2021 RMAC Men's Basketball Tournament
Semifinal - #5 Colorado School of Mines vs. Black Hills State, Friday, 7:30 p.m. [RMAC Network] [Live Stats]
Final (if advancing) – Saturday, 6 p.m. [RMAC Network] [Live Stats]
 

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THE POSTSEASON BEGINS
The hunt for an RMAC Tournament title begins Friday for the second-seeded Orediggers as they take on third-seeded Black Hills State in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m., at host school Colorado Mesa University. CMU takes on Adams State in the other semifinal; the winners will meet Saturday at 6 p.m. in the final. The tournament's winner gets the RMAC's automatic qualifier spot for the NCAA Tournament.

NO-SPECTATORS POLICY FOR POSTSEASON
The RMAC has announced that there will be no spectators for any of their championship tournaments in any sport this winter. All games are streamed live and for free on the RMAC Network, which is also available on the AppleTV, Roku, and AmazonFire app stores.

HOW THEY GOT HERE
Mines did not play a quarterfinal as COVID-19 protocols forced the cancellation of their match-up with South Dakota Mines on Tuesday; the game was declared a "no contest." Black Hills State beat Regis 75-67 in their quarterfinal, while on the other side of the bracket, Colorado Mesa defeated Chadron State 67-52 and Adams State won on the road at MSU Denver 78-66.

MINES IN THE RMAC TOURNAMENT
Mines has won the RMAC Tournament twice in its history, in 2012 and 2017. The Orediggers have advanced out of the quarterfinals every year since 2015-16. Last year Mines made the final but fell to Colorado Mesa, 69-61, in what would turn out to be the final game of the 2019-20 season before the COVID-19 shutdown.

IN THE POLLS
Mines moved up two spots to #5 in this week's NABC Top 25 poll; Colorado Mesa also advanced to #4. The Orediggers first hit #1 in the NABC Top 25 poll on Jan. 12 and spent six weeks in the top spot; Northwest Missouri State has been at #1 the past two weeks.

REGIONALLY SPEAKING
Win or lose this weekend, it seems a safe bet that the Orediggers will hear their name called when the NCAA field is announced Sunday night. This week's regional rankings have Mines #2 behind Colorado Mesa, with Point Loma, Northwest Nazarene, Biola, and Black Hills State rounding out the top six; only six teams make the regional this year, with the top two seeds getting coveted first-round byes. Another change is that the RMAC is in the West this year along with the PacWest and GNAC instead of the South Central in order to balance the number of competing teams across regions in NCAA Division II. Mines will host the West regional at Lockridge Arena on March 12-15.

SULLIVAN EARNS RMAC'S TOP TWO HONORS
Brendan Sullivan took home the RMAC's two highest honors on Thursday, being named the 2021 RMAC Player of the Year as well as the Academic Player of the Year. Sullivan was joined as First-Team All-RMAC by Kobi Betts, with Michael Glen on the second team and Ben Boone and Austin Means both named honorable mention. On the academic teams, Sullivan was a First-Team All-Academic selection along with Glen and Boone, with Trent Dykema earning an honor roll spot. Sullivan is the first RMAC Player of the Year since Ben Sonnefeld in 2019, and first Academic Player of the Year since Gokul Natesan in 2017.

MINES VS. BLACK HILLS STATE
Black Hills State gave Mines one of their toughest games of the season as the Orediggers won 85-83 in overtime back on Jan. 4. Ben Boone scored a game-high 22 points and Titus Reed had 13 points and eight rebounds off the bench, but it was Brendan Sullivan who keyed the win with nine of his 21 points coming in overtime as Kobi Betts put the Orediggers ahead with free throws with seven seconds left.

The Yellow Jackets went 11-6 overall and 10-6 in RMAC play, and have won eight of their last nine games. They are led by Joel Scott's 20.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game with Sindou Cisse adding 15.4 points per game and Trey Whitley 12.5.

Mines and BHSU have met once in the RMAC Tournament, an 86-77 BHSU semifinal win Golden in 2019. Mines leads the series 14-8 all-time and they have split their last four.

BITS AND PIECES
Mines owns the RMAC's best defense in terms of scoring (60.4 ppg) and percentage defense (.394), while Black Hills State is the RMAC's top scoring offense at 78.9 ppg shooting .513 … The Orediggers also own the #3 scoring defense and #8 field-goal percentage defense in NCAA Division II … Mines also ranked 12th nationally in field-goal percentage offense (.500) …  Brendan Sullivan (Dec. 21, Offensive), Kobi Betts (Dec. 2, Offensive and Feb. 8, Defensive) and Austin Means (Dec. 2 and Feb. 1, Defensive) have been RMAC players of the week this season … Brendan Sullivan is the only player in the RMAC to rank in the top 10 in both blocks (0.9 bpg, 4th) and steals (1.5 spg, 10th) … Sullivan scored his 1,000th career point at Adams State on Friday ... Michael Glen leads the team at 5.9 rebounds per game, with Austin Means right behind at 5.8 … Kobi Betts (12.9 ppg) and Glen (10.9 ppg) are both over 10 points per game along with Sullivan … Titus Reed (7.3 ppg) has been an effective sixth man this season, leading all bench scorers … Mines is 11th nationally in blocks per game (4.6) led by Means (1.0 bpg) and Sullivan (0.9 bpg) … With 155 career blocks, Michael Glen is seven behind Trevor Wages for the Mines record … He cracked the RMAC career top-10 earlier this month at tenth in career blocks … Glen is the only player in program history with 1,000+ points, 700+ rebounds, and 150+ blocks in his career … His 727 career rebounds rank sixth all-time.

TWO DECADES AT THE HELM
The 2020-21 season marks the 20th on the bench for Mines head coach Pryor Orser. Under Orser, Mines has gone 376-199, won five RMAC regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles, qualified for 10 NCAA Tournaments, and currently is on a seven-season 20+ win streak. He is second all-time in RMAC history in conference wins with 268, trailing only Fort Lewis and Western Colorado legend Bob Hofman's 296 victories.

LOOKING AHEAD
The NCAA Division II Championship selection show will be Sunday at 8 p.m. MT on ncaa.com. Should the Orediggers be selected, they would begin play either March 12 or 13 at Lockridge Arena.