Colorado Mesa will embark on their final regular season road trip of the season this weekend as they take on Regis on Friday followed by a showdown with Colorado School of Mines on Saturday in Golden.
 
TEAM DEFENSE
Colorado Mesa remains one of the best defensive teams in the RMAC as they limit teams to shooting just 32.3 percent from the field, good enough for ninth best nationally. As a comparison to last season's regional qualifying team, that team allowed teams to shoot 33.7 percent from the field.
 
The Elite Eight team of 2012-13 allowed their opponents to shoot 35 percent from the field.
 
SHOT ALTERATIONS
Senior Kelsey Siemons leads the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in blocked shots with 28 and is holding at No. 22 nationally in the category. She had a season-high four blocked shots against Westminster at home just two weeks ago.
 
During the season, Siemons moved into second on the all-time blocked shots list earlier this season and now has 130 in her 104-game career. She trails only Susan Luecke who had 272 blocked shots in her 115-game career.
 
THE RMAC RPI AND REGIONAL RANKINGS
Despite not being released publicly, Colorado Mesa currently sits in a fourth-place tie with Westminster at 13.41 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference RPI standings that will determine the teams that qualify for the RMAC Tournament.
 
Colorado School of Mines is currently sitting in first place at 15.92 after a big road win over second place Western Colorado last weekend. Black Hills is in third just .34 ahead of the Mavericks and Griffins.
 
Colorado Mesa is also one of eight teams that are under consideration to make the NCAA West Region Tournament. Because of the discrepancy in the number of games played thus far, the Regional Rankings Committees are placing teams under consideration at this time instead of a true ranking.
 
NEW REGION
Last weekend, the NCAA shuffled the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference into the West Region for the season to help balance the regions out across the country. In the West Region, the CCAA conference canceled their season and the GNAC only has a limited number of schools competing.
 
Now the region is comprised of the 14 RMAC schools, 11 schools from the PacWest, and currently two schools from the GNAC. The GNAC has had a number of schools schedule teams as of late and will apply for the minimum games exemption.
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE RANGERS
In their previous matchup this season, Kylyn Rigsby went off for 34 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the Mavericks 66-55 win over the Rangers in Brownson Arena. The loss for the Rangers was one of the biggest margins on the season.
 
After the loss to the Mavericks, Regis rattled off three straight wins to get their record to 5-8 on the season. They also play Westminster on this swing and finish out the year with a make-up contest with Colorado Christian before matchups with CSU Pueblo and Adams State.
 
Senior Whitney Jacob continues to prove that she is one of the best players in the RMAC. She averages 17.0 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. She has scored double-digits in every game this season including an 18 point, 12 rebound effort last weekend against Western Colorado.
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE OREDIGGERS
Colorado School of Mines is on an eight-game winning streak that dates back to January 16 and includes a win over Colorado Mesa in their previous matchup. The Orediggers picked up a 58-50 win in that matchup on January 22 in Brownson Arena behind a pair of 13-point scorers in Sammy Van Sickle and Raven Herrera.
 
The Orediggers have climbed to No. 25 in the most recent WBCA poll and are sitting atop both the RMAC standings and the RPI standings.
 
Junior Denali Pinto leads the Orediggers in scoring at 14.4 points per game while Sammy Van Sickle pulls down 7.1 rebounds per game. Pinto scored a season-high 23 points in wins over CSU Pueblo and Western Colorado. Van Sickle has pulled down 12 rebounds twice this season, most recently in a win over Colorado Christian.
 
HEAD MAN
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his ninth season as the head of the women's basketball program. He has led the program to five RMAC regular season championships and five NCAA South Central Region Tournaments. The Mavericks won the regional tournament in his first season (2012-13) sending the program to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time.
 
In three of the five regional tournaments, the Mavericks have made it past the first round and have accrued a NCAA Tournament record of 6-4 during the Wagner era.
 
During this season, Coach Wagner captured his 200^th win with Colorado Mesa after an 89-57 win over UCCS on January 4. He currently sits in second in program history in wins as a coach.
 
FREE YEAR
With uncertainty rampant during the college basketball season this year, the NCAA granted all winter sports student athletes (Basketball, Wrestling, Indoor Track, Swimming & Diving) an extra year of eligibility similar to what took place during the fall season with football, volleyball, soccer and cross country.
 
What does that mean to the Mavericks women's basketball team? All eight seniors could return for a fifth year of eligibility if they would like to.
 
THE RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference will look a little different this year in terms of the standings. With every team not able to play the same amount of games this year, the conference decided to implement the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) or Performance Indicator (PI) to determine the standings this year.
 
Here is a quick rundown of how the RPI or PI works:

• Teams will earn points based on their opponent and whether they win or lose each week. The better the opponent the more points you earn whether you win or lose.
• The breaks for opponents occur at .250, .500 and .750 winning percentages and can change all year long.
• Once a team has their points, they will be divided by the number of games that have been played this year to get their RPI or PI number.
• The highest RPI or PI will be the conference champion. 

WHAT'S NEXT
The Mavericks will host a pair of Western Slope rivals to close out the regular season as they host Western Colorado on Friday at 5:30pm and Fort Lewis on Saturday also at 5:30pm, both in Brownson Arena.