By: Cody Bush, Associate Commissioner / Strategic Communications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – After posting one of Division II’s top turnarounds, Colorado Mesa enters the 2024-25 as the preseason favorite in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s Preseason Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll, which was released Tuesday.

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference 2024 Women's Basketball Coaches’ Poll
PL	Team	Points
1.	Colorado Mesa (7)	187
2.	UCCS (3)	170
3.	CSU Pueblo (3)	160
4.	Adams State (1)	153
5.	Colorado School of Mines	152
6.	Regis (1)	150
7.	MSU Denver	107
8.	Colorado Christian	103
9.	Black Hills State	94
10.	Western Colorado	77
11.	South Dakota Mines	60
12.	Fort Lewis	52
13.	Chadron State	45
14.	New Mexico Highlands	36
15.	Westminster	29
First-place votes in parentheses. 14 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

The RMAC will present its 2024-25 Preseason Women’s Basketball Player to Watch list on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Colorado Mesa, which made the sixth-largest year-to-year improvement in Division II last season, was the top pick of seven of the league’s 15 coaches, who could not vote for their team, and scored 187 of a maximum of 196 points.
 
University of Colorado Colorado Springs, which enjoyed Division II’s third-best year-to-year improvement last season, nabbed three first-place votes and 170 points to finish second in the poll. CSU Pueblo received three first-place votes and 160 points to finish third.
 
Adams State was fourth behind that trio of teams, receiving a first-place vote and 153 points. The other top eight teams included Colorado School of Mines (152 points), Regis (150), MSU Denver (107), and Colorado Christian (103).
 
The second half of the poll opens with Black Hills State (94 points), followed by Western Colorado (77), South Dakota Mines (60), Fort Lewis (52), Chadron State (45), New Mexico Highlands (36), and Westminster (29).
 
Colorado Mesa posted a 10.5-game improvement last season, going from a 13-16 mark in 2022-23 to a 25-7 record last season under head coach Taylor Wagner. The Mavericks return four starters from last season’s team. Foremost among those returnees is reigning RMAC Player of the Year Olivia Reed, who averaged 17.2 points and 11.3 rebounds per game last season. Colorado Mesa also returns the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year in Mason Rowland, who averaged 14.6 points per game off the bench last season and is projected to be in the starting lineup to begin the 2024-25 campaign. A pair of transfers add to CMU’s depth: guard Riley Hayes from Arkansas-Forth Smith and forward Brooklyn Palmer from UT Tyler.
 
Under then-first-year head coach Misty Wilson, UCCS won a share of its first-ever RMAC regular-season title while making Division II’s third-best improvement last season, going from a 10-18 record to a 23-8 record. In her second year, Wilson has returned seven players from that team, including First Team All-RMAC honorees Maison White and Amyah Moore Allen. White averaged 13.0 points and 9.3 rebounds per game last season, while Moore Allen came off the bench for most of the season and averaged 12.7 points and 1.8 steals per game last season. The Mountain Lions
 
CSU Pueblo gets the nod as the team expected to make the biggest jump in 2024-25 after posting an 11-11 RMAC record last season as part of a 16-15 overall mark. To their benefit, the ThunderWolves return four starters from last season’s squad. That includes RMAC Defensive Player of the Year, and two-time All-American forward Alisha Little after she averaged 20.8 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game last season. Also returning is Second Team All-RMAC forward Autumn Watts, who averaged 10.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
 
It will be hard to top the excitement of the 2023-24 RMAC Women’s Basketball regular-season race, which saw Adams State, Colorado Mesa, Regis, and UCCS share the title with 18-4 marks. The top six in the standings finished with four games of each other, highlighting a regular-season battle that went down to the final week. Regis would win the RMAC tournament title and earn a No. 3 regional seed in the NCAA tournament. The Rangers were one of four RMAC squads, including Adams State, Colorado Mesa, and Colorado School of Mines, selected to the NCAA tournament, with Colorado Mesa reaching the second round.
 
However, there are a couple of new wrinkles to the 2024-25 RMAC regular season schedule. The league slate has been reduced to 20 games from 22 last season, with each team playing six league members twice and the other eight only once. In addition, the league instituted an additional day off between league games – moving to a Thursday-Saturday format for the upcoming season.
 
The 2024-25 regular season begins Friday, Nov. 8, and the RMAC regular-season slate begins Tuesday, Dec. 3, when Black Hills State hosts South Dakota Mines. A full seven-game league slate follows on Thursday, Dec. 5. The 2024-25 RMAC Women’s Basketball Championship is set for March 4-8, leading up to the announcement of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship field on Sunday, March 9.
 
About the RMAC
The RMAC is a premier NCAA Division II conference located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with 15 member schools. The RMAC sponsors 22 varsity NCAA sports and has produced 65 NCAA Division II national champions and 52 national runners-up since 1992.