#8/10 Mines (8-0, 2-0) vs. South Dakota Mines (2-6, 1-1) – Friday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#8/10 Mines (8-0, 2-0) vs. #4/5 Black Hills State (8-0, 2-0) – Saturday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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BIG WEEKEND
The #8/10 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team returns to Lockridge Arena this weekend to open a four-game homestand beginning with a matchup Friday night against South Dakota Mines before hosting #4/5 Black Hills State in a Top 10 clash Saturday evening.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The match this weekend will be available free of charge on the RMAC Network and will have live stats through Sidearm.
 
YOU DESERVE A BREAK
With the fall semester winding down and final exams beginning this week, free cupcakes and snack bags will be available for all Mines students in attendance for Friday night's game against South Dakota Mines.

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 to #8 while improving to #10 in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Black Hills State moved up to #5 in the NABC Poll and at #4 in the D2SIDA Poll, with Fort climbing to #12 in the NABC rankings and debuting at #25 in the media poll.
 
WEEK 4 RECAP
Mines continued their hot start to the season as RMAC play tipped off to begin the month of December, taking to the road for games against Colorado Mesa and Westminster. Friday night in Grand Junction, the Orediggers dispatched the Mavericks 74-62 behind a pair of 17-point performances from Sam Beskind and Adam Thistlewood as nine different players found the scoring column. Adam Krasovec scored seven in his first action since opening weekend as Mines shot over 56% from the field in the game. Saturday night in Salt Lake City, the Orediggers overcame a gritty effort from the Griffins to notch a 79-73 win. Thistlewood led the way with 20 and again missed out on a double-double by one rebound while Beskind and Brendan Sullivan each chipped in 12 while Kai Barr finished in double-figures for the second time in the last three games with 10 points behind 3-6 shooting and a perfect night at the free throw line, where Mines went 19-21 while Westminster only made five trips to the stripe all night and converting four of them, marking the third game this season the Orediggers have held an opponent to six or fewer free throw attempts in a game and fourth time with 10 or less attempts.
 
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 1,626 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 15 assists away from 250 for his career and would become the 10th player in program history to hit that milestone. His 136 steals are now fourth all-time in program history, having passed Farris Broussard (2000-05) a few weeks back. He now sets his sights on Raul Varela (1992-96) who ranks third with 206.
 
RARE AIR
Saturday against Westminster, Golden native Adam Thistlewood eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in his collegiate career and now stands at 1,015 combined points in his time with Colorado State and with Mines. A four-year member of the Rams' program, Thistlewood scored at least 255 points in each of his first three seasons in Fort Collins, including a career-best 297 as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season in which he averaged 10.2 PPG. Just eight games into his time as an Orediggers, he's already accounted for 130 points and leads the team in scoring at 16.3 PPG and has ended in double figures in all but one game this season and has already gone for 20 or more three times.
 
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 SOUTH DAKOTA MINES
It was a tough start to the season for the Hardrockers as they dropped their first four games of the season before breaking into the win column with a 76-71 win over Montana State Billings on November 25. They then dropped their next two games in a non-conference tilt with Black Hills State 78-58 and were downed in their RMAC opener by UCCS in a close 74-71 game before earning an 83-82 overtime win over Regis on Saturday. Brevin Walter, the team's leader in scoring at 17.4 PPG, went for 24 against the Rangers and scored in double figures in each of the last seven games and has 25 assists to go with 33 rebounds. Kolten Mortensen, the only other player averaging double digits at 14.4 PPG, only scored seven on 3-6 shooting last time out but has five double figure outings this season and is still shooting .518 from the floor with a team-high 19 treys as he's gone .442 from deep. Kolton Frugoli leads the team in assists with 32 and rebounds with 50, pulling down 6.3 per night and is tied with Mortensen for the team lead in steals with seven while scoring 8.9 PPG and shooting .560 from the field. Keagen Smith is scoring at a clip of 6.9 PPG while Bryce Sherrell is scoring 3.4 PPG with four assists and four steals. Off the bench, Trase Olsen and Kyle Harris are both shooting .500 from long range and have 38 rebounds between them. As a team, South Dakota Mines is -14.1 in scoring margin and shooting .417/.333./.755 while opponents are shooting .458/.390/.706. They have turned the ball over 118 times, doing so nearly 15 times per night and are only collecting 4.1 steals per game.

SCOUTING BLACK HILLS STATE
The Yellow Jackets, ranked #4 and #5 in this week's national polls, enter the weekend with the same record as Mines and will face MSU Denver Friday night before heading north on I-70 to Golden Saturday. BHSU won both of their games to open RMAC play last weekend, downing Regis 75-65 Friday before knocking off UCCS 87-79 Saturday. Reigning RMAC Player of the Week Joel Scott leads the team with 21.8 PPG and is also the top rebounder with 68, good for 8.5 per night while shooting .634 from the field. Two other Yellow Jackets are in double figure scoring, as PJ Hayes checks in at 14.7 PPG as the team's leading three-point shooter, connecting at a .571 rate from deep and is tied for the team lead with five blocks. Matthew Ragsdale is the final man scoring over 10 a game at 12.8 per night and shooting .443 from the floor. Adam Moussa isn't too far off that trio in scoring, putting up 9.4 PPG while pulling down 6.5 RPG and dishing out a team-leading 48 assists while recording five blocks. Sava Dukic is shooting .448 from three-point land and has 15 assists while Jaeton Hackley is shooting .421 off the bench with 16 assists and a team-best nine steals. As a unit, BHSU is +17.3 in scoring margin and has been holding opponents to just 64.0 PPG while scoring better than 83 a night themselves. They lead RMAC in field goal percentage at .507 and are tied for the best three-point percentage at .419 while for .730 from the line. They've held opponents to just .366/.269/.779 this season and have 33 steals on 75 caused turnovers while dishing out 119 dimes on 227 made field goals for an assists turnover ratio of 1.5.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
Eight games into the season, three regulars for Mines are averaging double figures in the scoring column led by newly minted 1,000-point scorer Adam Thistlewood at 16.3 PPG who also leads the team in rebounding at 7.8 per game while shooting .482 from the floor. All-American Brendan Sullivan is scoring at a clip of 13.9 PPG and is shooting .528 from the field and .457 from three-point land with 16 dimes while Sam Beskind is pouring in 13.6 per night and leads the team with 36 assists, the third-best mark in the RMAC this season, along with 16 steals, also among the league leaders. Kai Barr is averaging 8.1 PPG and shooting .649 from the field while pulling down 3.8 RPG and has a team-high five blocks while Adam Krasovec returned to the lineup over the weekend and scored a season-high nine against Westminster to raise his average to 7.8 PPG. Riley Schroder is averaging 7.3 PPG and has 14 assists as Trent Dykema and Reagan Cook have been sharp from beyond the arc in the early going, shooting .429 and .500 respectively. As a team, Mines is +13.6 in scoring margin and shooting nearly .500 from the floor, the second-best mark in the RMAC, and .391 from three to also rank among the league leaders while going .768 from the stripe while limiting the opposition to .436/.337/.667. The Orediggers also have 63 steals off 118 turnovers by their opponents and have 134 assists on 218 made field goals, good for an assist-turnover ratio of 1.4 and rank fourth and second in the league when it comes to steals and assists.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Friday's meeting with the Hardrockers will be the 28th matchup all-time with Mines leading the series 18-9 and having won the last four matchups including a season sweep last year by scores of 64-42 in Golden and 89-56 in Rapid City. Saturday when the Yellow Jackets come to town, it will be the 25th meeting in the series which also sees the Orediggers lead 15-9 all-time. A three-game Mines winning streak was snapped in the lone meeting between the schools last season by a score of 78-72 in Golden.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Mines continues their four-game homestand next weekend with two more games before the Christmas holiday, taking on MSU Denver on Saturday December 17 at 7 p.m. before hosting Western Colorado in the penultimate match of 2022 on Sunday December 18, also at 7 p.m. at Lockridge Arena.
 
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.