Grand Junction, Colo. - The Colorado Mesa University Men's Basketball Team has a brand-new look this season.
After the departure of 11 of last year's players to the portal or graduation and the entire coaching staff leaving for a new school, CMU was left with only four players on the team.
Enter Head Coach Mike Dunlap.
Given all the news of people leaving CMU, the Mavs would look to a new head coach for this season as on April 15, CMU would announce the hiring of RMAC Hall of Fame Coach Mike Dunlap.
With Coach Dunlap comes a new staff and 11 new players to begin a new era of Colorado Mesa Basketball.
While no stranger to success having won two NCAA Division II Championships at MSU Denver, 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.
Dunlap will look to continue that success this year as he has revamped the team with a brand-new look.
THIS YEAR'S TEAM
When looking at the numbers there are a total of 15 players on the roster this year with four returners and 11 newcomers. Three of the newcomers are transfers.
The Mavs return two players with notable time from last season in Christopher Speller and Ty Allred.
Speller, who is a two-time All-RMAC Honorable Mention and RMAC Freshman Player of the Year in his career, returns for his senior season after putting up his best numbers yet in 2023-24 when he averaged 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. He would finish the season with 14 double figure scoring games while appearing in 32 games.
Allred also returns for the Mavs as he was a consistent player in the team's rotation last season before an injury sidelined him for most of the year. He would appear in 19 games in 2023-24 with him scoring a career-high 13 points against Mines on Dec. 1, 2023.
The Mavs also return the pair of Austin Thyne and Eric Pollert this season who have seen limited time in the past but will look to make a bigger impact on the team this season.
Three transfers enter this team this Fall with the trio of Yaak Yaak, Malakye Cunningham and Harley Kent all coming to play for the Mavs after one season at their prior institutions.
Yaak is the only transfer from an NCAA school as he spent the 2023-2024 season at New Mexico State University. Cunningham comes from Seward County Community College with Kent traveling across the country from South Georgia Technical College.
The remaining eight players on the team are all freshmen. Five of those freshmen hail from Australia with all three of the team's transfers also being originally from Australia.
Those freshmen include Mason Honeyman, Harvey White, Tevin Riehl, Paul Agamba, Emilek Jallow, Jaylen Pitman, Will Mortimore and Ben Kaye.
NEW COACHES
With the arrival of Coach Dunlap also comes a new staff with him as he has hired three new coaches to aid him in his first year at CMU.
Joining Dunlap is Assistant Coaches Skyler Burgess, Sean Evans, and Charles Negus.
Burgess joins the staff after serving as an Assistant Coach at Regis University the past three seasons.
Evans will make his coaching debut this year as he has played professionally the past 13 seasons. Evans saw time across multiple leagues in Europe, Asia and North America. Evans is also a former player of Coach Dunlap when they were both together at St. John's University.
Negus will join Dunlap's staff after making stops at both Sacramento State University and Pierce College in California the past few seasons as an Assistant Coach and Assistant Director of Basketball Operations.
IN THE POLLS
This season the Mavs would receive recognition in both the NABC Men's Basketball Preseason Polls and the RMAC Preseason Polls.
The Mavs would finish last season as the #6 nationally ranked team, and coming into this season would continue to be ranked as in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II Men's Basketball Preseason Poll they would earn the #21 spot with 91 votes. In addition to CMU, Colorado School of Mines and Fort Lewis would also be ranked in the preseason with Mines earning the #8 spot and Fort Lewis coming behind CMU in the #22 spot. MSU Denver would recieve votes but miss out of the rankings.
In the RMAC Preseason Poll, CMU would be voted to finish fifth in the conference out of 15 teams. They would earn 142 points in that poll with one first-place vote coming their way. Colorado School of Mines would earn the #1 spot with 191 points and 11 of the first-place votes.
THIS WEEKEND'S FORMAT
This weekend will feature the D2 Conference Challenge, hosted this year by Colorado Christian University, and have the Mavs facing off against both St. Edward's University and Dallas Baptist University.
The D2 Conference Challenge is a four-team scheduling agreement between CMU and Colorado Christian from the RMAC and Dallas Baptist and St. Edward's from the Lone Star to begin each season. For the 10th time in the last 11 seasons, these four programs will gather at one school's campus for each of the RMAC schools and Lone Star schools to play one another.
The significance of these games is also large as they are games that can have implications for the NCAA Tournament. For those unfamiliar with the Division II postseason process, the RMAC and Lone Star Conference are competing directly against one another for the eight South Central Region qualifying spots in the NCAA Tournament, so any head-to-head results over LSC schools can pay big dividends when comparing resumes at the end of the season.
In last year's D2 Conference Challenge the Mavs went 1-1 with an initial 89-84 loss to DBU before bouncing back to beat St. Edward's 89-73.
ABOUT ST. EDWARD'S
St. Edward's has played three times this season so far as they opened their year this past weekend at the Montanta State University Billings Tip-Off Classic. They would go 2-1 on the weekend with lopsided wins over Alaksa Anchorage and University of Mary before falling to Rogers State.
The Hilltoppers would qualify for the Lone Star Conference Championship in 2023-24 but end their season after falling to Lubbock Christian University in the first round.
This season they have been led by the duo of Jamison Kay and Blake Nielsen who have been their leading scorers. Kay currently averages 17.0 points per game with Nielsen averaging 15.0.
The team has averaged 80.7 points per game so far this season while limiting opponents to 73.3. They are shooting 42.9 % from the field while averaging 66.7 % on the free throw line.
ABOUT DBU
Same as St. Edward's, Dallas Baptist has already played three times this season as they started their season this past weekend at the D2CCA Canadian Tip-Off Classic. In those three games they would go 2-1 with victories over Western Oregon and Simon Fraser.
Dallas Baptist was a NCAA South Central Regional Tournament Semifinalist last season before falling to West Texas A&M who reached as far as the National Semifinals.
They return nine of the players from last year's squad as they will look to make that post season push again this year.
Offensively, the pair of Ricky Lujan and Cameron Kahn have paced the Patriots so far this season as Lujan has averaged 20.0 points per game with Kahn averaging 19.0 to follow closely behind. Kahn has also grabbed 21 rebounds already to average 7.0 per game.
As a team, they average 88.0 points per game while only giving up 79.7 in return. They are shooting 41.6 % from the field, while averaging 58 % from the free throw line.
The Patriots will face off with CMU on Saturday after facing off against host team CCU on Friday.
HOW TO WATCH
Streaming for this weekend will occur on the RMAC Network free of charge. Live stats will also be available to follow along with.
