Colorado Springs, Colo. - The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference would release their 2024 men's basketball preseason poll this afternoon with this year's rankings having the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks voted in at fifth in the conference out of 15 schools. 

The Mavs would earn 142 points in the poll with them receiving one first place vote. 

Voting for the poll came from each of the league's head coaches, with each of them not being permitted to vote for their own team. 

Colorado Mesa was voted to finish first in the poll last season but have a new look this year as they only return four of last year's squad with 14 players having departed. There are 11 new players to have joined the team since the start of the fall semester. They are led by new head coach Mike Dunlap this season who is an RMAC Hall of Fame member and was hired back in April to replace Mike Degeorge after his departure for Division I Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 

Dunlap takes over a Colorado Mesa men's basketball program currently in the most successful stretch in program history. The 2023-24 Mavericks set a program record with 29 wins last season while winning the RMAC regular season title and finishing the year ranked No. 6 in the national NABC poll. The Mavericks have qualified for five consecutive NCAA Tournaments and reached the Sweet Sixteen in both 2022 and 2024. 

In this year's poll, Colorado School of Mines would earn the #1 spot as they allotted 191 points and gained 11 of the 15 first place votes. Mines concluded the 2023/2024 season with a 24-9 record while reaching the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 

MSU Denver would come in second with 176 points and took the second highest amount of first place votes with two. Regis University would take the #3 spot as they got 160 points and were also awarded one first place vote like CMU. 

Black Hills State would come in fourth place with 157 points to just beat out CMU by three points for fifth place. 

The rest of the poll can be viewed below to see who was selected 6-15.