GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – As the days count down in the regular season, Colorado Mesa is quite possibly the hottest team in the RMAC. Having won 17 of their last 18 games, the Mavericks will face a pair of local rivals on Wednesday and Thursday and then look for some help on Friday and Saturday to potentially get the top seed in the RMAC Tournament.
The Mavericks notched two more wins last weekend, defeating New Mexico Highlands 87-79 behind
Trevor Baskin's 24-point, 13-rebound double-double and then topped CSU Pueblo 76-61 behind 27 points from
Blaise Threatt and 19 from
Owen Koonce.
RECAPS:
New Mexico Highlands |
CSU Pueblo
The regular season ends with a challenging home-and-away back-to-back. The Mavericks have their final regular season game at Brownson Arena against Westminster on Wednesday before traveling to Gunnison to face Western Colorado on the road Thursday night.
Colorado Mesa will be looking to pay back a Westminster team that handed CMU its only loss in the past 18 games with a 70-63 win over the Mavs on January 24 in Salt Lake City. Playing at home for this game should be an advantage over the Jekyll-and-Hyde Griffins, who are 11-2 at home and 1-12 on the road this season. While Western Colorado has officially been eliminated from RMAC Tournament contention, the Mavericks will certainly receive their rivals' best shot as the Mountaineers look to improve upon the 36-point loss they received at Brownson Arena on January 28.
Both games are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. They can be streamed on the RMAC Network or on 1340 AM/101.1 FM The Team radio.
Standings Check
Factoring in head-to-head tiebreakers, Colorado Mesa is currently in second place in the RMAC standings with two games to go.
Fort Lewis defeated Black Hills State twice in a five-day span to take the outright lead in the conference standings for the first time this season.
| School |
RMAC |
Pct. |
Overall |
Pct. |
Streak |
| #5 Fort Lewis |
18-2 |
.900 |
24-2 |
.923 |
W9 |
| #14 Colorado Mesa |
17-3 |
.850 |
22-4 |
.846 |
W7 |
| #10 Black Hills State |
17-3 |
.850 |
23-3 |
.885 |
W1 |
| #15 Colorado School of Mines |
16-4 |
.800 |
22-4 |
.846 |
W2 |
| Chadron State |
14-6 |
.700 |
17-9 |
.654 |
L1 |
| Westminster |
11-9 |
.550 |
12-14 |
.462 |
W2 |
The RMAC has a defined top six. Chadron State and Westminster are locked into the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds, respectively. Five teams (MSU Denver, New Mexico Highlands, Regis, South Dakota Mines and UCCS) are in a five-way tie at 8-12 for the final two of the eight RMAC Tournament qualifying slots.
Seeding Scenarios
Heading into the final week of the regular season, it is theoretically possible for CMU to finish anywhere between first and fourth in the conference. The Mavericks cannot finish lower than fourth, so CMU is assured of hosting at least a quarterfinal match-up in Grand Junction, but the Mavs still have a shot at the top seed and the right to host the entire RMAC tournament.
Colorado Mesa will be one of three RMAC teams, along with Black Hills State and Chadron State, to finish up its season on Thursday. The other 12 teams in the conference play on Friday, Saturday or both. If Colorado Mesa loses one or both games this week, the Mavericks are likely headed for a No. 3 or No. 4 seed. If the Mavs win both, they will be intently scoreboard watching over the weekend.
Fort Lewis currently has a one-game lead in the standings, and the Skyhawks control their own destiny. If Fort Lewis goes 2-0 this week, they will be RMAC regular season champions. Crucially, however, the Mavericks own head-to-head tiebreakers over both Fort Lewis and Black Hills State thanks to beating both in the only meetings of the season with those programs. That means the Mavericks will be the higher seed if they end up with the same record as either Fort Lewis or Black Hills, which puts extra pressure on Fort Lewis to not drop a game this weekend.
Black Hills State closes the year on the road vs. Colorado Christian on Wednesday and Chadron State on Thursday while the Mavericks are at home vs. Westminster and on the road at Western Colorado. Following Thursday, Black Hills State and CMU will sit back and watch Fort Lewis play MSU Denver on Friday and No. 15 Colorado School of Mines on Saturday (both at home) to see if the Skyhawks slip up.
If everything this week holds serve with zero upsets, then the Mavericks would be the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament that would be held in Durango at Fort Lewis. However, with CMU playing a Westminster team that beat them earlier this season, Black Hills State facing fifth-place Chadron State on short rest and Fort Lewis ending the season vs. a top-15 Colorado School of Mines team, there is certainly potential for things to get interesting down the stretch.
Colorado Mesa will have the benefit of facing two programs not battling for seeding. Western Colorado is guaranteed to miss the tournament while no matter what Westminster does this week, they cannot move higher or lower than the No. 6 seed.
Rankings and Polls
Colorado Mesa is ranked No. 14 in the NABC Coaches Poll, a season high. The Mavericks are third highest of four RMAC teams in the top 15. Fort Lewis climbed up to No. 5 after beating Black Hills State twice, who dropped to No. 10, while Colorado School of Mines is right behind the Mavs at No. 15.
The polls that matter the most this time of year are the NCAA regional rankings, which are rankings done by the NCAA selection committee and show a preview of the potential brackets for the NCAA Tournament. The first regional rankings are always done alphabetically rather than assigning a number 1-10. In the second rankings, teams will be officially seeded 1-10 for the first time. Those rankings come out on Wednesday.
In the initial rankings, CMU made the cut, along with fellow RMAC schools Black Hills State, Colorado School of Mines and Fort Lewis. Six Lone Star schools made the initial 10-team list: Angelo State, Eastern New Mexico, Lubbock Christian, St. Edward's, Texas A&M-Kingsville and West Texas A&M.
The Mavericks have earned their rankings thanks to several marquee wins throughout the year. CMU is 5-1 against South Central teams in the NCAA Regional Rankings and are 4-0 on the road against those teams, including road wins over the other three top 15 schools in the RMAC.
Ready, Aim, Fire
Colorado Mesa used the quality and quantity approach against New Mexico Highlands, setting season highs in field goals attempted and three-pointers attempted.
The Mavericks still had a solid shooting day, finishing at 41 percent from the field and 33 percent from deep, but had plenty of chances thanks to a season-high 45 rebounds, including a season-high 19 offensive boards.
The 87 points that CMU scored against New Mexico Highlands are tied for the third most scored by the Mavs this season. Three of CMU's four highest-scoring performances have come in the month of February, showing the Mavericks have gotten even better at lighting up the scoreboard as the season goes along.
Block Party
Before this week, guard
Reece Johnson couldn't lay much of a claim to being a shot blocker, having recorded all of three blocks in 82 career games. But Johnson proved it's never too late to add new skills to your resume by doubling that total in the past two games alone.
Johnson recorded a block in a well-rounded game on Friday in which he also had 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Then on Saturday against CSU Pueblo, Johnson had a chase-down block on a ThunderWolves breakaway in the first half and rejected another shot during CMU's 10-0 scoring run to start the second half for his first multi-block game.
Colorado Mesa registered 10 blocks as a team last weekend, including seven against CSU Pueblo, which did a lot to up CMU's current average of 3.08 blocks per game that ranks sixth in the RMAC. Individually,
Trevor Baskin remains second in the conference with 31 total blocks while
Mac Riniker is in the top 10 with 23.
Baskin Buckets
Colorado Mesa already had one player reach the 1,000-point career milestone this season in
Blaise Threatt. They could very well have another.
Trevor Baskin will enter the final two games of the regular season with 967 career points. Baskin's current scoring average of 14.1 points per game would leave him just short of the 33 points he needs to reach 1,000 this week, but Baskin has scored 20 or more points in two of the past three games, so the milestone is certainly plausible over the next couple of days.
Of course,
Trevor Baskin still has a long way to go to be the leading scorer in his family. His father, Jon Baskin (1988-91), is the program's all-time leading scorer at 2,227 points and also holds the school records for field goal percentage (73.9), free throws made (490) and field goals made (833).
On a Run
Colorado Mesa has currently won 17 of its past 18 games since losing the first two conference games of the season. The Mavericks were 5-3 at one point and now sit at 22-4. The Mavericks have won seven in a row after having a 10-game win streak interrupted by a January 24 loss to Westminster, which CMU faces again Wednesday night.
This is the third-longest streak with no more than one loss in NCAA program history. The Mavericks won 21 of 22 games in 2020-21, a season in which they earned a No. 1 national ranking for the first time in school history. CMU also won 20 of 21 games during the 2009-10 season.
About Westminster
The Westminster Griffins are 11-9 in conference and 12-14 overall. With two games to go, Westminster is guaranteed to be the No. 6 seed in the RMAC Tournament, as they trail fifth-place Chadron State by three games but have a three-game lead over a pack of five teams tied for seventh.
Westminster has been a tale of two teams. The Griffins have been dominant at home, compiling an 11-2 record at the Behnken Field House that includes wins over the top two teams in the RMAC, Fort Lewis and Colorado Mesa. But as good as Westminster has been at home, they've equally struggled on the road, going just 1-12 away from home with the only win coming at 5-21 Adams State.
Junior big Trey Farrer is a good player regardless of the environment, ranking sixth in the RMAC in scoring with 18.2 points per game and seventh in rebounding with 7.4 per game. Farrer has eight double-doubles this season, including in both games last weekend against CSU Pueblo (28 pts, 11 reb) and New Mexico Highlands (18 pts, 10 reb), as well as the previous meeting with CMU (19 pts, 11 reb).
Guards Taylor Miller (12.7 ppg) and Donaval Avila (11.2 ppg) give Westminster three scorers averaging in double figures. Pierce Sterling is averaging five points per game but had 15 in the first game vs. the Mavericks. The Griffins are scoring 73.7 points per game and have the fifth-ranked conference scoring defense, allowing 71.2 points per game. Westminster definitely prefers to go inside, as the Griffins rank fourth in the RMAC with a .482 team field-goal percentage but make the fewest three-pointers per game in the conference.
Head Coach Norm Parrish is in his eighth season at Westminster. Parrish started his tenure with three straight winning seasons, including 2017-18 when the Griffins finished 21-5 and second in the RMAC. Unfortunately, that team was ineligible for postseason play since Westminster was still in its transition period from NAIA to Division II. This season is the first time Westminster has qualified for the RMAC Tournament since becoming fully D-II eligible in 2019-20. Prior to Westminster, Parrish was an assistant coach at Division I Hawaii and Utah and was a decorated head coach at Salt Lake City CC for two decades.
About Western Colorado
Western Colorado is not having its best season, entering the week at 4-20 overall and 2-18 in RMAC play. WCU's two non-conference wins came in the Thanksgiving Classic, in which they partnered with CMU to host Simon Fraser and Northern New Mexico in each school's respective home gyms.
Senior guard Avery Rembao has been on a roll lately, improving his scoring average to 17 points per game. Since being held to six points by Colorado Mesa in the first meeting between the schools, Rembao has rattled off 27, 24, 33, 31, 22 and 23 points in WCU's past six games.
Overall, however, the Mountaineers have the worst statistical offense in the conference, scoring 67.5 points per game and shooting only 38 percent from the field as a team. They are allowing 79.2 points per game for a league-low scoring margin of -11.7.
A big reason for the diminished offense is the departure of their leading scorer, Matthew Ragsdale. In 2021-22, Ragsdale averaged 21.5 points per game, second-most in the RMAC, but Ragsdale left WCU to team up with high school teammate Joel Scott at Black Hills State for the 2022-23 season.
Head Coach Bradd Schafer is in his ninth season as the coach at Western Colorado, his alma mater. Schafer qualified for the RMAC Tournament in 2016-17 and won 14 games in 2019-20, the most since Schafer was a Western Colorado player in 1999. Prior to returning to Western, Schafer spent four years as the head coach at Black Hills State from 2010-2014, compiling a 56-57 record and overseeing BHSU's transition from NAIA to Division II. He also was an assistant coach at Colorado School of Mines.
Series History
The all-time series between Colorado Mesa and Westminster is knotted at 9-9. Westminster has only been in NCAA Division II since 2015. The Griffins have a 7-6 edge over the Mavs in RMAC meetings. The Mavericks have won five of the past seven meetings but lost four in a row during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Colorado Mesa has a 62-26 historical edge in the rivalry series with Western Colorado. The Mavs have won 10 of the past 12 meetings dating back to the 2016-17 season. Like any rivalry matchup, however, records can be thrown out the window any time the two teams get together. Western's previous win against CMU came on January 30, 2021, handing the 11-0 Mavs their first loss of the season in a year they ended at 21-2. That game was also the first conference loss for CMU since a previous loss to Western in 2020.
The series has been much tighter in Gunnison, as well. The Mavericks are 38-7 at home vs. WCU but only have a slight 20-19 edge in the series on the road.
