Mines (1-6) at Colorado College (2-3) – Tuesday, 6 p.m. – Colorado Springs, Colo. [Live Stats] [FloCollege PPV]

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FEAST WEEK
Non-conference action rolls on for the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team Tuesday night as they'll head south on I-25 to Reid Arena for action against Division III Colorado College ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

LIVE COVERAGE
Tuesday's game is available to watch with the purchase of a subscription to FloCollege. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
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 475-238 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 3 RECAP
Mines found the win column in their first home game of the season Friday night against UT Dallas 85-86 but couldn't complete the weekend sweep against a gritty UT Tyler team falling 87-79. Friday against the Comets, the Orediggers celebrated their RMAC championship team from a season ago and put on a show for those in attendance. Five players scored in double figures lead by Kellon Johnson with 19 points for the second game in a row behind 8-14 shooting to go with six rebounds and three steals. Markus Pastorcic-Straun dropped 18 on 5-9 shooting with four assists and also went 8-10 from the line in addition to four rebounds. Alex Romack posted his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 boards, as he did most of his damage behind a 10-12 night from the stripe in addition to 4-7 from the floor in top of being a defensive menace with three blocks and three steals. Cooper Mroczek turned in his first double-digit outing in his home debut along with Braydon Jacob as the duo dropped 10 apiece on a combined 7-14 shooting and 5-10 from three-point land with Mroczek just missing a double-double with eight boards.
 
Saturday night against the Patriots, the Orediggers again found themselves contending for the win, but just couldn't get over the hump as has been the case several times early in the season. Pastorcic-Straun led three in double figures with a game-high 27 for his fourth game of the season with 20+ points, as he went 8-11 from the floor including 3-4 from downtown and 8-9 at the line with three dimes. Johnson added 14 on 5-9 shooting while freshman Shelton Henton had his best game to date, going for 11 off the bench on 4-9 shooting with three assists as well. Mroczek added nine with five boards and three assists while Trent Minter chipped in seven with three boards, two steals and a block.
 
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.
 
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 22.0 PPG. After his performances this weekend, MPS has scored in double figures in six of seven games and scored 20 or more points on four occasions. 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 four double-doubles in the first seven games and narrowly missing out on a fifth. The big man scored a season-high 18 points with 10 rebounds in the first win of the season Friday against UT Dallas, and also has a pair of games where's he's made at least 10 free throws. Romack has also been a menace on the defensive ends as well, hauling in 9.1 rebounds per night and registering eight steals (nearly ¼ of his total from last year) and seven blocks (nearly ½ of his total from last year). 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.
 
SETTLING IN
Of the numerous new names and faces taking the court for the Orediggers, one seems have settled in the last three games and gotten comfortable playing at the college level. Kellon Johnson got the start for the first time on November 16 at St. Mary's and hasn't disappointed since stepping into the lineup, averaging 17.3 PPG behind .571 shooting from the floor and .333 from long range with 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block. He's currently third on the team in season scoring average at 8.3 PPG and is shooting at a .524 clip on the year, a good sign for Mines as he's starting to find his rhythm in the Silver and Blue.
 
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 the Orediggers patiently await the return of Jonathan Moore to action, Markus Pastorcic-Straun continues to lead the way scoring 22.0 PPG on .544/.579/682 shooting with 27 assists and 10 steals. Alex Romack is averaging close to a double-double at 12.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per night and is shooting .444 from the floor with 15 dimes, eight steals and seven blocks. Kellon Johnson's hot streak of late sees him scoring 8.3 per night behind .524 shooting with five dimes, while Will Cordonnier is scoring 6.1 PPG on .314 shooting with nine three-pointers to go with 4.0 RPG, 10 assists, five steals and five blocks.
 
Will Essman checks in this week averaging 5.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per night on .417 shooting followed by Cooper Mroczek with 4.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, seven assists and .370 shooting with six three-pointers. Trent Minter and Shelton Henton are close behind as well, averaging 4.0 PPG and 3.9 PPG respectively with Minter shooting .343 and 11 assists, six steals and three blocks and Henton shooting .321 with six of his nine field goals coming from deep along with adding 10 assists. Braydon Jacob will look to build off his Friday outing as he's averaging 3.4 PPG with nine assists and four steals with seven of his eight makes on the season being of the three-point variety.
 
Through seven games, Mines is averaging 72.9 PPG on .422/.311/.673 shooting while opponents have scored 75.6 per night on .455/.279/.734 shooting. They average 38.3 rebounds and 14.3 assists per game and have started to handle the ball better, lowering their turnover average to 13.3 per game but are still -4.3 in TO margin. Mines has a +1.1 assist/turnover ratio and scores 10.1 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the Orediggers average 6.1 steals and 3.4 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING COLORADO COLLEGE
Colorado College will have a quick turnaround for Tuesday night after flying back to Colorado Springs following two games in Virginia over the weekend against Pfeiffer and Mary Baldwin. The Tigers dropped a pair of close games 91-86 and 57-55. They will be playing Tuesday night's game against Mines as an exhibition, but one of their two countable wins this season did come in overtime in their season opener against Western Colorado 94-92.
 
Ty Hendler leads CC in scoring at 22.0 PPG, but hasn't played since opening night against WCU. Of the regulars across their first five games, Asher Nofziger leads the way with 16.4 PPG on .421 shooting from the floor and an .805 mark from the stripe to go with 7.6 RPG. Russell MacFarlane and Orion Samikoglu both check in averaging 8.8 PPG shooting .421 and .548 respectively with the former pulling down 6.6 RPG and posting two blocks and the latter recording four steals and making a team-high seven three-pointers. Gavin Cater leads the team with 20 assists and is tied for the team lead with eight steals while also averaging 8.8 per night scoring on .333 shooting.
 
Ryan Kranz is one to watch off the bench as he's shooting .333 from the field and is tied with Samikoglu with seven three-pointers and has five steals. Terrion Benson and Nick Brashear each have six steals while TJ Satcher has seven as part of a stingy defensive unit.
 
As a team, Colorado College averages 77.6 PPG and is shooting .435/.286/.742 while opponents are scoring 78.4 per night on .466/.373/.667 shooting. They average 38.0 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game while turning the ball over 15.0 times a night. They are just +0.5 in assist/turnover ration and score nearly 21 PPG off turnovers. Defensively the Tigers net 10.6 steals and 2.2 blocks per game. Other items to note, CC has made just 24 three-point field goals this season and has 41 assists on 136 made field goals.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday night will be the 167th all-time meeting between Colorado College and Mines and the first since January 29, 2002. CC leads the series 96-70 and picked up the 65-57 win the last time the teams met in Colorado Springs. When playing on the road, the Orediggers are 24-52 in the series.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
RMAC play is up next for the Orediggers as they'll play host to Adams State and New Mexico Highlands December 4 at 7:30 p.m. and December 6 at 3 p.m.
 
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.