GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. –   Last week was a drawn-out celebration for the CMU men's basketball program.   

First, the Mavericks notched a pair of regular season-ending wins, defeating Westminster 92-68 at home on Wednesday and then beating rivals Western Colorado 83-67 on the road on Thursday. Blaise Threatt averaged 24.5 points per game for the week in an RMAC Offensive Player of the Week-winning performance while Trevor Baskin added 28 points on Thursday to ensure that the Mavs enter the RMAC Tournament having won 19 of their past 20 games.

RECAPS: Westminster | Western Colorado

The good news continued throughout the weekend, as Black Hills State lost to Chadron State late on Thursday night and Colorado School of Mines defeated Fort Lewis on Saturday, clearing the decks for the Mavericks to rise into a tie with Fort Lewis for the RMAC regular-season championship and secure the No. 1 seed thanks to a head-to-head win over FLC on January 20.

The Mavericks will start their postseason journey in the RMAC Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday against MSU Denver in Brownson Arena at 7 p.m. If the Mavericks win on Tuesday, the RMAC Tournament semifinals and finals will also take place at Brownson Arena on Friday and Saturday.

Standings Check
After last weekend and thanks to a head-to-head tiebreaker over Fort Lewis, Colorado Mesa occupies first place in the conference standings for the first time all season. Black Hills State's loss on Thursday coupled with the Colorado School of Mines win gave those two schools the same conference record, but Black Hills State stays ahead because they defeated CSM in both meetings this season. UCCS and MSU Denver were two of four teams that tied at 9-13 to end the season, but Regis climbed to No. 7 by beating the other three teams they were tied with while MSU Denver edged ahead at No. 8 due to performance indicator tiebreakers.
 

School	RMAC	Pct.	Overall	Pct.	Streak
#14 Colorado Mesa	19-3	.864	24-4	.857	W9
#5 Fort Lewis	19-3	.864	25-3	.893	L1
#10 Black Hills State	18-4	.818	24-4	.857	L1
#15 Colorado School of Mines	18-4	.818	24-4	.857	W4
Chadron State	16-6	.727	19-9	.679	W2
Westminster	12-10	.545	13-15	.464	W1
UCCS	9-13	.409	15-14	.517	L1
MSU Denver	9-13	.409	12-16	.429	W1

 
The top seeds (1-4) will host quarterfinal matchups in their home gyms. No. 2 Fort Lewis vs. No. 7 Regis will tip off at 6 p.m. Tuesday, No. 1 CMU vs. No. 8 MSU Denver and No. 3 Black Hills State vs. No. 6 Westminster will each start at 7 p.m. and No. 4 Colorado School of Mines vs. No. 5 Chadron State will tip at 7:30 p.m.

Hang the Banner
This season marks the 12^th time that Colorado Mesa has won at least a share of the RMAC regular-season title, but only the third since 2000. The Mavericks won outright conference titles in 1976, 1977, 1984, 1985, 1995, 1999, 2010 and 2021, and were conference co-champions in 1978, 1991, 1994 and now 2023.

One Point Away
Colorado Mesa already had one player reach the 1,000-point career milestone this season in Blaise Threatt. They are about to have another.

Trevor Baskin will enter the RMAC quarterfinal with 999 career points, so he needs just one bucket (or free throw) to cross 1,000. When Baskin, who has two years of athletic eligibility remaining, does score his 1,000^th point, he will become the 20^th player in CMU history to do so.  

With 1,137 career points heading into the RMAC Tournament, Threatt is currently ninth all-time in the CMU scoring ranks. Trevor's 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).

Regional Rankings
In the first seeded installment of the NCAA Regional Rankings released on February 22, Colorado Mesa came in at No. 3 in the South Central region.

The Mavericks trailed Fort Lewis and Black Hills State and ranked ahead of Lone Star schools Angelo State and West Texas A&M in the top five. Colorado School of Mines was No. 6, followed by Lubbock Christian, Texas A&M-Kingsville, St. Edward's and Eastern New Mexico. Those rankings do not factor in last week's games. The next regional rankings, including all games prior to the conference tournament, will come out on Wednesday.

The Mavericks have had their fair share of 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, defeating Fort Lewis, Black Hills State, Mines and Texas A&M-Kingsville on the road while beating St. Edward's and losing to Mines at home.

Revenge Tour
Colorado Mesa has ripped off a streak of 19 wins in 20 games after starting the conference season 0-2 at home with losses to Colorado School of Mines and MSU Denver. As fate would have it, the Mavericks could very well have to defeat both teams in Brownson Arena during the RMAC Tournament.

If CMU moves on past the quarterfinal clash with No. 8 MSU Denver, the winner of the game between No. 4 Mines and No. 5 Chadron State will come in to Brownson Arena on Friday. Mines beat Chadron 78-74 on February 18 when the teams last met.

Since that 0-2 weekend, Colorado Mesa has won nine straight at home and has defeated every other RMAC program at least once, including both MSU Denver and Mines on the road.
This is the third-longest streak with no more than one loss in the NCAA history of the program. 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 MSU Denver
MSU Denver enters the conference tournament at 12-16 overall and 9-13 in the RMAC. The Roadrunners went 6-5 over their final 11 games to claim the final playoff berth, beating Adams State 75-70 on the season's final day to ensure a spot.

The Roadrunners are scoring 73.2 points per game to rank ninth in the RMAC but allow the fourth-most points per game in the conference at 76.5. By contrast, CMU is fifth in offense at 77.4 points per game and has the conference's best scoring defense, holding opponents to 65.3 points per game.

Senior guard Tyrei Randall is MSU Denver's leading scorer at 15.7 points per game while Caleb McGill (13.7 pgg) and Jaden Kennis (10.2) also average in double figures. Freshman Brayden Maldonado is averaging 8.4 points per game but has 14 and 11 points against Colorado Mesa this season. McGill leads the team with 4.9 rebounds per game and a .544 field goal percentage.

Metro State has a new head coach this season in Dan Ficke. No stranger to the Denver area, Ficke was an assistant coach at Denver University from 2016-19 and also had assistant coach stints at Wake Forest and Loyola (Md.), his alma mater. Ficke's first head coaching job was at Belmont Abbey from 2019-2022. In just three seasons with the Crusaders, Ficke led the team to three straight Conference Carolinas Tournament championship games, including two tournament titles, and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Series History
The Mavericks are only 17-32 all-time against MSU Denver, a storied program that won national championships in 2000 and 2002 and made four Final Fours in a six-year span from 1999-2004, as well as back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2013 and 2014. Even in recent years with the program not being at the top of the conference, the Roadrunners have consistently been a tough foe for CMU.

The last time MSU Denver visited Brownson Arena on December 3, the Roadrunners beat CMU 84-78, which is still the most points allowed by the Maverick defense this season. The Mavs had a stronger defensive formula when they faced MSU Denver on the road on February 11, coming away with a 71-64 win.

This is the second consecutive season that Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver will meet in the first round of the RMAC Tournament. The Roadrunners beat the Mavericks by 23 points in Denver and won in Brownson on a buzzer-beating three-quarter court shot by Tyrei Randall. The Mavs exercised their demons in the RMAC Tournament, however, ousting the No. 7 Roadrunners 77-65 as the No. 2 seed.