COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Colorado School of Mines enters the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men’s basketball season as the preseason favorites. The Orediggers earned 191 points and 11 first-place votes in the 2024-25 RMAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The poll was voted on by the league’s head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their teams.
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
2024-25 Men’s Basketball
Coaches’ Poll
|
| PL |
Team |
Points |
| 1. |
Colorado School of Mines (11) |
191 |
| 2. |
MSU Denver (2) |
176 |
| 3. |
Regis (1) |
160 |
| 4. |
Black Hills State |
157 |
| 5. |
Colorado Mesa (1) |
142 |
| 6. |
CSU Pueblo |
123 |
| 7. |
UCCS |
122 |
| 8. |
New Mexico Highlands |
90 |
| 9. |
Fort Lewis |
87 |
| 10. |
South Dakota Mines |
85 |
| 11. |
Western Colorado |
74 |
| 12. |
Westminster |
48 |
| 13. |
Adams State |
47 |
| 14. |
Colorado Christian |
41 |
| 15. |
Chadron State |
32 |
- First-place votes in parentheses.
- In the men’s poll, fourteen points were awarded for a first-place vote, with one point less for each succeeding place. (Maximum score = 196).
- Coaches were not allowed to vote for their team
|
Metropolitan State University of Denver checks in at No. 2 with 176 points and a pair of first-place votes. Regis rounds out the top three with 160 points and one vote. Black Hills State comes in at No. 4 with 157 points, while Colorado Mesa garners the fifth spot in the poll, with 142 points and the last first-place vote.
Colorado State University of Pueblo, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and New Mexico Highlands earn 123, 122, and 90 points to earn the sixth, seventh, and eighth ranks, respectively. Fort Lewis and South Dakota Mines close out the top ten with 87 points and 85 points each. Western Colorado (74), Westminster (48), Adams State (47), Colorado Christian (41), and Chadron State (32) close out the 2024-25 preseason poll.
Led by the winningest head coach in RMAC history, Pryor Orser, Colorado School of Mines earns the preseason favorite title. The Orediggers are coming off a 24-9 season in which they finished third in the RMAC and earned an NCAA DII Tournament berth. Majok Deng returns to the court for Colorado School of Mines following a 17.2 points per game season that earned him First-Team All-RMAC honors. Things will be slightly different in Golden, Colorado this season, as the Orediggers added four new student-athletes to their roster heading into 2024-25.
MSU Denver is second in the preseason poll with 176 points and a pair of first-place votes. Entering his third season at the helm of the Roadrunners, head coach Dan Ficke has signed seven new student-athletes to the roster. MSU Denver is coming off a 19-10 season that led them to the fifth seed in the 2023-24 RMAC Tournament.
Regis checks in at No. 3 in the poll with 160 points. On the court, the Rangers are led by junior Chase Mayo Harmon who averaged 16 points on 43% shooting during the 2023-24 season. Behind Mayo Harmon, the Rangers entered last season’s RMAC Tournament as the sixth seed with a 15-14 record.
The 2024-25 season begins on Nov. 8, with Fort Lewis heading to Lakeland, Florida to compete in the prestigious Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. The defending RMAC champions will take on Point Loma Nazarene in the season tip-off, while the rest of the conference will start their campaign the following weekend. As the season concludes, the 2025 RMAC Men’s Basketball Tournament will take place on March 4-8 on the campus of the highest seed. Following that, the 2025 NCAA DII Men’s Basketball Championship will begin March 25 at Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The tournament will conclude on the 29th with the championship game.