#18 Mines (0-0) vs. #16 Bentley (0-0) – Saturday, 11 a.m. ET – Lakeland, Fla. [Live Stats] [SSC Digital Network]
#18 Mines (0-0) vs. #25 Mercyhurst (0-0) – Sunday, 11 a.m. ET – Lakeland, Fla. [Live Stats] [SSC Digital Network]

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A NEW SEASON AWAITS
A long offseason is just about in the books as a new season tips off Saturday as the preseason #18 team in the country Colorado School of Mines will head to the Sunshine State, specifically Lakeland, Florida and the campus of Florida Southern College for the 2023 Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic to take on a pair of Top 25 opponents in #16 Bentley on Saturday and #25 Mercyhurst on Sunday.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Coverage of this weekend Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic will include free video streams of both games and postgame press conferences on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network, as well as live stats through StatBroadcast.
 
AT THE HELM
The 2023-24 season will be the 23rd for the Orediggers under the guidance of head coach Pryor Orser. Already the winningest coach in program history, he eclipsed the 400-win mark in November of last season and has a career record of 421-218 overall and a mark of 300-150 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference 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 12 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
THE CAPTAINS
Second-year graduate transfer Sam Beskind and redshirt sophomore guard Cade Mankle will serve as captains for the Orediggers in 2023-24. Beskind burst onto the RMAC scene last year, averaging 9.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while also shooting .481/.338/.835 on the season and ranking second in the conference in total assists with 120 and leading the league in assist to turnover ratio at 2.2. Mankle split time between the starting five and the bench rotation in his first season of action last year, averaging 4.4 points and 1.6 assists per game while shooting .397/.310/.542 for the year.
 
IN THE POLLS
The initial NABC Top 25 poll of the season was released on Tuesday October 21 and saw the Orediggers ranked at #18 to begin the new season. Northwest Missouri State headlined the first rankings of the year, earning 10 first place votes, and was joined in the top five by defending national champion Nova Southeastern in second, national runner-up West Liberty in third with Indiana (Pa.) and Indianapolis in fourth and fifth respectively. Both of Mines' opening weekend opponents, Bentley and Mercyhurst, are included in the initial rankings of the season, with the Falcons ranked #16 and the Lakers ranked #25. Three other RMAC schools also appeared in the Top 25 this week, with Colorado Mesa at #14, Fort Lewis at #15 and Black Hills State at #17.
 
Speaking of the RMAC, Mines earned a trio of first place votes and was picked to finish third in the league season behind Colorado Mesa, who earned eight first place votes, and Fort Lewis who earned four. Black Hills State and Chadron State rounded out the rest of the top five.
 
LAST SEASON'S LOOK BACK
Mines went 26-6 overall with a mark of 18-4 in the RMAC last season and advanced all the way to the RMAC tournament title game, defeating Chadron State in the opening round at Lockridge Arena and knocking off host and top-seeded Colorado Mesa in the semifinal before ultimately falling to Fort Lewis in the championship 82-76. Their work in the regular season earned them a spot in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional, hosted by West Texas A&M, but it was a short trip as their season came to an end by way of a 68-48 loss to Black Hills State.
 
Season highlights included head coach Pryor Orser winning his 400th career game as head coach over Kansas Wesleyan on November 25, three outings with over 100 points scored including back-to-back games against MSU Denver (106-70) and Western Colorado (101-59) and a road win to end the regular season against #5/6 Fort Lewis.
 
Three players earned All-RMAC honors a season ago, as Brendan Sullivan was named Academic Player of the Year for the third consecutive season as well as First Team All-RMAC for the fourth time, while graduate transfer Adam Thistlewood, a third generation Oredigger, joined him on the first team. Point guard Sam Beskind, a Stanford transfer who joined Mines last season, earned Honorable Mention All-League honors and was second in the RMAC in assists in the 2022-23 season.
 
Thistlewood and Sullivan were both also named All-Region honorees by the D2 CCA, while Sullivan was also selected to compete one final time in a Mines uniform at the NABC-Reese's Division II College All-Star game ahead of the Final Four in Evansville, Indiana.
 
WELL HELLO THERE
Head Coach Pryor Orser welcomed seven newcomers to Golden for the 2023-24 season in perhaps one of the deepest and most talented signing classes he's had in his 23 years at Mines. The class is comprised of two transfers in Juani Dassie from the junior college ranks and Majok Deng who brings four years of Division I experience from Pepperdine, along with five freshman from all across the country.
 
The freshman class includes Fort Collins native and one of the most prolific three-point shooters in Colorado state high school history in Silas McCurnin and Ontario native Markus Pastorcic-Straun who was a two-sport standout on the hardwood and on the track at Cape Fear Academy in North Carolina. Those two are joined by a trio of big men hailing from coast-to-coast and including points in between. Derek Lamb arrives from California where he averaged close to a double-double in his prep career. Jonathan Moore excelled in four sports during his time at Newsome High School in Florida, averaging better than 12 PPG during his last two seasons of basketball while also excelling in volleyball, track and field and soccer. Rounding out that group is Alex Romack out of Westfield, Indiana, who averaged a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds per game as a senior.
 
You can read more about each of the newcomers by reviewing the Signing Day recap here.

FAMILIAR FACES
Despite the departure of several long-time and well-known faces within the Mines program, nine players from last year's club will be back this year and look to help fill the void left by names like Sullivan, Boone, Dykema and Thistlewood. Riley Schroeder (7.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.3 APG) started eight times in 32 games a season ago and put up the best numbers of his career in the 2022-23 campaign while center Adam Krasovec (6.5 PPG, 3.2 RPG, .563 FG%) saw a slight drop in his numbers from his freshman season, but overcame some injury issues to finish the season on a high note. The duo of Reagan Koch (5.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 59 AST) and Cade Mankle (4.4 PPG, 1.6 RPG, 14 AST) proved to be an effective second unit, with Koch playing his sixth man role to perfection adn Mankle always managing to find a big bucket when needed. Also back are seniors Grant Pressly and Taylor Spurlock as well as redshirt sophomore Caleb Clark and second-year freshmen Wade Kahl and Dominic Girish. That group will look to provide some stability and leadership while helping the newcomers adjust to playing Mines basketball.

ONE OF THE FIRST UP
When Mines tips off Saturday morning with Bentley, they will be the sixth game of the 2023-24 season to get underway in NCAA Division II. 10 teams will be in action before them on Friday, as St. Edward's Seattle Pacific, Illinois Springfield, West Texas A&M, Western Washington, Daemen, Lincoln Memorial, Lubbock Christian, Hawai'i Hilo and Simon Fraser will take center stage on the official first day of the season. With Mines not far behind them, Saturday will also mark the earliest official start to a season for the Orediggers since starting on November 8 back in the 2013-14 season.

ABOUT THE EVENT
An annual event that started in 2016, the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic is a unique event that showcases some of the best teams in all of Division II while also recognizing the legacies of some of the most influential figures in the game. Mines will be making their debut in the event this season and will be one of six Top 25 teams participating in the event in 2023.

The National Hall of Fame Classic started in 2016 and Lakeland, Florida marks the third location to host the event. The event moved to Lakeland in 2022 after spending three years in St. Joseph, Missouri. The event did not take place during the 2020 season. Evansville, Indiana hosted the first two National Hall of Fame Classics. The event will include five games on Saturday and Sunday. More information about the this year's edition of the event can be found here.

SCOUTING BENTLEY
The Falcons went 23-7 overall and 15-5 in NE10 contests last season and advanced all the way to the East region title game before falling at the hands of New Haven 69-60.
 
Last season's leading scorer Zach Laput (20.4 PPG, 7.0 RPG, .539/.413/.827) leads a group of returners that also includes Aaron Latham (10.8 PPG, 3.5 APG, 3.2 RPG), Kellan Bochenek (3.8 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 23 AST, 11 STL) and Isaac Martin (3.0 PPG, 1.4 RPG). Laput was named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 25 watchlist as the season went on and was also named an All-American by the D2 CCA and NABC in addition to being named both D2 CCA East Region and NE10 Player of the Year.
 
The Falcons also being back several underclassmen including Chase Clarks, Cash McClure, Dan Becil, Luke Britton and Joe Carroll.
 
SCOUTING MERCYHURST
The Lakers posted a mark of 25-6 overall and 18-4 in the PSAC a season ago, advancing to the second round of the Atlantic region where they saw their season ended by eventual national runner-up West Liberty 86-72.
 
Mercyhurst will be looking to a youth movement to lead them in the 2023-24 season, with 10 of 13 players on this season's roster listed as freshmen or sophomores, with just three upperclassmen returning. Despite the loss of leading scorer Michael Bradley (14.9 PPG) the Lakers do have back Jeff Planutis who was second on the club last year with 14.7 PPG while also pulling down 4.3 rebounds per night in addition to shooting .466/.429/.866 with 46 assists, 36 steals and 18 blocks. Aidan Reichert will likely be looked upon to take on a bigger role this season, being the sixth man last year and averaging 9.9 points, 2.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game and was one of three players with 80 or more assists last season. They will be bolstered by the addition of Max Jusianiec, who was named the NE10 All-Rookie squad at College of Saint Rose following a season in which he averaged 11 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game with 25 blocks, and 13 steals while shooting .431/.385/.889.
 
Behind those three, it'll be time to time a step forward for several younger players including Sean Fullerton, Dasan Doucet, Christian Gamble and Luke Triggs.
 
SERIES HISTORY
In terms of history between Mines, Bentley and Mercyhurst, there won't be any until this weekend when the teams all meet for the first time ever. Such is the great thing about events like the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic, which brings in teams from all parts of the country who may only ever have a chance to see each other under the bright lights and on the big stage of the NCAA Tournament.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Mines will be back on the road next weekend, once more heading south to the Lone Star State, specifically San Antonio to take on Lubbock Christian and St. Mary's in regional action.
 
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.