The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Katie Stevens Djibril Thiam (25) goes for a block against CSU Ram Travis Franklin (1) at the first Border War of the season in Laramie, Wyo. The men's basketball team will host the second Border War of the season tonight at Moby Arena at 7 p.m., the first 500 students will receive a free "Border War" t-shirt.

"These are my final days, I gotta make the most of them."

That's what CSU senior guard Marcus Walker had to say about why he has been playing so well lately. Walker, one of two Ram seniors who will be playing in their final scheduled Border War tonight, is a native of Kansas City, Mo. Despite not growing up in the midst of the CSU-Wyoming rivalry, he still feels like it's an important game, due to how much the Fort Collins community cares about it.

"It means more because I know how important it is to the people who support us," said Walker before practice on Tuesday. "Any rival game is going to be an exciting game and I'm going to play hard and I know that our team is going to play hard too. [Wednesday] is going to be an important game for us to win, [and] just to keep moving forward."

While it will be the fourth time Walker has faced Wyoming in his career, tonight will be just the first this season as he sat out of the Jan. 24 contest, in which the Cowboys won 83-74, due to being academically ineligible. Walker thought that his teammates played well without him, but just couldn't get the breaks they needed.

"I thought we played well - I didn't go, I watched it on TV - but I think we just started out kind of lazy. Overall they played with a lot of energy, played hard, fought back, got into the game, but just couldn't get over the hump," Walker said.

While CSU was without Walker in the first instance of this season's Border War, picking up the slack was true freshman Jesse Carr, who scored a career-high 21 points to lead the Rams. This time, Walker will most likely play without the aid of Carr, who has missed the last two games with a strained groin.

"I'd say he's questionable to doubtful," CSU head coach Tim Miles said Tuesday afternoon. "It's the same old song, a broken record, but at the same time it's a reality - I don't like it. At some point everyone has injury situations that go on throughout the year and the more depth you have, the better off you are. I don't feel like we have great depth right now, but it's an opportunity to see the future for guys to get an opportunity to play that they wouldn't usually have."

Continued...

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