GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – For the fifth consecutive season, Colorado Mesa men's basketball has qualified for the NCAA Tournament. For the second consecutive season, they will journey to Canyon, Texas looking to make some noise on a national stage.

Colorado Mesa has earned its 11^th NCAA Tournament berth in program history after winning the outright RMAC regular season championship and advancing to the finals of the RMAC Tournament before losing to Fort Lewis.

The Mavericks are the No. 3 seed in the South Central regional, hosted once again by West Texas A&M University. The Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds, fresh off winning the Lone Star Conference Tournament, will be CMU's first-round opponent, with tip-off scheduled for 11 a.m. (MT) on Saturday.

With wins, Colorado Mesa could play a second round tournament game on Sunday against the winner of No. 2 seed Fort Lewis and No. 7 seed Lubbock Christian, then a third round/regional championship game on Tuesday. The winner of the eight-team South Central regional bracket will join Division II's other seven regional winners for the NCAA Elite Eight in Evansville, Indiana beginning on March 27.

How To Watch
The 2024 DII men's and women's basketball tournaments will be available to watch on a pay-per-view basis on the NCAA Championship Pass from the first round to the quarterfinals. The NCAA Championship Pass can be streamed on NCAA.com, participating school sites, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google TV.

Fans will have three viewing options: $9.95 per contest, $29.95 for all Division II Men's Basketball Championship games excluding the semifinals and championship game, and $49.95 for all Division II Women's and Men's Basketball Championship games, excluding the semifinals and championship games.

CMU/ENMU Stream Link | NCAA Championship Pass Link

The semifinals of the Division II Men's Basketball Championship will be carried on CBS Sports Network while the final will be carried on CBS. 

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa advanced to the finals of the RMAC Tournament, knocking off a Black Hills State program which has reached the last two NCAA Final Fours in the semifinals before losing to national No.  6 and tournament No. 2-seed Fort Lewis in the championship game.

RECAPS: Black Hills State | Fort Lewis

Owen Koonce led the way with 20 points against BHSU as 12 different Mavericks scored in the semifinal win. Trevor Baskin recorded 23 points and nine rebounds in the championship game loss, shooting 9 of 10 from the field and 4 of 5 from three-point range. Baskin and Koonce were both named to the RMAC All-Tournament Team.

Postseason History
The Colorado Mesa men's basketball program has had plenty of regular season success, especially in the last half-decade, but is looking to convert it into a deep postseason run for the first time.

The Mavericks have 14 RMAC regular season conference championships or co-championships, including in three of the last four seasons. Colorado Mesa will be making its fifth straight and 11^th overall Division II NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024, but the Mavs have only a 3-10 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament as a program.

Current CMU head coach Mike DeGeorge is 2-3 in the NCAA Tournament during his tenure. In 2022, the Mavericks won multiple tournament games for the first time, defeating regional No. 5 seed Texas A&M-Kingsville and regional top seed Lubbock Christian to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. Colorado Mesa lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in both 2021 and 2023. Additionally, the Mavs qualified for the 2020 NCAA Tournament that would eventually be canceled due to COVID-19.

Colorado Mesa advanced to the finals of the RMAC Tournament for the first time since CMU won back-to-back tournament championships in 2020 and 2021. Those two tournament triumphs broke a streak of eight consecutive losses in the RMAC tournament finals (1989, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2012). After last weekend's loss to Fort Lewis, the Mavs are now 3-9 all-time in the RMAC Tournament championship game.  

Awards Season
Colorado Mesa was well represented when the RMAC announced its men's basketball awards, as the Mavericks received three out of four major awards and had five players earn some degree of all-conference recognition.

CMU All-Conference Release | RMAC All-Conference Release

Trevor Baskin was named the RMAC Player of the Year, becoming the fourth player in Colorado Mesa history to win that award. Mac Riniker repeated as the conference's Defensive Player of the Year, and both Baskin and Riniker earned spots on the RMAC All-Conference First Team.

Guards Isaac Jessup and Owen Koonce were each named to the Second Team while Christopher Speller earned an honorable mention. Colorado Mesa had five total All-Conference honorees, the most of any school in the RMAC, and the Mavs' four players on the conference's first and second teams were tied with Fort Lewis for the conference high.

Head coach Mike DeGeorge won his second consecutive RMAC Coach of the Year award and third in the last four seasons. During DeGeorge's tenure, the Mavericks have now won 20 or more games in five consecutive seasons and qualified for five consecutive NCAA Tournaments. DeGeorge has also managed to win with local talent, as all five RMAC All-Conference players on CMU's roster this season went to high school in the state of Colorado.

Smart Mavs
Maverick guard Levi Dombro won his third straight RMAC Summit Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA competing at each RMAC sport's championship site. Dombro has a perfect 4.0 GPA through 120 academic credits as an environmental science major.

Baskin, Dombro and Reece Johnson were also named to the RMAC's All-Academic First Team. Colorado Mesa was one of just two RMAC institutions with multiple selections to the 10-player squad and the only institutions with three picks.

Threes Company
Colorado Mesa has been one of the most prolific three-point shooting teams in the country.

The Mavericks rank third in all of Division II in three-pointers made (11.6) and attempted (32.3) per game. Colorado Mesa has attempted double-digit three-pointers in every game this season, attempted 30 threes or more in 20 out of 31 games and attempted over 40 three-pointers on seven occasions.

Colorado Mesa has tied the existing program record with 18 made three-pointers in three separate games this season. The Mavericks knocked down 18 threes against New Mexico Highlands on January 6, Westminster on February 1 and Colorado School of Mines on February 16.

Additionally, the Mavericks lead all of Division II in effective field goal percentage, a metric that measures field goal percentage with made three-pointers weighted more heavily than two-pointers. The Mavericks have an EFG% of .597. Colorado Mesa's "normal" field goal percentage is pretty good, too, with the Mavericks shooting at a 50.3 clip from the field to rank first in the RMAC and 11^th in Division II.

Trevor Does It All
RMAC Player of the Year Trevor Baskin has been the catalyst all season for the Mavericks. Entering the NCAA Tournament, Baskin leads the Mavericks in points (17.9), rebounds (8.1), assists (4.0) and blocks (1.3) per game.

Baskin is also in the RMAC's top four in all of those categories, ranking tied for third in the conference in scoring, second in rebounding, fourth in assists and tied for second in blocks per game.

The redshirt junior recorded nine double-doubles during the season and was one rebound shy of notching double-doubles in every game of the RMAC Tournament. Baskin had 22 points and 10 rebounds against Chadron State in the quarterfinals and 13 points and 12 rebounds (in only 20 minutes played) against Black Hills State in the semis before finishing with 23 points and nine rebounds in the finals against Fort Lewis.

Like Father, Like Son
With his third First-Team All-RMAC selection that accompanied his RMAC Player of the Year award, Baskin became just the third Maverick ever with three first team all-conference nods. One of the other two? – Trevor's father, Jon Baskin.

The elder Baskin is Colorado Mesa's all-time leading scorer with 2,227 points while playing for the Mavericks from 1988-1991. The younger Baskin will enter the NCAA Tournament having newly climbed into the program's top five with 1,591 career points. Baskin's 23-point performance in the RMAC Championship game against Fort Lewis took him from sixth to fifth in the CMU record books.  
In between the two Baskins are former Division II National Player of the Year Ryan Stephan (2,073 points, 2012-16), Paul Cain (2,035 points, 1986-1990) and Connor Nichols (1,670 points, 2015-19).
It's not just his dad's career records that the younger Baskin is threatening. On February 23 against New Mexico Highlands, Baskin scored a career-high 43 points, just two off the single-game school record of 45 shared by his dad against Chadron State in 1991 and Stephan against Regis in 2016.

Making History
The 2024 Colorado Mesa Mavericks are now the proud owners of an all-time NCAA record.

The Mavs made 58 consecutive free throws during a three-game stretch from February 16-23, shattering the previous Division II record of 37 straight, set by Southern Indiana in 2003. Colorado Mesa's stretch of 58 also is more than the current NCAA Division I record of 54 (set by Missouri in 2020).

Opponent	Free Throw Percentage
Vs. No. 21 Colorado School of Mines, 2/16/24	10/10
Vs. MSU Denver, 2/17/24	23/23
@ New Mexico Highlands, 2/23/24	28/29, made first 25

 

Player	Made FTs During Streak
Trevor Baskin	22
Isaac Jessup	10
Owen Koonce	10
Christopher Speller	6
Reece Johnson	4
Sam Goulet	3
Michael McCurry	3

 
Colorado Mesa currently ranks third in the RMAC and 81^st in NCAA Division II with a 74.3 percent team free-throw percentage. Prior to the streak of 58 straight, the Mavericks had the eighth-best percentage in the RMAC.

Erik Packard, a Maverick basketball superfan and professor of mathematics at CMU, ran a series of computer simulations using Colorado Mesa's number of free throw attempts (470) and free-throw percentage (.747) at the time of the end of the streak. His model calculated that the odds of a team with CMU's shooting percentage hitting 58 free throws in a row is approximately 1 in 270,000.

Veteran Group
Colorado Mesa has benefitted from continuity and experience throughout the 2023-24 season.

This year's roster features five players in their fifth season with the program (Levi Dombro, Sam Goulet, Michael McCurry, Ethan Menzies and Mac Riniker) while three others (Trevor Baskin, Reece Johnson, Christopher Speller) are in their fourth season with the program.

CMU Feature: Bonded Through Basketball

All eight players have been on the CMU roster for over 100 wins over the course of their careers.

Return To The Court
Maverick forward Ethan Menzies has had quite the journey in his collegiate career.

Menzies had a sparkling sophomore season in 2020-21, averaging 15.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game for a Maverick team that reached a No. 1 national ranking late in the regular season. Menzies was named an NABC All-American, just the second Maverick to receive that accolade, and garnered First-Team All-RMAC and All-Region selections while winning the 2021 RMAC Tournament MVP award.

Unfortunately, Menzies would suffer multiple devastating knee injuries that forced him off the court for two-and-a-half seasons. Menzies returned to the court on January 6, 2024 against New Mexico Highlands for his first game action since March 2021, receiving a raucous standing ovation from the home crowd at Brownson Arena.

CMU Feature: 'A little surreal': Ethan Menzies

Slowly working back into the Mavs' rotation, Menzies has appeared in 16 games for CMU this season, averaging 8.5 minutes per game. Menzies is averaging 2.4 points per game while shooting over 70 percent from the field alongside 1.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.5 blocks per contest. On CMU's Senior Night on March 2 of this year, Menzies made his first start for the Mavericks in three calendar years, logging season-highs of 20 minutes and eight points.

About Eastern New Mexico
The Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico University went on a mad dash to the Lone Star Tournament championship after entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed.

The tournament win granted ENMU an automatic qualifying bid to what will be just the third NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and the first since 2004. Eastern was projected to be in the tournament before that, as the Greyhounds were also sixth in the NCAA's 10-team regional rankings prior to Selection Sunday.

On the road to the LSC Tournament Title, which was the first for the ENMU program in 31 years, the Greyhounds beat Angelo State 103-84 in the quarterfinals, Cameron (which had stunned No. 1 seed West Texas A&M a round earlier) 91-81 in the semifinals and Lubbock Christian 91-88 in the finals.

Lyron Bennett was the hero, knocking down a tiebreaking, buzzer-beating three-pointer to win the tournament in walk-off fashion. Bennett's buzzer-beater was featured on ESPN's SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt in the "Best Thing I Saw Today" segment.

Eastern New Mexico can flat out score. The Greyhounds rank first in the Lone Star Conference and eighth in all of Division II in scoring offense, averaging 90.4 points per game. The Greyhounds will enter the NCAA Tournament having scored 90 points or more in seven consecutive games.

However, the Greyhounds have been prone to get into shootouts, as ENMU's scoring defense allows 81 points per game, which ranks 14^th in the 16-team LSC. Eastern New Mexico has allowed 80 points or more in five of its last six contests.

While the Greyhounds don't shoot the three with the same frequency as Colorado Mesa, they pick their spots well. Eastern New Mexico ranks second in the country in three-point percentage, making 42.1 percent of its shots from beyond the arc throughout the season.

Senior forward Jahcoree Ealy leads ENMU offensively with 20.7 points per game. Ealy leads the LSC in scoring and field goal percentage (.612) and has scored in double figures in every game this season. Ealy was named a Second-Team All-LSC player. Senior guard Greg Johnson earned First Team All-LSC honors after averaging 17.8 points and 2.7 assists per game. Johnson has four 30-point games this season, all of which came against Lone Star Conference opponents.

Junior forward Mario Whitley is ENMU's third double-figure scorer and leading rebounder, averaging 11.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Senior point guard Lyron Bennett, last weekend's buzzer-beater hero, is the team's fifth-leading scorer at 9.2 points per game but has a team-high 4.0 assists per game, which ranks fourth in the LSC. Sophomore forward Jose Murillo, a native of Chihuahua, Mexico, has a Lone Star Conference-leading 1.5 blocks per game.

Eastern New Mexico is 22-9 overall and compiled a 15-7 record in Lone Star Conference play. The Greyhounds went 2-2 against RMAC opposition this season, defeating New Mexico Highlands and Adams State and losing twice to Fort Lewis (one home and one away).

The Greyhounds are 6-5 this season against the South Central Regional NCAA Tournament field – they are 0-2 against No. 1 seed West Texas A&M, 0-2 against No. 2 seed Fort Lewis, 1-0 against No. 4 seed DBU, 3-0 against No. 7 seed Lubbock Christian and 2-1 against No. 8 seed Angelo State.

Tale Of The Tape
Here is how CMU and Eastern New Mexico stack up in major statistical categories:
 

NCAA Rank	Colorado Mesa	Category	Eastern New Mexico	NCAA Rank
18th	86.6	Scoring Offense	90.4	8th
116th	73.4	Scoring Defense	81.0	239th
9th	+13.2	Scoring Margin	+9.4	32nd
11th	50.3	Field Goal %	50.4	10th
60th	42.5	Opposing Field Goal %	41.9	38th
84th	36.0	3-Point %	42.1	3rd
3rd	11.6	3-Pointers Per Game	7.4	165th
128th	34.0	Opposing 3-Point %	34.3	146th
81st	74.3	Free Throw %	70.3	193rd
42nd	38.8	Rebounds Per Game	40.3	14th
5th	19.4	Assists Per Game	17.0	19th
34th	4.2	Blocks Per Game	4.6	14th
91st	7.3	Steals Per Game	6.3	166th
73rd	14.0	TOs Forced Per Game	11.6	205th
268th	15.7	TOs Committed Per Game	11.8	84th

Both teams are among the top 20 scoring offenses in all of Division II, and both programs aren't afraid to push the pace and get out in transition. Eastern New Mexico ranks fifth in DII in fastbreak points with 18 per game while the Mavs aren't far behind at 10^th in the country with 16.8 per game.

Both programs also shoot above 50 percent from the field for the season and rank 10^th and 11^th in the country in that statistic. The Mavericks have been better on defense, leading to a slightly better scoring margin than the Greyhounds.  

Coach's Corner
In his six seasons in Grand Junction, Mike DeGeorge has transformed the Mavericks into a perennial national and conference contender, winning three RMAC Coach of the Year awards in the process.

From 2018-19 through 2022-23, DeGeorge has compiled a 112-38 record at the helm of the Mavericks, topping the 20-win plateau in four consecutive seasons. 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.

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's team won a program-record 26 games, advancing 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.

The Mavs won a co-RMAC regular season championship in 2022-23, going 19-3 in the RMAC and 25-6 overall while making their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The team stepped up in tough environments, going 3-0 on the road against top-15 opponents as DeGeorge nabbed his second RMAC Coach of the Year award.

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. He has over 300 career wins as a head coach.