GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After an RMAC regular season title and a sparkling 21-1 conference record, Colorado Mesa men's basketball collected three major awards as the RMAC office announced its All-Conference teams Wednesday.
Trevor Baskin is the RMAC Player of the Year while
Mac Riniker repeated as RMAC Defensive Player of the Year. Both redshirt juniors also earned a place on the RMAC All-Conference First Team, the third first-team selection for Baskin and the first for Riniker.
Head Coach
Mike DeGeorge was also named the RMAC Coach of the Year, his second consecutive season winning the award and third honor in the last four seasons. DeGeorge's Mavericks captured their second outright and third overall RMAC regular season title in the last four seasons and will host the RMAC Tournament semifinals and finals this weekend as the conference's top seed.
In addition, guards
Isaac Jessup and
Owen Koonce both were named Second Team All-RMAC, while point guard
Christopher Speller garnered an All-RMAC Honorable Mention.
Baskin becomes the fourth RMAC Player of the Year in program history, joining alums Jeff Boese (2000-01), Mike Dominguez (2009-10) and Ryan Stephan (2015-16) in winning the prestigious honor. It's another accolade in a phenomenal season for Baskin, who remains alive on the Bevo Francis Award watchlist and has averaged 26 points per game in CMU's last six contests. Baskin is a two-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Week this season and now joins his father, Jon Baskin (1989-1991) and Stephan (2014-16) as three-time First Team All-RMAC honorees in the history of the men's program.
The redshirt junior can be found near the top of nearly every statistical category in the RMAC this season, as Baskin ranks third in the conference in scoring (17.9 points per game), third in rebounding (7.9 per game), fourth in assists (4.0 per game), third in blocks (1.2 per game) and third in field goal percentage (.564).
Riniker is now the back-to-back RMAC Defensive Player of the Year after averaging two steals and a block per game in 22 contests in 2023-24. Riniker set a program record with four RMAC Defensive Player of the Week selections over the course of this season. He remains the only player to capture the award for the entire conference in program history (Jace Herl won an RMAC West Division Defensive Player of the Year award in 2010).
Riniker made the leap to First Team All-RMAC after two seasons on the second team in part because he took a huge step forward in offensive production. Riniker is averaging 14.2 points per game this season, well above his career average of 9.6 per game, and led the RMAC in field goal percentage at .638.
Owen Koonce is averaging 13.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game to go with 30 steals and 12 blocks. The redshirt junior has been a dynamic three-level scorer for the Mavericks, shooting 55 percent from the field, 37 percent from three and 90 percent from the line this season. This is the first all-conference honor of Koonce's career.
Isaac Jessup moves up to the All-RMAC Second Team after an honorable mention selection last season. Jessup shot 38 percent from three-point range while leading the Mavericks in three-point makes and attempts. Jessup's 67 made threes and 2.3 made threes per game rank sixth in the RMAC. He also served as CMU's top perimeter defender, frequently drawing the opposition's toughest guard assignment.
Christopher Speller earns his second career All-RMAC Honorable Mention honor, with the first coming in 2020-21. Speller averaged 8.2 points per game and was CMU's third-leading rebounder at 4.0 per game and second-leading assister at 2.9 per game. Speller has taken on an expanded offensive role down the stretch, as he has scored in double figures in each of CMU's last six games.
