#10/11 Mines (6-0) at #RV Colorado Mesa (5-1) – Friday, 7:30 p.m. – Grand Junction, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#10/11 Mines (6-0) at Westminster (0-5) – Saturday, 7 p.m. – Salt Lake City, Utah [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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THE GAUNTLET BEGINS
Off to a stellar start to the season, the #10/11 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team returns to the road this week to begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with a trip west, first taking n #RV Colorado Mesa Friday night before squaring off with Westminster on Saturday.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The match this weekend will be available free of charge on the RMAC Network and will have live stats through Sidearm.

AT THE HELM
Entering his 22nd season in Golden, head coach Pryor Orser is the winningest coach in program history and on Friday November 25, he reached the 400-win mark in his career with an 82-58 win over Kansas Wesleyan. Heading into RMAC play this weekend, his overall record stands at 401-212 and 282-146 in RMAC play, the second-most wins in conference history. Under Orser, Mines has won five RMAC regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles, and qualified for 11 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
IN THE POLLS
The Orediggers were tabbed to finish third in the RMAC in the preseason poll, receiving 169 points and a first-place vote. Black Hills State garnered 196 points and the remaining 14 first-place votes while Colorado Mesa was picked second, earning 178 points. Fort Lewis (152) and UCCS (138) rounded out the top five in the poll. On the national stage, the Orediggers continued to climb in the Top 25 rankings, moving up in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll at to #10 while improving to #11 in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Black Hills State held firm at #6 in the NABC Poll and at #5 in the D2SIDA Poll, with Fort climbing to #19 in the NABC rankings and is earning votes in the media poll, while Colorado Mesa is receiving votes in both polls.
 
WEEK 3 RECAP
Mines took the court at Lockridge Arena for the first time in the new season and defended it well against a pair of foes from the NAIA ranks, knocking off Kansas Wesleyan 82-58 Friday night before dispatching Westcliff 86-59 on Saturday evening. Against the Coyotes, Golden native and newcomer to Mines Adam Thistlewood shined in his homecoming game, scoring a game-high 23 points on 8-13 shooting including 3-6 from three and just missing a double-double with nine boards. Brendan Sullivan added 19 on 6-10 shooting and Riley Schroeder went for 12 off the bench while Sam Beskind stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, seven boards, five steals, four assists and two blocks to secure the 400th career win for head coach Pryor Orser. Saturday's matchup with Westcliff was close over the opening 20 minutes, but a sterling defensive effort in the second half from the Orediggers held the Warriors to just 8-25 shooting from the floor and 1-9 from three. Five players finished in double-digits for tines for the second time this season, led again by the trio of Thistlewood, Sullivan and Schroeder with 20, 19 and 11 respectively who combined to shoot 50% from the floor in the game and has 13 assists between them, while Kai Barr went for a season-high 13 on 5-8 shooting while Beskind added 11.
 
SULLY'S SUPERLATIVES
Brendan Sullivan accumulated seven more honors following last season, including his second consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-America honor, second consecutive RMAC Academic Player of the Year award, RMAC First Team All-Academic for the third straight year as well as NABC Second Team All-District Laurels. He also wrapped up his undergraduate studies at Mines, completing a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering in May and is now pursuing a Master's in Engineering Technology & Management. Through his first four seasons in a mines uniform, Sully's earned 25 honors, achievements and accolades; he might want to look into adding a shelf or two in order to have enough room for them all.
 
HELLO, MY NAME IS….
Several new faces join the Orediggers this season, including a pair of Division I transfers. Golden native Adam Thistlewood returns to play for his hometown team after a standout four-year career at Colorado State in which he etched his name all over the Rams record books. Sam Beskind arrives in Mines after four seasons at Stanford and already having earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree during his time with the Cardinal. They are joined by a trio of freshmen in guard Dom Girish and forwards John Derrick and Wade Kahl.
 
GRIZZLED VETERANS
Mines isn't short on experienced returners this season either, as Ben Boone, Trent Dykema and Brendan Sullivan are all back for a fifth year. Sullivan led the team in scoring last season, averaging 15.0 PPG and shooting 51% from the floor and hitting from beyond the arc nearly 39% of the time He also led the team in rebounding, pulling down 133 boards and averaging nearly five per contest. He also led the Orediggers with 35 steals and 24 blocks en route to First Team All-RMAC honors. Boone, an Honorable Mention All-RMAC selection last season, is coming off a year in which he dished out a team-high 59 assists while still scoring better than 13 PPG and shooting 46.5% from the floor, including a scorching 43.7% from three-point land. Dykema was a key contributor off the bench last season, shooting over 40% from the field and from beyond the arc while going turning in a perfect season from the free throw line.
 
CLIMBING THE RANKS
Continuing a storyline from last season, Brendan Sullivan continues to make his mark as one of the most prolific scorers in Orediggers history. Through the first six games of this season, he now stands at 1,607 career points and is coming off the second 400-point campaign of his career in 2021-22. A better than 52% shooter in his career, Sully has his eyes on continuing his march up the all-time scoring list. Additionally, he's now 17 assists away from 250 for his career and would become the 10th player in program history to hit that milestone. His 134 steals are now fourth all-time in program history, having passed Farris Broussard (2000-05) over the weekend. He now sets his sights on Raul Varela (1992-96) who ranks third with 206.
 
RAISING THE BARR
Kai Barr took a big step forward in 2021-22 despite fighting through injury last season. The redshirt junior posted career bests in scoring (8.9 PPG), rebounding (4.2 RPG), assists (1.1 APG) and blocks (0.8 BPG), and is the fourth-leading returning scorer entering this season. He scored 19 on three occasions and put up double-figures in four of Mines' last six games.

SCOUTING COLORADO MESA
CMU is off to a 5-1 start and is 4-0 at Brownson Arena to open the season and is coming off a 2-0 weekend in the Holiday Inn Thanksgiving which saw them host and defeat Northern New Mexico and Simon Fraser by scores of 99-75 and 77-62 respectively. The Mavericks have two players averaging better than 15 points per game, led by Trevor Baskin at 18.0 PPG who is shooting at a .695 pace and leads the way in both rebounds with 47, good for 7.8 per game, and blocks with 11. Blaise Threatt is right behind him, scoring 15.7 PPG and shooting .491 from the floor and .814 from the stripe in 43 trips while pulling down 43 boards for 7.2 RPG and registering a team-leading 21 assists and 13 steals. Reece Johnson is second on the team with eight made three-pointers this season and is shooting .444 from deep and has 10 dimes, while Christopher Speller is scoring 8.5 PPG and is shooting .432 with 11 assists and 10 steals. Mac Riniker's 12 steals lead the team and his seven blocks are second behind Baskin, as he's scoring 6.2 PPG and shooting .429 from the field. Off the bench, Elijah Knudsen leads the team with nine made treys and is shooting .600 from beyond the arc. For the season, CMU is shooting .475/.371/.745 and has held opponents to 65.8 PPG.

SCOUTING WESTMINSTER
The Griffins are still searching for their first win in the new season and come into the weekend 0-5 after playing BYU in a Tuesday night exhibition match and falling by a score of 100-70. They take on MSU Denver Friday night in their RMAC opener before hosting Mines on Saturday. Trey Farrer is atop the stat sheet and is one of two players averaging better than 10 points per game, entering with 20.0 PPG and shooting .576 from the floor. He also leads the team with 45 rebounds, good for 9.0 per night and has a team-best four blocks and has already gone to the free throw line 43 times this season, where he is shooting .744. He currently ranks third in the league in both scoring and rebounding. Donoval Avila comes in averaging 10.6 PPG and is a .486 shooter, while Jeremy Dowdell is just shy of double figures, averaging 9.8 PPG and leading the team with seven made three-pointers and scoring from deep at a .318 clip. Taylor Miller has a team-best 12 assists and scoring 8.6 PPG while Lewis Johnson leads the way with nine steals and is second behind Dowdell with six made treys and is scoring 7.0 PPG. As a team, the Griffins are shooting .446 from the field but just .280 from three-point land and .638 from the stripe while being outscored by an average of 78.8-69.8 in the early going.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
Six games into the season, Adam Thistlewood is one of three regulars for the Orediggers scoring better than 10 points per night, leading the team in scoring at 15.5 PPG, as well as rebounding at 7.7 RPG with 46 on the season along with 16 assists, good for second on the team while also shooting .448 from the floor and .500 from three with a team-best 14 triples. Brendan Sullivan is scoring this season at a clip of 15.3 PPG and shooting .561 from the floor and .464 from deep with 13 made treys and is third on the team with 14 assists. Sam Beskind leads Mines in shooting at .612 and is .875 from the free throw line and leads the club in both assists (24) and steals (12), while pulling down 34 rebounds at a rate of 5.7 per game and trailing only Thistlewood in that category. Riley Schroeder's four blocks lead the team as he scoring 8.3 PPG and has scored 10 or more in each of the last three games and is third on the team with 31 boards. Off the bench, Reagan Koch is shooting .533 from the floor and .556 from deep with five steals and nine assists, while Cade Mankle has been one of the main distributors this season, dishing out 14 assists while also collecting four steals. As a team, Mines is among the top five in the RMAC in scoring at 81.2 PPG and shooting .503/.409/.736 while holding opponents to the fourth-fewest points league-wide at 66.0 PPG and .447/.350/.628 shooting. Their 15.2 scoring margin ranks fourth in the league along with three-point percentage, while being just one of two teams shooting better than 50% this season along with Black Hills State. Mines also ranks among the top half of the league in total rebounding, steals, turnover margin and is second in assists with 105, trailing only UCCS who leads the RMAC with 120.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Friday will be the 85th meeting all-time between Mines and Colorado Mesa. The teams split last season's meetings with each team winning at home as the Orediggers collected a 68-58 win in Golden on January 21 before the Mavericks won on February 19 72-62 in Grand Junction. CMU has won four of the last five matchups and Mines is seeking their first win on the road in the series since December 7, 2019 when they won 87-76. When it comes to Westminster, this will be the 56th meeting between the schools with the Griffins leading 29-26. Last season, the teams also split their regular-season meetings, winning on their respective home courts as Mines won 88-48 on January 22 before Westminster scratched out an 80-78 in Salt Lake City. The last six meetings have been a 3-3 split, but prior to that, the Orediggers had won four straight in the series including their last victory in Salt Lake City, a 65-64 thriller on December 30 of 2017.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Orediggers have five more RMAC contests on tap before the calendar rolls over to 2023, beginning with a pair of home games at Lockridge arena on Friday December 9 at 7 p.m. against South Dakota Mines followed by a Top-25 showdown on Saturday December 10 against ## Black Hills State also at 7 p.m.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on Twitter and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.