Colorado Mesa qualified for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament as the No. 4 seed and will host the MSU Denver Roadrunners tonight at 5:30pm in Brownson Arena. The RMAC has a no fans policy for their winter championships this year so no spectators will be allowed inside.
 
TURNER RETURNS
Senior Daniella Turner is back in the rotation full time for the Mavericks. Turner missed nearly six weeks of action with an injury beginning ironically on January 15 against MSU Denver.
 
The 2020 WBCA honorable mention all-American did play sparingly the week prior logging a total of 20 minutes and finishing with a combined five points and five rebounds in the two games.
 
This past week she played over 30 minutes against Western Colorado and finished with 13 points, five rebounds, three steals and an assist in the upset win.
 
RMAC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior Kelsey Siemons was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for her performance against Western Colorado.
 
The Tucson native nearly recorded a triple-double in the Mavericks upset of their rivals from Gunnison. She had 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocked shots while adding two assists in the win. The nine blocks tied a program record that was most recently accomplished by Lindsay Clegg in 2001.
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver will be playing for the season series tonight in Brownson Arena each having won on their home floor. The Mavericks claimed their victory all the way back on Saturday December 5, a 91-57 win in the second game of the season. The Roadrunners won 71-66 on January 15 in Denver.
 
MSU Denver finished the season strong winning their final five games of the regular season which dates back to a 83-67 win against Chadron State on January 30. They defeated Black Hills State at home 69-58 in the season finale to earn the date with the Mavericks.
 
Reigning RMAC Offensive Player of the Week Allie Navarette might have earned herself RMAC Player of the Year as she has been a force all season. She finished the Black Hills State game with 25 points and 10 rebounds en route to the award. She has scored in double figure in 16 of 17 games this season including a season-high 33 points against Regis just two weeks ago.
 
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.

 
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.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
If the Mavericks win, they will move onto a RMAC Tournament semifinal at a site yet to be determined and keep their hopes alive of earning a berth into the NCAA West Region Tournament which will be hosted in Grand Junction.
 
If the Mavericks lose, they will have to hold out hope that they have done enough during the season to earn one of the six spots in the NCAA West Region Tournament.