GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The NCAA released its first seeded regional rankings list as a preliminary ranking for the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Wednesday, and both the men's and women's basketball programs at Colorado Mesa are in good shape for tournament contention.
In the South Central region, the women's team earned a No. 2 regional ranking while the men's program is currently the No. 4 seed in the region. The top eight teams in each of Division II's eight regions will qualify for the national tournament, while 10 teams from each region are named in the regional rankings as under consideration for those spots.
The regional rankings are based on all results through Sunday, February 25, so any results from games on Monday or Tuesday night do not factor into these rankings, including CMU's men's and women's victories over Westminster on Tuesday.
Colorado Mesa is one of only four schools in all of Division II with both its men's and women's programs ranked in the top four of each sport's respective regional rankings – Gannon, Montana State Billings and Nova Southeastern are the other three.
The Colorado Mesa women (23-5 overall, 23-5 in-region, 17-4 RMAC) trail only Texas Woman's in the regional rankings. Regis, Colorado School of Mines and UT Tyler round out the top five behind Colorado Mesa while UT-Permian Basin, Lubbock Christian, Adams State, UCCS and Colorado Christian round out the top 10.
The Mavericks have a record of 6-4 against teams that appear alongside them in the South Central regional rankings. The Mavs hold a key in-region win over No. 6 UT-Permian Basin and are 2-0 against No. 3 Regis, the team immediately behind them in the rankings. Colorado Mesa is 1-1 against No. 4 Mines, No. 9 UCCS and No. 10 CCU and are 0-1 against No. 8 Adams State.
The men's program (24-3 overall, 24-3 in-region, 20-1 RMAC) are ranked behind West Texas A&M, Fort Lewis and Dallas Baptist in the NCAA's rankings. Colorado School of Mines is directly behind CMU to complete the top five, while spots 6-10 are occupied by Eastern New Mexico, Lubbock Christian, MSU Denver, Angelo State and Cameron.
The problem for the Colorado Mesa men's chances of moving up is that the only three teams to beat the Mavs all season (West Texas, Fort Lewis and DBU) are the three teams ranked above them in the rankings. Colorado Mesa is 0-1 against all three teams and is not scheduled to play any of them over the rest of the season, although a second matchup with Fort Lewis could potentially await in the RMAC Tournament Championship. Against the rest of the regionally-ranked field, the Mavericks are 4-0 with two wins apiece over No. 5 Mines and No. 8 MSU Denver.
Both programs complete their regular season on Saturday night against local rivals Western Colorado, with tip-off at 5:30 p.m. for the women and 7:30 p.m. for the men. There will be a Senior Night ceremony in between games, with the Maverick women honoring
Laura Gutierrez and the Maverick men honoring six seniors.
From there, the RMAC Tournament will take place next week, with the first round on Tuesday, March 5 hosted by the higher seed and the semifinals and championship on March 8 and 9 hosted by the highest remaining seed. The NCAA will release another set of regional rankings next Wednesday, March 6.
