GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. –   Colorado Mesa men's basketball will take its final substantial road trip of the regular season, crossing the mountains with an opportunity to avenge two of their three conference losses.

The two schools that handed CMU a pair of losses to open up the RMAC season are on deck again. On Friday night at 7:30 p.m. is a showdown with nationally-ranked Colorado School of Mines before the Mavs battle MSU Denver on Saturday night at 6 p.m.

In last week's action, the Mavs beat Regis and UCCS each for the second time this season. CMU beat Regis 88-64 on Friday before an eventful 83-63 win on Saturday over UCCS that featured Blaise Threatt's 1,000^th career point, Coach Mike DeGeorge's 300^th career win and the Blizzard in Brownson festivities.

RECAPS: Regis | UCCS

Programming Note
For Maverick fans over in the Denver area, Saturday's game against Metro State will be broadcast on KWGN Channel 2, starting at 6 p.m.

Both of this weekend's games can be streamed from anywhere on the RMAC Network or listened to in Grand Junction on The Team 101.1 FM/1340 AM. Fans can also follow along via live stats during game time at the links provided.

Best Served Cold
The team will have revenge on their minds this week, traveling to face a pair of teams that defeated the Mavericks at home during the first week of the conference season.  

The team's offense struggled against Colorado School of Mines. The Mavs scored 62 points and shot 30.4 percent from the field and 21.7 percent from three-point range. All three remain season-lows for CMU.

It was the defense that was not at its best against MSU Denver, as the Roadrunners put up a season-high 84 points, nine more than any other team has this season on the Mavs. The two upcoming opponents also sport the two highest opponent field goal percentages of the season against the Mavericks, with Mines shooting 56.3 percent and MSU Denver shooting 54.7 percent from the field.

Both these teams will get a look at a different Colorado Mesa team, however. Since the December 3 loss to MSU Denver, Colorado Mesa has raised its own scoring average from 74 to 76 points per game while improving its defense from giving up 69.1 points per game at the time of the MSU Denver loss down to 64.7 points per game currently. The Mavericks have shot 50 percent or better from the field in 11 of their 13 games played since the first meetings.

Standings Check
Colorado Mesa remains fourth in the RMAC, keeping pace with the top teams by winning twice.

Elsewhere in the conference, Black Hills State defeated Colorado School of Mines for the second time this season, dropping the Orediggers to third and making it so that the Mavericks can pass Mines with a win on Friday. Colorado Mesa remains the only team to defeat Black Hills State this season and are one of two teams to defeat Fort Lewis. Here's a look at the top eight of the 15-team RMAC standings:
 

School	RMAC	Pct.	Overall	Pct.	Streak
Black Hills State	14-1	.933	20-1	.952	W7
Fort Lewis	14-2	.875	20-2	.909	W5
Colorado School of Mines	14-3	.824	20-3	.870	W1
Colorado Mesa	13-3	.812	18-4	.818	W3
Chadron State	11-5	.688	14-8	.636	W6
Westminster	9-8	.529	10-13	.435	W4
UCCS	7-9	.438	13-10	.565	L6
Regis	7-9	.438	10-12	.455	L2

 
In the final five games of the regular season, the Mavs only face one current top-half opponent – Westminster, at home on February 22.

Chase For 1K
Blaise Threatt entered the week needing 34 points to eclipse 1,000 for his career. Threatt nearly got it all in one game, going off Friday for a career-high 30 points while shooting 11 of 14 from the floor, 3-for-3 from deep and 5 of 8 from the line.

Only four points away from the milestone at the beginning of the UCCS game, Colorado Mesa ran sets to get Threatt layups on the team's first two possessions, then called a timeout to let Threatt soak in the moment and allow his teammates and the Brownson Arena crowd to congratulate him.

Threatt is the 19^th player in CMU history to reach 1,000 points and the first since former guards Connor Nichols and CJ Davis each did it in 2018. After scoring a total of 18 points against UCCS, Threatt sits at 1,014 career points. He can now begin further climbing the all-time CMU scoring ranks, with 1974-78 alumni Ed Carter (1,036), 2002-06 alumni Andy Classick (1,043) and 1998-2002 alumni Lance Hatzenbeller (1,049) potentially in his sights this weekend.

The next Mav on 1K watch is Trevor Baskin. Baskin has 909 career points and at his current scoring average of 14 points per game is eight games away from passing 1,000. With six games left in the regular season, that would put Baskin in line to pass the milestone in the RMAC Tournament semifinals, should the Mavericks get there.

Coaching Clubs
Head Coach Mike DeGeorge reached his 300^th career win over his four head coaching stops on Saturday, three weeks after collecting his 100^th win at CMU with the upset road win over then-No. 3 Black Hills State.

DeGeorge is third all-time among CMU coaches in both cumulative career wins and wins at CMU. Only long-tenured coaches Jim Heaps (299 wins in 17 seasons from 1978-96) and Doug Schakel (299 wins in 18 seasons from 1996-2013) have more wins at Colorado Mesa than DeGeorge. Coach DeGeorge is also the fastest Maverick coach to reach 100 wins, getting there in just his fifth season and needing just 135 games.

Since Heaps only coached at CMU, DeGeorge has now passed him in career wins. Schakel coached one season for UCCS and has a career win total of 311. Bruce Haroldson, the first men's basketball coach in CMU history from 1975-1978, has 380 career wins, but only 64 came at CMU with the majority coming in his later 19-season tenure at Pacific Lutheran University.

In his career, DeGeorge won 32 games at Eureka College in Illinois from 2000-04, 47 games at Cornell College in Iowa from 2004-09, 116 games in eight seasons at Rhodes College in Memphis from 2010-2018 and has won 105 and counting in five seasons at Colorado Mesa.

Marquee Matchups
On Friday, Colorado School of Mines will be the fourth ranked team that CMU has faced this season, and the Mavericks are 2-1 over the first three. Colorado Mesa lost at home to a then-No. 10 Mines team but defeated No. 3 Black Hills State and then-No. 12 Fort Lewis both on the road.

If the No. 19 Mavericks do beat Mines, currently ranked at No. 13, it would be CMU's third road win over a top-15 opponent this season, which would be a tremendous feather in the Mavericks' cap for possible postseason seeding decisions.

Leaderboard Watch
The Mavericks rank sixth in the RMAC with 76 points per game. They rank second in the RMAC and 22^nd in Division II in scoring defense by allowing 64.7 points per game. CMU's scoring margin of +11.2 is the third highest in the RMAC and 26^th-highest in Division II.

Colorado Mesa has been incredibly efficient shooting the basketball. The Mavs' field goal percentage of 49.8 percent is the second highest in the RMAC and ranks 14^th nationally. The Mavericks are also shooting 39.7 percent on their three-point attempts, which is also good for second in the conference and ranks 20^th nationally.

The Mavs lead the RMAC as a team in two major categories. CMU has a rebound margin of +6.7, meaning they grab on average nearly seven more rebounds per game than their opponents. That mark ranks 18^th in Division II. The Mavs also lead the RMAC with 8.6 steals per game, ranking 27^th in Division II.

Individually, Mac Riniker and Blaise Threatt rank first and third, respectively, in the conference in steals per game. Threatt also ranks fifth in the conference by scoring 18.4 points per game and sixth in assists with 3.4 per game. Trevor Baskin ranks second in the conference with 1.3 blocks per game and is sixth with 7.4 rebounds. Baskin has a field-goal percentage of 58.5 percent, third-highest in the RMAC and the 35^th-best in Division II.

About Colorado School of Mines
Colorado School of Mines lost its grip on the top of the RMAC standings thanks to two losses in the past two weeks, but the Orediggers are still a talented and fundamentally sound team, sitting at 14-3 in the conference and 20-3 overall. The Orediggers are ranked No. 13 in the NABC Coaches Poll and No. 16 in the D2SIDA Media Poll (six spots ahead in both polls of CMU at No. 19/22).

The Orediggers are third in the conference standings. They are 14-0 against teams below them in the standings this season and 0-3 against teams above them, losing twice to Black Hills State and once to Fort Lewis, with one Fort Lewis matchup still to come.

Mines has the RMAC's second-ranked offense, scoring 83.6 points per game, and are the conference's top-shooting team, making 50% of their field-goal attempts. The Orediggers are no slouch on defense, either, with the fourth-best scoring defense at 68.9 points per game, holding opponents to the second-lowest shooting percentage at 42.2 percent and grabbing more rebounds per game (38) than anyone in the league.

Forward Adam Thistlewood leads the way with 15.5 points and seven rebounds per game. Sam Beskind ranks fourth in the RMAC with 3.7 assists per game and Brendan Sullivan averages 13 points per game and ranks eighth in the conference in field goal percentage (.510). Thistlewood, Beskind and Sullivan are all redshirt seniors who have played in and started every game for Mines this season.

Head Coach Pryor Orser has been at Colorado School of Mines since the 2001-02 season. In that time, he has won five regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles while leading the Orediggers to the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including Elite Eight runs in 2017 and 2021. Orser has over 400 career wins and the second-most RMAC wins in conference history.

About MSU Denver
The Metro State University Roadrunners are 9-13 overall and 6-10 in the RMAC. The Roadrunners opened the conference season 1-5, with the only win coming against the Mavs, but have been playing better of late, winning three of their past five games and only losing to nationally-ranked Black Hills State and Fort Lewis.

MSU Denver has struggled some on defense, giving up more points per game than all but three RMAC teams (77.3). The Roadrunners' success usually hinges on whether their own offense can outshoot the other team, which they do decently often. Metro State has given up 78 or more points in three different wins and have lost a game in which they scored 88 points.

Tyrei Randall is the team's leading scorer at 14.7 points per game, with sophomore Caleb McGill just behind at 13.3 points per game. McGill leads the team with five rebounds per game. Jaden Kennis (11 points per game) and Brayden Maldonado (9.2) are the team's other top scorers. In the first meeting with Colorado Mesa, all four were on, with Maldonado and Kennis scoring 14 points while Randall and McGill each had 13.

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
Colorado Mesa leads 41-26 in the all-time series with Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers defeated CMU 74-62 back on December 2 to open the 2022-23 RMAC season. In that game, the Mavericks were hold to their lowest points total, field goal percentage and three-point percentage of the season to date.

In 2021, the teams split their matchups, with the home team winning by 10 points each time. Mines won 68-58 in Golden before the Mavericks grabbed a 72-62 win in Grand Junction. Colorado Mesa got the season sweep in 2021 and defeated Mines in a neutral site game to win the 2020 RMAC Tournament Championship. Prior to that trio of wins, however, Mines enjoyed their most successful period of the series, winning five straight from 2016-19 and nine of 10 from 2014-19.

The Mavericks are only 16-32 against Metro State, 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 as Metro's place in the standings has slipped a bit in recent years, the Roadrunners have consistently had the Mavericks' number.

On December 3, the Roadrunners beat CMU 84-78, the most points put up against the Maverick defense this season. Last season, CMU defeated Metro State in the first round of the RMAC Tournament, but the seventh-seeded Roadrunners had taken both regular season meetings from the second-seeded Mavs prior to that.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is ranked No. 19 in the NABC Coaches Poll and No. 22 in the D2SIDA Media Poll, improving from No. 22/receiving votes a week ago.  

In both polls, the Mavericks are the fourth-highest ranked RMAC team as well as the fourth-highest ranked team from the South Central region, which combines the RMAC and Lone Star conferences. Black Hills State is ranked No. 3 in both polls. The Yellowjackets are 20-1, with their only loss of the season handed to them by CMU. Fort Lewis is ranked No. 10 in the Coaches Poll and No. 12 in the Media Poll while Colorado School of Mines is No. 13 in the Coaches Poll and No. 16 in the Media Poll.

Colorado Mesa also remains fourth in the D2SIDA South Central Regional Rankings. The RMAC is a top-heavy league this season, with RMAC teams populating spots 1-4 while Lone Star schools occupy spots 5-10. The Mavericks have beaten the No. 1 (Black Hills State), No. 2 (Fort Lewis), No. 8 (Texas-A&M Kingsville) and No. 9 (St. Edward's) teams in the rankings while only losing to No. 3 (Colorado School of Mines). They will, of course, get another crack at Mines on Friday.

Colorado Mesa finished second in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, trailing only Black Hills State, who received 14 of 15 first-place votes. Colorado School of Mines got the final first-place vote and came third, followed by Fort Lewis and UCCS.