#10 Mines (0-5) vs UT Dallas (0-2) – Friday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets]
#10 Mines (0-5) vs UT Tyler (0-0) – Saturday, 5 p.m. – Golden, Colo [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets]

---

 
HOME OPENER
After spending the first two weeks of the 2025-26 season on the road, the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team makes their home debut this weekend by welcoming two teams from the Lone Star Conference as they take on UT Dallas and UT Tyler on Friday and Saturday evenings.

LIVE COVERAGE
This weekend's games will be available for purchase on the RMAC Network. Kienan Dixon will be on the call Friday with Miles Dunklin handling the action Saturday. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
RMAC NETWORK CHANGES
As was announced on June 30, this fall the RMAC Network is moving to a pay-per-view model for all events beginning with the 2025-26 season.
 
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants access to a single game for 24 hours. For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (rmac@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.
 
AT THE HELM
The 2025-26 season will be the 25th for the Orediggers under the guidance of head coach Pryor Orser. The winningest coach in the history of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Orser's record stands at 474-237 overall and a mark of 335-157 in league play. Under Orser, Mines has won six RMAC regular-season championships and three RMAC Tournament titles and qualified for 14 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
IN THE POLLS
Mines was picked to finish second in the RMAC this season in the preseason coaches poll announced in late October. Black Hills State was the favorite to win while the top five behind Mines included Colorado Mesa, UCCS and Fort Lewis.
 
Nationally, Mines was voted 10th in the NABC Division II Preseason Coaches Poll. Defending national champs Nova Southeastern opened the season at #1 followed by Washburn, Dallas Baptist, Daemen and Fairmont State.

WEEK 2 RECAP
Regional crossover action last weekend took Mines to the Lone Star State for matchups with #25 Lubbock Christian and #RV St. Mary's (TX). As was the case in week one, the Orediggers were competitive in each of their games, but came up just short in the final results losing to the Chaps 63-58 and the Rattlers 68-62. Friday night in Lubbock, Markus Pastorcic-Straun dropped another 30-ball on 10-21 shooting with a career-high five three-pointers while Alex Romack posted his third straight double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Cooper Mroczek added eight off the bench on 3-7 shooting. Sunday in San Antonio, freshman Kellon Johnson shined with 19 points on 7-12 shooting including 3-7 from deep in his first career start while Romack just missed another double-double with 14 points and eight boards. True freshman Trent Minter and redshirt Freshman Will Cordonnier each went for 10 points and combined for 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals in one of the most balanced outings from a production standpoint in the early season.
 
HELLO THERE
A total of nine newcomers join the Orediggers this season as the defending champs look to reload for 2025-26. Get to know Jackson Brennan, Will Essman, Shelton Henton, Kellon Johnson, Kasen Lehman, Trent Minter, Cooper Mroczek, Ryan Pramenko and Gil Schayes here.
 
NEW-LOOK OREDIGGERS
With the departure of seven players from last year's championship-winning squad, the Orediggers will look significantly different heading into the 2025-26 season. Alex Romack and Jonathan Moore each started at different times throughout the season while Markus Pastorcic-Straun came off the bench to post a breakout season as a sophomore. That core trio is joined by returners Caleb Clark, Dom Girish, Silas McCurnin and Derek Lamb who will all look to take on larger roles this fall. A trio of young bucks who redshirted last fall are also eager to make an impact this season as Braydon Jacob, Matija Jordovic and Will Cordonnier will play a role in the rotation as well. Combined with the nine newcomers listed above, Mines isn't looking to rebuild this season, but rather reload for another run at the top of the RMAC.
 
PRESEASON HONORS
Along with the release of last month's preseason poll, the RMAC announced preseason All-Conference teams and saw the duo of Mines juniors Markus Pastorcic-Straun and Alex Romack earn honors heading into the season. Pastorcic-Straun was a Second Team honoree last fall following a breakout season in which he netted 11.0 PPG off the bench and was second on the team with 90 assists. Romack followed up his Freshman of the Year campaign with Honorable Mention honors as a sophomore as he averaged 3.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting .594 from the floor.
 
RINGS FOR THE KINGS
Friday night, the Orediggers will celebrate their sweep of the 2024-25 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and last season's 29-5 campaign when they receive their championship rings in a pregame ceremony. Returning members of last year's club, along with seniors who have since graduated from Mines or exhausted their eligibility, will be among those honored for last year's historic run all the way to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
 
ON THE MARK
Stepping into a new role as a full-time starter this year, Markus Pastoric-Straun started off his third season at Mines with a bang. The junior from Ontario already has a pair of 30-point outings under his belt this season and is second in the RMAC in scoring average at 21.8 PPG. Though he seemingly came back down to earth Sunday with six points against St. Mary's behind just six field goal attempts, in his first four games Pastorcic-Straun went for 22, 32, 19 and 30 behind .531 shooting from the floor. After a breakout sophomore season, Pastorcic-Straun is proving to be a catalyst for the Orediggers and will help dictate the course of the season this year.
 
DOUBLING IT UP
Alex Romack has opened his junior season on a high note as well with three double-doubles in the first five games and narrowly missing out on a fourth. While not necessarily doing anything flashy, the Hoosier has been consistent in his scoring and rebounding, scoring 12, 16, 13, 13 and 14 points with five, 11, 13, 11 and eight rebounds while also adding four blocks and four steals If his early season production is anything to go by, he might be poised to pass his career-best mark of six double-doubles he turned in during his Freshman of the Year season in 2023-24.
 
SHOWING POTENTIAL
Fans need not be distraught by the 0-5 start to the fall after seeing Mines drop just five games a season ago. Over the course of the first two weeks, the five on the floor for the Orediggers has comprised of players playing their first career games while at the collegiate level while at other times, there was just one player with significant experience at this level. Several new names posted big games, such as Will Cordonnier and Will Essman while Shelton Henton, Braydon Jacob and Trent Minter also showed flashes at times. Despite the results, the Orediggers and the coaching staff are confident that the results will come the more games a new-look group gets under their belts.
 
FOR ALL TIME
Ahead of his 25th season leading the Orediggers, head coach Pryor Orser has seen a thing or two and is subsequently no stranger to milestone moments and record-setting success. On January 20 of the 2023-24 season, the legendary coach added another to his list of accomplishments, becoming the winningest coach in terms of conference wins in the history of the RMAC with 310 and counting. Just weeks later in February, Orser broke another conference record, this time for the most overall wins by a head coach in league history with a 74-56 win over Chadron State, giving him 442 for his career to again pass the great Bob Hofman who made a mark on RMAC history at Fort Lewis and Western Colorado over his 24 seasons between the two institutions. With seemingly no plans to hang it up anytime soon and enjoying another successful season this year, Orser has the potential to set a record that could stand for just as long, if not longer, than the previous mark as another point on an already remarkable resume in a coaching career matched by only a few.
 
BUTKOVICH INDUCTED TO MINES HOF
The first All-American in program history, Joe Butkovich was inducted earlier this fall to the Harry D. Campbell Mines Hall of Fame. A prolific scorer and rebounder in the post, Butkovich was named an all-American as a senior in 1971-72, the Orediggers' first national honoree. Upon the conclusion of his career, Butkovich was Mines' all-time rebounding leader with 891 and third on Mines' all-time scoring list with 1,641 points. More than 50 years after graduating, he still owns Mines' career and season per-game rebounding records of 11.7 and 12.3 (1970-71) rebounds per game, respectively, and he also set the record (since broken) for season scoring average with 24.9 points per game in 1971-72; today he ranks third in that category. That senior season saw him lead the RMAC in scoring and rank among the NCAA and NAIA national leaders in both scoring and rebounding, and his top individual games were a 37-point night against Western New Mexico (the Mines single-game record at the time) and 20 rebounds against UMKC. 

Butkovich earned his degree in engineering from Mines in 1972. His post-collegiate basketball career included tryouts with the Denver Nuggets and Chicago Bulls, and he played professionally in France and Belgium before returning stateside to work as an engineer, spending much of his career dismantling chemical weapons across the United States. 
 
CHECKING THE STATS
As they await the return of Jonathan Moore to the lineup, Markus Pastorcic-Straun remains the main man for the Orediggers averaging 2.18 PPG on .514 shooting from the floor and .571 shooting from three. He's also averaging 4.8 RPG and leads the team with 20 assists and eight steals. Alex Romack is averaging close to a double-double on the year with 13.6 PPG and 9.6 RPG while shooting .489 from the floor with four steals and four blocks. Will Cordonnier enters the week averaging 7.6 PPG on .326 shooting and is tied with Pastorcic-Straun for the team lead in three-pointers with eight. He also has six assists, five steals and three blocks. Will Essman checks in at 6.7 PPG and 4.7 RPG while after his big day last time out, Kellon Johnson is up to 5.0 PPG behind .474 shooting. Trent Minter is averaging 3.8 PPG with eight dimes and four steals with Shelton Henton adding 3.2 per night with seven assists.
 
Five games in, Mines is averaging 69.2 PPG and shooting .410/.319/.619 with 37.8 rebounds and 13.0 assists per game. Turnovers have been problematic early as they average 14.2 per game and are -6.0 in TO margin while being just 0.9 in assist/turnover ratio and score just 7.8 PPG off turnovers. Defensively the are responsible for 5.6 steals and 2.6 blocks per game.
 
UT DALLAS
The Comets are in their first year of full-time Division II competition following their transition up from Division II. UTD, who went 15-10 last year, opened their season last weekend with two games against Westminster in Salt Lake City and lost both by scores of 75-62 and 90-81.
 
Seven members of last year's team return for 2025-26 for UT Dallas. In the early going, newcomer Hudson Goellner leads the team in scoring at 15.0 PPG and 8.0 RPG, but only played once off the bench against the Griffins. Returner Kris White is second in scoring at 12.5 PPG with five three-pointers. Freshman Jacob Smithey checks in at 9.5 PPG with four his six field goals being of the three-point variety while also adding two season and four rebounds. Will Warren also played in just one game and scored nine points with a pair of treys. Returner Peyton Dulin leads the team with 10 steals to his credit while scoring 8.5 PPG with six assists.
 
Through two games, the Comets average 71.5 PPG and have shot .385/.306/.649 with 34.5 RPG. They average 15.5 assists and 11.0 turnovers per game for an assist/turnover ration of 1.4 and score 11.5 PPG off turnovers. Defensively they average 9.5 steals and 3.5 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING UT TYLER
This weekend will be opening weekend for the Patriots as they'll take on Regis Friday night before heading up to Golden Saturday. UTT went 8-20 overall last year and 5-17 in the Lone Star Conference.
 
Just five players return from last year's 21-man roster as the Patriots are also bringing a 16-man group to the gym this season. Of the returners, Sam Phipps leads the way following a season where he was fourth on the team in scoring at 7.0 PPG jut led the ay with 5.8 RPG and 26 blocks while shooting .544 from the floor. Hudson Anderson averaged 5.4 PPG in a swingman role on .537 shooting with 11 blocks while Mate Kapanadze dished out 41 assists and shot .361. Patrick Carr played sparingly while John Barbee did not play last season following a 2023-24 in which he averaged 6.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game on .403 shooting.
 
Last year, UT Tyler averaged 67.3 PPG and shot .423/.324/.636. They averaged 36.1 rebounds and 11.7 assists per game while turning it over 13.8 times for an assist/turnover ratio of 0.8. They also scored 13.7 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the Patriots averaged 6.2 steals and 3.5 blocks per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
This weekend will be the second meetings for Mines with UT Dallas and UT Tyler. Last season, the teams met for the first time with the Orediggers claiming a 90-55 win over the Comets and a 75-71 win over the Patriots.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Mines heads back on the road for their final tune-up before RMAC play begins as next Tuesday they travel to Colorado Springs to a 6 p.m. matchup with Colorado College.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on X and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.