GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa men's basketball team will open up Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action on Friday when they travel to UCCS to take on the Mountain Lions. On Saturday, they will head up I-25 to Golden for a showdown with the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers.
 
HITTING THE BOARDS
Rebounds have been a huge improvement from last year. Last season, the Mavericks had just a +0.8 rebounding edge over their opponents in the full 29 games. Fast forward to this year and six games in and they are a +9.5 which ranks first in the RMAC and 17^th nationally in rebounding margin.
 
Michael Skinner leads the team in total rebounds (40) and rebounding average (6.7) with Tommy Nuno just behind at 35 total and 5.8 per night.
 
FROM DEEP
Colorado Mesa ranks second in the RMAC and ninth nationally in three-point percentage, hitting on 44.1 percent of their attempts from downtown. That number is up from last year's mark of 37.9 percent that was spread out from five primary shooters.
 
Kolton Peterson is leading the team this year, hitting 17-of-32 (53.1) shots from three. He made five in the loss to DBU and still ranks in the top-25 nationally in the category.
 
GETTING TO THE RIM
Tommy Nuno is known for getting to the basket in his short career with Colorado Mesa. Nuno is leading the RMAC and ranks 17^th nationally in field goal percentage, making 66.7 percent of the shots he has taken.
 
The Half Moon Bay, Calif. native has added the outside shot to his repertoire this season as he is a perfect 5-for-5 from the three-point stripe which is just one make short of his entire 2018-19 total (6-for-22).  
 
MINUTES FROM FRESNO
Much has been made about how many players from Fresno CC are on the current roster. One question may be, how many minutes are those players playing? The quintet makes up exactly 43 percent of the total minutes per game of the 200 total minutes in a basketball game.
 
Georgie Dancer is leading the way for the group averaging 31.3 minutes per game followed by the 27.0 minutes of Tommy Nuno.
 
STANDINGS WATCH
Dixie State, Fort Lewis and New Mexico Highlands all made it through the non-conference schedule unscathed with undefeated marks. The Trailblazers, UCCS and Black Hills State all won their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference openers and are 1-0.
 
The Mavericks opponents this week squared off over the Thanksgiving Weekend for their RMAC opener. UCCS defeated Colorado School of Mines 82-77 in Golden to open up the slate.
 
HISTORY WITH UCCS
The Mountain Lions have had a nice start to the season going 3-1 in their non-conference portion of the schedule, with one match still to play, and a win over defending regular season RMAC champion Colorado School of Mines to open conference play last weekend. Their lone blemish came at the hands of Fort Hays State on Nov. 17 in Colorado Springs.
 
UCCS is led by a two-headed monster in Padiet Wang and DaRaun Clark. Wang, an All-RMAC second team selection a year ago, is averaging 19 points per game and scored a season-high 23 in the loss to Fort Hays. Clark, who usually comes off the bench, averages 18.8 points per game and put up 30 in the win over Colorado School of Mines.
 
Last Five Matchups
December 7, 2018 - @ Colorado Mesa 89, UCCS 79
January 20, 2018 - @ UCCS 90, Colorado Mesa 68
January 21, 2017 - @ Colorado Mesa 80, UCCS 75
January 9, 2016 - @ UCCS 86, Colorado Mesa 82
December 11, 2015 – UCCS 82, @ Colorado Mesa 62
 
FUN FACT: Current San Antonio Spur Derrick White played his first three years of college basketball at UCCS before transferring up the road to Colorado. One of the more memorable matchups between the Mavericks and White came in 2015 where the Mavericks won 100-92 in Colorado Springs. Maverick All-American Ryan Stephan scored 40 points and pulled down 15 rebounds while White scored 34 points and had eight rebounds.
 
HISTORY WITH COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
The defending RMAC regular season champions hav three losses in the early going with all of them coming in highly contested matchups. They fell in the season opener to the Lone Star Conference's St. Mary's 85-84 in overtime and then fell in another non-conference matchup with Nebraska-Kearney 74-66 in Golden.
 
The Orediggers are currently led by Mason Baker's 19.4 points per game. Baker, and teammate Brendan Sullivan, lead the team with 10 made threes and is shooting 93.1 percent from the free-throw line. Baker made a season-high 27 points in the Orediggers loss to UCCS in the RMAC opener.
 
Last Five Matchups
December 8, 2018 – Colorado School of Mines 99, @ Colorado Mesa 94 OT
January 12, 2018 – Colorado School of Mines 82, @ Colorado Mesa 72
January 13, 2017 – @ Colorado School of Mines 89, Colorado Mesa 67
*March 4, 2016 – Colorado School of Mines 84, Colorado Mesa 73
December 18, 2015 – Colorado Mesa 89, @ Colorado School of Mines 85
* - RMAC Tournament Semifinal
 
FUN FACT: Colorado School of Mines has several alums who have competed on the National scale. UFC heavyweight champion Shane Carwin, 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year Tesho Akindele, and golf club designer Marty Jertson are Oredigger alums.
 
COACHING STAFF
Head coach Mike DeGeorge enters his second season at the helm of the Mavericks. DeGeorge led the Mavericks to a 19-10 record in his first season, an eight-win improvement from the previous season, and included a win over nationally-ranked DBU.
 
Kyle Bossier and Dutch Johnson both return to the bench as a part of the coaching staff. Bossier is in his second season while Johnson is in his sixth season as an assistant coach.
 
New to the staff this year is former Maverick Russ Gregory and graduate assistant Sean Lynch.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Colorado Mesa will host MSU Denver for the NCAA National Showcase game on Friday at 7:35pm. The game will be broadcast on a multitude of networks including Facebook Live, Twitter Live/Periscope and the RMAC Network. On Saturday, they will host Chadron State at 7:30pm to close out the weekend of RMAC action.