GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa men's basketball has qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. But after a highly competitive RMAC Tournament, they'll need to get to work scouting the Lone Star Conference.
The Mavericks (25-6) were selected to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 5 seed in the South Central regional. They have been placed in a pod with three other Texas schools, starting with No. 4 seed Angelo State in the first round. If the Mavs get past the Rams, they will face the winner of No. 1 seed West Texas A&M – who will host the entire South Central regional – and No. 8 Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Angelo State (25-6) is fresh off a run to the finals of the Lone Star Conference Tournament, where they narrowly fell 64-63 to West Texas A&M, a team they split the regular season series with. The Rams had the second-best regular season record in the conference (19-3 Lone Star), but they were pushed down to the No. 3 tournament seed because the Lone Star requires the top two seeds to go to its two division winners.
Angelo State swept aside DBU 64-43 in the quarterfinals and inched past Texas A&M-Kingsville 61-57 in the semifinals. Colorado Mesa has also beaten both DBU and Kingsville. Another key Angelo contest against a common opponent came all the way back in the first weekend of the season, when the Rams lost a non-conference contest to RMAC Tournament champions Fort Lewis by a 79-70 score.
The other side of the bracket is much more RMAC heavy, with Fort Lewis earning the No. 2 seed and facing No. 7 Lubbock Christian. Colorado School of Mines rose to the No. 3 seed thanks to their RMAC Tournament performance and will take on Black Hills State in the only all-RMAC matchup of the first round.
Colorado Mesa has shown they can mix it up with top teams on its way to a share of the RMAC regular-season championship in a year that four RMAC teams finished the regular season ranked in the top 16 in the nation. Aside from a 1-2 record against Colorado School of Mines, CMU is 3-0 against the rest of the regional field, defeating Fort Lewis, Black Hills State and Texas A&M-Kingsville.
All tournament games for the first three rounds will be played in the First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas, just outside Amarillo. The four first-round games will all be played on Saturday, March 11, with all times TBA as of now. Should the Mavs advance, they would have a second-round game on Sunday and a third-round game on Tuesday, March 14.
