GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. –   With an impressive regular-season resume and a semifinal run in the RMAC Conference Tournament, Colorado Mesa earned one of the eight selection spots in the South Central Regional to the Division II NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The Mavericks were given the No. 5 seed, the third-highest seed among RMAC teams. They will battle No. 4 Angelo State, who finished as both the regular-season and tournament runners-up in the Lone Star Conference.

The game against Angelo State will take place on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. MT (7:30 p.m. local) from the First United Bank Center on the campus of top seed West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. It will be the last of four first-round matches to take place on that court on Saturday.

Selection Seeds
West Texas A&M secured a Lone Star Tournament title just hours before the selection show to match its regular-season title and rise to the No. 1 seed after spending the past two weeks ranked at No. 2.

The Buffs' selection as the top seed surprised many who expected Fort Lewis to remain at No. 1, especially after the Skyhawks took care of business this week by winning the RMAC Tournament, but the Skyhawks secure the No. 2 seed in the regional to lead the bottom half of the bracket.

Colorado School of Mines made a big jump from No. 6 to No. 3 after defeating Fort Lewis on the final day of the regular season, beating CMU in the tournament semifinals and losing by just six to FLC in the championship game. The Mavericks dropped from No. 3 to No. 5 after the loss while Angelo State held steady at No. 4. Black Hills State dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 and Lubbock Christian and Texas A&M-Kingsville sealed the final two spots after securing semifinal berths in the Lone Star Tournament.

Bracket and Schedule Checks
Colorado Mesa's position as the No. 5 seed happens to put them in a group with three Lone Star schools while the other three RMAC schools will need to clash with one another in the first two rounds.

Should the Mavericks get past Angelo State, they are guaranteed to face another Lone Star team as they will take on the winner of the preceding game at 4:30/5:30 CT between No. 1 West Texas A&M and No. 8 Texas A&M-Kingsville.

The earlier two first-round matchups will be much more RMAC-centered. No. 3 Mines and No. 6 Black Hills State will tip off the tournament at 11 a.m./12 p.m. CT, followed by No. 2 Fort Lewis facing No. 7 Lubbock Christian at 1:30/2:30 p.m. The winners of those two matches will play one another in the second round.

Defensive Battle
The upcoming first-round matchup will feature the RMAC and Lone Star Defensive Players of the Year facing off against one another. Colorado Mesa's Mac Riniker took home the RMAC honor with a league-leading 51 steals and 29 blocks while Angelo State's Steve Webb had a conference-leading 52 steals.

Both Colorado Mesa and Angelo State are currently holding opponents to 65.5 points per game, with the Mavs leading the RMAC and the Rams ranking second in the Lone Star. The 65.5 points per game has both teams tied for 26^th in Division II scoring defense.

Mav Facts
The Mavericks rallied to earn the No. 1 RMAC Tournament seed and a share of the conference's regular season championship despite starting conference play 0-2 with two home losses. The Mavs have won 20 of their past 22 games and have two separate 10-game winning streaks this season.

A big reason for those streaks is CMU's ability to outpace their opponent regardless of the overall pace of the game. In Division II, the Mavs rank 21^st in rebound margin and 22^nd in scoring margin, averaging 5.9 more rebounds and 11.2 points per game more than their opponents. The Mavericks lead the RMAC in both rebound margin and combined opponent rebounds (28.4 per game, three less than any other RMAC school).

Colorado Mesa has done well to gain extra possessions, forcing an RMAC-high 14.8 turnovers and 8.6 steals per game. When they have the ball, the Mavericks have been incredibly efficient offensively, ranking in the top 20 nationally in both field goal percentage (49.6 percent, 17^th) and three-point percentage (39.7 percent, 10^th).

Guard Blaise Threatt is a top-five scorer in the league, averaging 19.2 points per game, while Trevor Baskin adds 14 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while ranking third in the RMAC with 34 blocks and fourth with a 57.5 percent field goal percentage. The Mavs boast the RMAC's top two individual leaders in steals, with RMAC Defensive Player of the Year Mac Riniker leading with 51 and Threatt second with 48. Riniker also averages a block per game.

Both of CMU's leading scorers (Threatt and Baskin) crossed the 1,000-point career milestone this season. The pair of redshirt sophomores are the two most recent members of the now 20-man club that has scored 1,000+ points in a Maverick uniform. Trevor's father Jon Baskin (1988-91) is the program's all-time leading scorer at 2,227 points and holds the school records for field goal percentage (73.9), free throws made (490) and field goals made (833).

Entering the NCAA Tournament, Threatt is at 1,185 points while Baskin currently has 1,020 points.

Blaiseing Hot
Redshirt sophomore Blaise Threatt put another feather in his cap as he was named to the D2CCA All-South Central Region First Team by the region's sports information directors. Threatt is on some kind of scoring roll entering the tournament, scoring 23 or more points in five consecutive games entering the NCAA Tournament, among 14 games of 20 points or more by the guard this season. Threatt averages 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game, ranking fifth in the RMAC in scoring, sixth in assists per game and second in total steals.

A sixth man for CMU last season, Threatt has emerged to win two RMAC Offensive Player of the Week awards as well as a Defensive Player of the Week honor. Prior to the All-Region announcement, Threatt also earned selection to the RMAC All-Conference First Team after winning second team honors a year ago.

Threatt is on the 50-player watchlist for the Bevo Francis Award, given to the best non-Division I player in college basketball. That 50-person list will be narrowed to 25 on March 15.

Déjà vu?
Colorado Mesa is coming off the most extended NCAA tournament run in program history last season, advancing to the Sweet 16 and winning multiple tournament games for the first time.

The 2022 Mavericks had a similar pathway heading into the tournament as this year's team. In 2022, the Mavericks finished half a game behind Black Hills State for the regular season championship crown, but CMU was upended in the RMAC Tournament semifinals by a sixth-seeded Regis team.

Given the No. 4 seed in the regional, the Mavericks defeated No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville 69-55 and then dispatched regional No. 1 seed and then-national No. 7 Lubbock Christian by one point in the second round. The Mavs then faced rival Black Hills State for a regional championship and a berth in the Elite Eight but lost 72-62.

This year, a late-season regular season run by the Mavericks allowed them to tie for the regular-season championship and earn the No. 1 tournament seed thanks to tiebreakers. But despite the home court advantage this time, the Mavericks lost yet again in the tournament semifinals, this time to No. 4 Colorado School of Mines.

Now with the reveal of the 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket, the Mavericks have the same first-round opportunity to defeat a Lone Star team in the No. 4/5 game. If they do win, CMU could get a crack at the Lone Star top seed on their home court in the second round for the second straight year, with No. 1 West Texas A&M presumably waiting in the regional semifinals. Facing the same adversity entering the tournament as last season, time will tell if CMU can replicate or exceed last year's historic tournament performance.

NCAA Tournament History
The pair of tournament wins in 2022 has helped rescue the all-time resume of a Colorado Mesa program that has had substantial conference success but very little national success up until this point.

This year marks the ninth time in program history that CMU has qualified for the Division II NCAA Tournament. The Mavericks are 3-7 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and have excited in the first round on all but two occasions. Current head coach Mike DeGeorge is 2-2 in the NCAA Tournament at Colorado Mesa, led by last year's 2-1 mark. The 3-7 record does not include CMU's 0-0 tournament record in 2019-20, when they qualified for the tournament that was eventually canceled due to COVID-19. The Mavs also made one NAIA National Tournament in 1985, but also went 0-1.

Prior to 2022, Colorado Mesa's only NCAA Tournament win came in 2009-10, when the Mavs went 22-5 under former coach Jim Heaps to earn the No. 2 regional seed and topped Winona State University 73-68 before losing in the following round to Augustana. Mike Dominguez, CMU's first-ever All-American who is now the head coach at New Mexico Highlands, scored 19 points in that game, including a go-ahead jumper that gave the Mavs the lead for good with eight minutes to go and a perfect 6-for-6 on free throws in the final minutes.

The Mavericks lost in the first round of the 1995, 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2021 NCAA Tournaments. CMU's current run of qualifying for four consecutive NCAA Tournaments is double the previous program record of two, from 2009-10 to 2010-11.

About Angelo State
Angelo State will enter the first-round matchup at 25-6, with a 19-3 mark in Lone Star Conference play. The Rams finished second in the regular season standings and advanced to the finals of the Lone Star Tournament, where they nearly completed a 15-point comeback over conference and regional top seed West Texas A&M but fell to a game-winning shot with three seconds left.

The Rams feature a pair of recently crowned All-South Central Region second team members in junior Kevon Godwin and graduate student Steve Webb. Godwin leads the team with 16.9 points per game but scored under 10 points in two of ASU's three Lone Star Tournament games. Webb, the Lone Star Defensive Player of the Year, has 52 steals and chips in five points and four rebounds per game.

Junior Reggie Quezada and senior Fredelin de la Cruz average 10.8 and 10.5 points per game, respectively, to give Angelo State three players averaging in double figures. De la Cruz, a native of the Dominican Republic, is the team's leading rebounder at 6.7 per game.

Colorado Mesa and Angelo State have faced six common opponents this season – New Mexico Highlands, Fort Lewis, DBU, St. Edwards, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M International. Angelo State is 7-1 this season against those programs, losing to Fort Lewis 79-70 on November 12 but defeating NMHU and running the table against the four Lone Star schools that CMU played.

The Mavericks are 6-1 against those teams, beating Fort Lewis on the road and defeating New Mexico Highlands twice while also topping DBU, St. Edward's and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Conference Supremacy
While West Texas A&M and Angelo State give the Lone Star two of the region's top-four seeded teams in this NCAA Regional, the RMAC has been lauded recently for having the most competitive conference tournament in the country. All four of the conference's qualifying teams (Fort Lewis, Colorado School of Mines, CMU and Black Hills State) have been nationally ranked for over half the season and entered the RMAC Tournament all in the top 16 nationally.

Despite West Texas A&M receiving the No. 1 seed and Angelo State receiving No. 4 from the NCAA, the D2SIDA Media Poll features all four RMAC teams (FLC at No. 5, Mines at No. 17 and CMU/BHSU tied at No. 20) ranked above West Texas (No. 22) and Angelo State (RV).

The NABC Coaches Poll features Fort Lewis at No. 7, Mines at No. 14, CMU at No. 20 and BHSU at No. 21, compared to No. 13 for WTA&M and No. 23 for Angelo State.

Coach's Corner
Mike DeGeorge has taken the Colorado Mesa program to unprecedented heights since arriving ahead of the 2018-19 season.

He improved the Mavericks from 11 to 19 wins in his first season and crossed the 20-win barrier in 2019-20, leading CMU to an RMAC Tournament Championship from the No. 4 seed. That clinched what would have been the Mavs' first NCAA Tournament Appearance since 2011, but the NCAA Tournament was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020-21 campaign saw the Mavericks start the season with 14 consecutive wins on the way to the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament Championships and finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation. DeGeorge was named RMAC and NCAA West Region Coach of the Year.

In 2021-22, DeGeorge led the Mavericks to within half a game of a regular-season conference championship before leading the team to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, a run that included a win over regional No. 1 seed Lubbock Christian.

Prior to CMU, DeGeorge was the head coach at Eureka College in Eureka, Ill. from 2000-04, Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa from 2004-09 and Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. for eight seasons from 2010-2018.

The 2022-23 season saw DeGeorge grab his second RMAC Coach of the Year honor while CMU earned a share of the conference regular-season championship.