#5/6 Mines (18-1, 12-1) vs #17/RV Fort Lewis (16-2, 10-2) – Friday, 7:30 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#5/6 Mines (18-1, 12-1) vs Adams State (3-15, 1-11) – Saturday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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THE COMFORTS OF HOME
After spending the last two weeks on the road, the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team will be back at Lockridge Arena this weekend to close out the month of January, beginning Friday with a battle of two Top 25 programs in Fort Lewis at 7:30 p.m. before taking on Adams State Saturday night at 7 p.m. to close out the weekend.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The match this weekend will be available free of charge on the RMAC Network and will have live stats through Sidearm.

PROMOTIONS
In addition to Alumni Weekend festivities sent out to registered attendees, there are numerous promotions on both Friday and Saturday night. Friday's contest features free pizza for the first Mines students arriving at the game. Fans in attendance also have the chance to win Anthony's Pizza seat of the game. Saturday brings a giveaway of free cupcakes and cookies for Mines students. Both nights include entertainment from the Oredigger cheerleaders, dance team, and band. The dance team will perform at halftime. There are also halftime contests for randomly selected fans.
 
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 413-213 and 294-147 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 remained fifth in the latest NABC Coaches Poll this week and moved up three spots to sixth in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Three other RMAC teams were also among the national leaders this week, with Black Hills State sitting sixth in the coaches poll and fifth in the media poll, while Colorado Mesa jumped up in both polls to #16 and #T-22 following a win over Fort Lewis, who dropped to #17 in the NABC rankings and dropped out of the D2SIDA rankings but still received votes this week. When it comes to the RMAC, Mines was tabbed to finish third in the league 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.
 
WEEK 10 RECAP
The Orediggers capped off a 4-4 road trip with just one game over the weekend, heading to Gunnison Saturday and knocking off Western Colorado 79-65 to sweep the season series with the Mountaineers and retain a hold on the top spot in the RMAC standings. Kai Barr dropped a career-high 20 on 8-11 shooting with five boards, three dimes, two blocks and a steal in one of his best outings of the season while three other Orediggers ended in double digits, with Adam Thistlewood and Adam Krasovec scoring 11 while Cade Mankle recorded his fourth 10-point game of the season and first in nearly three weeks. Mines shot an even 50% from the game despite going just 1-14 from beyond the arc, doing most of their scoring inside as they put up 54 points in the paint. The defense turned in another strong showing, pulling down 14 boards while registering eight steals and seven blocks while holding WCU to just 34% shooting in the games and forcing 18 turnovers.
 
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.
 
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 18 games of this season, he now stands at 1,761 career points, good for eighth all-time, 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 just two assists away from 250 for his career and would become the 10th player in program history to hit that milestone. His 147 steals are fourth all-time in program history, having passed Farris Broussard (2000-05) earlier this season and now sets his sights on Raul Varela (1992-96) who ranks third with 206. Additionally, Sullivan is just five blocks and eight three-pointers away from hitting the 200 mark in both categories for his career and needs 20 more rebounds to reach 600.
 
ELITE COMPANY
Ben Boone became the latest Oredigger to join an elite club last Friday at Regis, as with his first three-pointer in the second half, he surpassed 1,000 career points in an Oredigger uniform and enters this weekend with 1,046. Mines now has three active 1,000-point scorers on the roster this season, led by Brendan Sullivan who currently ranks eighth all-time at Mines with 1,757 and Adam Thistlewood, who hit the mark earlier this season against Westminster and has 1,177 points between his time at Colorado State and back home in Golden. Between them, the group has scored almost 4,000 points and is collectively shooting .483 for their career.
 
WATCHLIST SEASON
On Sunday, Sam Beskind and Adam Thistlewood were both recently named to the Bevo Francis Award watch list. The award is presented annually by Small College Basketball to the player who has had the finest overall season for a non-NCAA Division I team. The initial watch list consists of 100 players from the NCAA II, NCAA III, NAIA and USCAA ranks.
The duo, both Division I transfers from Stanford and Colorado State respectively, have started every game of the season for the Orediggers and have emerged as some of the top players in the RMAC this season. Beskind ranks in the top five in the league when it comes to assists and leads the league in steals, while Thistlewood is inside the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding. The two are responsible for close to 33% of the Orediggers' scoring output this season and are also the top rebounders on the team, pulling down 221 between them, nearly one-third of the team total, as well as the top two distributors on scoring plays with 116 assists.
SHARING THE ROCK
19 games into the season, Mines leads the RMAC with 340 assists on the season, which comes out to an average of 17.9 per night and ranks inside the top 30 nationally in Division II. Stanford transfer Sam Beskind has been at the head of that effort of distributing the ball on offense, as he is fourth in the RMAC also among the top 30 in DII with 76 dimes. Adam Thistlewood is second on the club with 40 assists while redshirt freshmen Reagan Koch and Cade Mankle have 38 and 35 each. Of the 13 players who have seen game action this season for the Orediggers, 12 have recorded an assist and nine have 10 or more including Grant Pressly, who had six assists on December 18 Western Colorado, finishing just one shy of his career high.

PICKPOCKETS
Mines' success on offense this season has been a big result of what they have been able to do on defense, especially when it comes to steals. The Orediggers lead the RMAC ahead of Fort Lewis with 152 swipes, which breaks down to an eye-popping 8.0 per game. Again, Beskind leads the team and is tied for RMAC lead with 35, while redshirt freshman Reagan Koch has come off the bench to tally 24, including a career-high five against Western Colorado; he also has a steal in each of 13 of the last 15  games and has five in the last six contests. Brendan Sullivan now has 19 on the season while Trent Dykema is up to 15.
 
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
The Orediggers rank seventh in all of NCAA D-II this season when it comes to assist/turnover ratio at 1.6. An assist/turnover ratio of 1.0 is considered great, and Mines is the only team in the RMAC with an ATR of higher than 1.2; Chadron State is second at 1.19 followed by Black Hills State and Fort Lewis at 1.16 and 1.13. On the season, the Orediggers have 340 assists and have turned the ball over just 215 times. That's usually a recipe that will lead to a great deal of success on the court.
 
BEST AGAINST BEST
When Mines and Fort Lewis tangle on Friday night, it will be a battle between the two of the top offenses in the RMAC along with the best defense when it comes to scoring along. FLC leads the league at 85.5 PPG while the Orediggers are second at 82.6 PPG. On the defensive side of the ball, Mines is best defensive team in the RMAC, yielding just 64.9 PPG. Those numbers should make for an entertaining matchup as season enters the final stretch.
 
COBRA KAI
Much like the dojo of television and cinematic fame, Kai Barr showed no mercy on Saturday against Western Colorado, turning in a career-high scoring day and stuffing the stat sheet across the board. The redshirt junior from Pottsboro, Texas scored 20 points in as many minutes and was scorching hot from the floor, going 8-11 and being involved in each of Mines' first five field goals of the game. He also added five rebounds, tied a season-best three assists and added two blocks and a steal while going 4-6 from the free throw line. Over the last three games, Barr has gone for at least 10 points and is averaging 14.0 PPG and shooting .654 from the floor with 4.3 RPG and 1.7 BPG. Also in the spirit of "strike hard, strike first, no mercy", Barr has been a tone setter when it comes to scoring to open a half, having scored the first points for Mines in six of the last eight periods, two of which have been rim-rocking dunks.
 
SCOUTING FORT LEWIS
The Skyhawks saw a five-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of Colorado Mesa Friday night 75-68 but FLC bounced back on Saturday with a 79-63 win over Westminster. Fort Lewis, currently one of four RMAC teams ranked in the Top 25 this week, currently sits in a tie for third in the league standings with the aforementioned CMU at 10-2 in conference action with about a month left in the regular season. Akuel Kot is the RMAC scoring leader, putting up close to 25 points per night while shooting .484 from the field and .387 from deep (48-124) while dishing out 25 assists and leading the team with 27 steals.  Three other regulars for the Skyhawks average double-digit scoring, as Brenden Boatwright averages 11.1 PPG and 5.3 RPG to lead the team defensively while shooting .578 and logging 12 blocks. Ja'Quaylon Mays is scoring at a 10.8 clip with a team-high 55 assists and 26 steals and is shooting .453 from the floor and is second only to Kot in three-point field goals with 25 this season, while Obi Agbim has come off the bench to average 10.2 PPG and has 34 assists to go with 18 steals while shooting .425. Brendan La Rose (5.9 PPG) has a team high 18 blocks and isn't afraid to step outside the arc to shoot the three for a big man, connecting on 43% of this tries this season while Sekou Dembele (4.2 PPG) has come off the bench this season to pull down 91 rebounds, good for 5.1 per night. As a team, FLC is scoring 85.5 PPG to lead the RMAC as Mines ranks second at 82.6 PPG. They are shooting .464/.366/.761 as a team and pull down better than 35.5 rebounds per night while turning the ball over less than 10 times per contest and have an assist/turnover ratio of 1.1, having recorded 196 dimes this season and doing so at nearly 11 per game. Defensively, the Skyhawks also force 8.3 steals and record 3.2 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING ADAMS STATE
This season has not been kind to the Grizzlies who come into the weekend having dropped their last 10 games with their last win coming all the way back on December 2 at home against Western Colorado. Currently bringing up the rear in the RMAC standings, ASU takes on MSU Denver Friday night before venturing up I-70 Saturday. Despite what the record shows, Adams State does have three players scoring better than 10 points a night with a fourth not too far behind. Lamont Sanders leads the way with 16.4 PPG but hasn't played since January 6 against Regis. Kolby Walker ranks among the top 20 in the RMAC at 13.3 PPG and is shooting .408 while leading team in three-point field goals (41), assists (33) and steals (22) while also logging seven blocks. Isaiah Sampson enter the week scoring at a clip of 11.6 PPG and leads the Grizzles in rebounding at 5.4 per night as well as blocks with 20, which has him tied with Kai Barr for third in the league. Not to far behind is Maison Adeleye at 9.4 PPG, as he also ranks second on the club in rebounding at 4.4 per night and steals with 14. Other to keep an eye on are Kaleb Mitchell (4.5 PPG, 14 blocks) and Alex Hurr (3.3 PPG, .406 3FG%). As a team, Adams State averages 72.8 PPG but is allowing an RMAC-worst 80.3 PPG and is -7.4 in scoring margin. They are shooting .426/.365/.729 on the season and turn the ball over close to 16 times per game.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
Just nine games remain in the regular season for the Orediggers, who have a quartet of players averaging better than 10 points per game, headlined by Golden native Adam Thistlewood at 15.9 PPG who also leads the team in rebounding at 7.1 per night while recording 40 assists and shooting .498 from the floor. Behind him is Brendan Sullivan scoring at a clip of 12.9 PPG while connecting on 44.4% (40-90) of his three-point attempts this season, followed by Ben Boone at 12.0 PPG, who has been scoring nearly 13 points per night since his return from injury and is shooting 52% from the floor over the last six games. Sam Beskind rounds out the group at 11.2 PPG and is the team leader in assists with 76 and steals with 35, the latter of which is the top mark in the RMAC this season. Kai Barr (8.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG) is top three in the league with 20 blocks and is coming off double-digit performances the last three games, including a career-high 20 last time out. Reagan Koch (5.3 PPG) is second on the team with 38 assists off the bench along with 24 steals and is shooting .529 from the floor while Cade Mankle (5.2 PPG) has 35 dimes and is shooting .414 while splitting time between the starting five and coming off the bench, as has Riley Schroeder (7.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG) who is second on the team with 13 blocks and is shooting .667 since the start of 2023.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Friday night's Top 25 showdown with Fort Lewis will be the 94th meeting between the two schools, with the Skyhawks leading the all-time series 56-37. Mines will look to get back in the win column against FLC, dropping both contest last season by score of 86-78 in Durango and 62-60 in Golden after winning the previous eight meetings from 2017-2021. All-time at home, the Orediggers are 20-22 in the series. Saturday night when Adams State comes to town will mark the 164th time the schools will have played, with the Grizzlies leading the series 90-73, but in recent years, It has been the Orediggers who have had the upper hand, winning the last seven contest including a season sweep last season by scores of 77-71 in Alamosa and 71-62 in Golden. In fact, Mines has dropped just one game to ASU since the 2015-16 season, that coming in 2018 on the road as they've won 12 of the last 13 meetings. All-time at home, the Orediggers are 47-35 in the series.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Following this weekend's games at home, Mines returns to the road for the South Dakota swing of the schedule, making the return trips to Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines February 3 and 4.
 
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.