FORT COLLINS — The Tim Bergstraser era already has a signature win.

Just five games into his tenure as the Denver men’s basketball coach, Bergstraser has already made a statement as his Pioneers team came into Moby Arena and stunned a previously unbeaten Colorado State team for an 83-81 win on Friday night.

For Bergstraser, it’s the same thing he’s been preaching since he was hired last spring: This is a different era for DU men’s basketball.

“You appreciate any win you can get, but it’s been ups and downs, and I’ve been coaching these guys really hard, and I’ve just been trying to make sure they understand the expectations,” Bergstraser told The Denver Gazette. “The belief that we have in this locker room with the players that we have. … I’m just trying to make them understand (they need to) play with confidence, play aggressive and we’ll see where the basketball goes. That game just solidified — we’ve preached doing things together.”

The Pioneers only played eight guys with two fouling out in the second half, but still found a way to do just enough to hold off a red-hot Rams team that had boasted one of the country’s best offenses coming in.

The play to close the first half was the perfect encapsulation of the game.

After two separate deflections, the ball found its way to DU sophomore Carson Johnson, who drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Pios a 41-33 lead going into the locker room. It may have been the boost the group needed to continue believing they could win.

“That’s basketball sometimes, man,” Bergrstraser said. “Sometimes it goes in your favor, sometimes it doesn’t. In that case, it landed in Carson’s hands, and I’ve been on the wrong side of that, too. It gave us some good juice going into half(time), but I could tell when I walked into that locker room guys were laser-focused, locked in and they know there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. 

“We didn’t change a lot, to be honest. We just said we needed to tighten up certain areas, and that was the best execution that we’ve had all season.”

That meant a lot of standing around and watching CSU shoot free throws. The Rams shot 44 in the game, making 35, as DU did what it needed to against a much bigger and more athletic team. But every time Ali Farokhmanesh’s group would close the gap, there was someone in crimson to make a big shot and quiet the raucous Moby Arena crowd.

“I kept repeating, ‘Poise.’ When they’re going on all these runs, we were responding. It was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of battling possessions, but I just kept repeating, ‘Poise,’” Bergstraser said. “They hit big shots, and we kept responding. I think that showed just the tough team that we believe we are.”

From Day One, belief has been the key word for Bergstraser. It’s the reason he took the leap from Division II Minnesota State-Moorhead to DU, a place that has historically struggled on the basketball court.

But history was thrown out the window Friday night in Fort Collins.

Bergstraser is trying to write a new story for the Pios, one where wins like this go from a surprise to expected.

“That’s what we want,” Bergstraser said. “We’re not ones to seek (attention) or nothing like that, we’re just gonna stick our heads down and work, and I think it’s gonna attract the right kinds of people. I like to believe we play the game the right way, and we play really, really tough. Our vision, moving forward, is to put DU men’s basketball on the map on a bigger scale. 

“Us moving to the WCC is gonna allow that, too, but my biggest goal is I want people to look at DU men’s basketball in a different way than they have in the past.”

GAME RECAP

Denver 83, Colorado State 81

What happened: On the road for the fourth time in five games to begin the season, the Pioneers (2-3) came into Moby Arena and handed the Rams (4-1) their first loss of the season and the first loss under first-year coach Ali Farokhmanesh. It’s DU’s first win against CSU since Dec. 11, 2013, also in Fort Collins.

Star of the night: Veteran guard Zane Nelson came off the bench to score a team-high 22 points for the Pios, who shot over 50% from the field as a team and 48% from 3-point range. Nelson, a transfer from Missouri Western State, finished 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 7 for 8 from the free-throw line.

Quotable: “We had so many guys in foul trouble that entire game, so we just kept cycling guys in and out and guys just kept doing their job. Good teams find a way to win. They had a great look from three (to win the game) and it looked good from my angle, but for our team, for our players, I’m just happy for them to experience that because that’s what we’ve been talking about since we’ve been recruiting them.” — DU coach Tim Bergstraser
Up next: The Rams head to the Bahamas for three games in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. CSU plays Virginia Tech on Wednesday (3 p.m. ESPNU), then either Wichita State or St. Mary’s the following day with a third opponent TBD on Friday. DU plays at No. 4 Arizona on Monday (8 p.m. CBS Sports Network).