10 conference. Oh, and this current squad is led by coach Tony Shinn, who just so happened to be on that 2006 team that shocked the nation.

Going overseas

Sticking with the CSU theme today, let’s spotlight a key piece to last year’s NCAA Tournament team for the Rams: big man Patrick Cartier. The former Division II All-American played the final two years of his college career in Fort Collins before beginning his professional career in the Netherlands with ZZ Leiden in the BNXT League, the top division for both the Netherlands and Belgium. In 19 games, Cartier is averaging 13.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.