(6) Mines (16-15, 12-8 RMAC) at (3) CSU Pueblo (21-7, 15-5 RMAC) – Tuesday, 7p.m. – Pueblo, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets] [Tournament Central]

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THIS IS MARCH          
With the regular season in the rearview, the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team will hit the reset button as they enter the postseason and look to defend their RMAC Men's Basketball Championship title starting Tuesday night with a trip to CSU Pueblo for quarterfinal action in the third meeting of the teams this season.

LIVE COVERAGE
All games of the 2026 RMAC Men's Basketball Championship will be available for purchase on the RMAC Network. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
FAN INFORMATION
As has been the case for the past two years of postseason play, the RMAC Men's Basketball Championship will remain on subscription model for all championship broadcasts. Broadcasts of all championship games are included in annual or monthly subscriptions. Access to individual games is available for $10.60 including taxes & fees. A championship day pass is also available $15 and includes access to all championship broadcasts for a 24-hour period. For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.
 
Fans are also reminded that there is no passlist for the postseason. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase advance tickets through Hudl Tickets prior to the event. Single-match general admission tickets are $16 while tickets for children ages 6-17, adults over 65 and military personnel are $11. A tournament pass for all games of the 2026 RMAC Men's Basketball Championship is available for $27.54 including service fees for adults, while a $19.38 version of the pass is available for children, seniors and military personnel.

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 490-247 overall and a mark of 347-165 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.

WEEK 16 RECAP
Mines got to enjoy a long weekend off ahead of the postseason opener as they made a clean sweep of action to end the regular season with 99-72 and 94-91 wins at home over Regis and on the road at MSU Denver.
 
In the home finale against the Rangers, Mines celebrated Senior Night with a wire-to-wire win as four players finished in double figures. Alex Romack went for 25 on 11-16 shooting with seven rebounds, while Will Cordonnier dropped 17 off the bench on 6-10 from the floor including 3-5 from downtown. Trent Minter chipped in 14 with seven rebounds on 6-7 shooting along with two steals, while Jonathan Moore had 10 in the first half on 4-6 shooting including two three-pointers with four rebounds. Six different players recorded a block against RU while Mines shot 53.5% from the floor in the game.
 
Thursday night against the Roadrunners was a battle from start to finish. In a game that saw 16 ties and 14 leads changes, Mines came out on top after a late video review off an inbounds pass determined that time had expired as the Roadrunners never managed a chance at the equalizer. Against four finished in double figures as Moore lead the way with 28 on 7-14 shooting and a perfect 13-13 from the line with seven boards and two blocks. Romack dropped 20 on 6-6 shooting and 8-12 from the line, while Kellon Johnson and Shelton Henton each went for 17 with six field goals each. Once again, the Orediggers lit it up offensively, shooting 56.9% for the game including an eye-popping 64.3% in the second half.
 
LOOKING AT THE BRACKET
Eight teams qualified for the 2026 edition of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship starting Tuesday with quarterfinal action at campus site. Regular season champions Black Hills State enter as the #1 seed and will host #8 seed UCCS in Spearfish. Colorado Mesa earned the #2 seed and hosts #7 New Mexico Highlands in Grand Junction, while CSU Pueblo claimed the #3 seed on tiebreakers over Fort Lewis and will host #6 seed Mines. The aforementioned Skyhawks earned the final hosting spot as the #4 seed and will take on #5 Adams State. The highest remaining seed following Tuesday's quarterfinals will host the semifinals and championship of the 2026 RMAC Men's Basketball Championship Friday and Saturday March 7-8.
 
1,000-POINT CLUB
Alex Romack blew past the 1,000-point mark in his career back on February 19 with a career-best 27 points against UCCS. As he now sets his sights on 1,500 points with a full season left in his career, Romack is sure to cap off a standout junior season with All-RMAC honors of some kind following a season in which has he averaged 29.9 MPG, 14.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, shot .569 from the floor with 169 made field goals, pulled in 110 offensive rebounds, made 118 free throws, dished out 62 assists, pocketed 33 steals and blocked 32 shots.
 
TOUGH OUT
The schedule makers certainly made life interesting to say the least for the Orediggers to end the regular season. After completing the more than 1,000-mile road trip three weeks ago to Black Hills State and Chadron, the Orediggers returned home and to the Denver metro area to play four times in the span of a week. After playing Thursday-Saturday two weeks ago UCCS and CSU Pueblo, Mines turned right around last week and went Tuesday-Thursday against Regis and MSU Denver. If there's was any saving grace to the challenging end to the season, it's that Mines managed to enjoy an extended weekend off before the postseason begins Tuesday.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
What Alex Romack is doing this season is something never before seen in the history of Mines basketball when it comes to double-double performances. Coming into the season, Romack had just eight double-doubles in his career with six of those coming in his RMAC Freshman of the Year campaign in the 2023-24 season. This season, the junior from Indiana is up to 17 such performances already and looks to add to that mark heading into the postseason. That total ranks among the leaders in NCAA Division II and among the top 10 across all levels of the NCAA this season.
 
Looking back through the years, the most double-doubles by an individual in a season in the last 13 years came courtesy of Trevor Wages with 14 in the 2013-14 season. In fact since the year 2000, there have just been three seasons with 10 or more double-doubles by an Oredigger, as Wages recorded 12 in the 2012-13 season. And for more context as to what Romack has been doing this season, over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Mines had a combined 13 double-doubles as a team and in the two seasons before that, combined for just 10 total double-doubles.
 
BLOCK PARTY
Opposing teams have driven in the paint against the Orediggers at their own peril this season, and the numbers prove it. A team with significant length and athleticism inside defensively, Mines led the RMAC this year with 131 blocked shots and are among the top teams in Division II in rejections. Leading the effort have been the big men Jonathan Moore and Alex Romack, with 41 and 32 blocks respectively. Moore ranks second in the RMAC in rejections, with Romack close behind in sixth. Will Cordonnier and Derek Lamb have also led things defensively inside off the bench with 11 and 10 blocks respectively. In fact, 12 of the 14 Orediggers who have suited up this season have recorded at least one block, while 10 have at least a pair to their credit.
 
FROM DOWNTOWN
Mines also finds themselves second in the RMAC as a team with 284 field goals of the three-point variety and with good reason. Eight Orediggers have made 10 or more treys this season, lead by freshman Shelton Henton's 81. In fact, Henton ranks second in the RMAC in three-pointers while his .433 shooting rate from deep is good for third. Jonathan Moore follows with 45 ahead of Kellon Johnson with 29 and Braydon Jacob with 28, while Will Cordonnier has 23 Kasen Lehman has 21.
 
GLASS CLEANERS
This season, no one in the RMAC was better than the Orediggers on the glass and it wasn't even been close. In 31 games, the Orediggers led the RMAC with 1,145 total rebounds and are fifth in rebounding average at 36.9. They also lead the RMAC with 376 offensive rebounds and are fourth in the RMAC with 12.1 offensive boards per game.
 
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
Alex Romack remains the active scoring leader at 14.8 PPG and rebounding leader with 8.8 RPG while shooting .569 with 62 assists, 33 steals and 32 blocked shots. Jonathan Moore follows with 12.9 PPG and 5.9 RPG while shooting .488/.446/.905 on the year with 41 assists and 41 blocks, the latter of which ranked second in the RMAC this season. Shelton Henton enters his first postseason scoring 10.8 PPG on .427/.433/.792 shooting with a team-best 81 three-pointers along with 69 assists and 20 steals.
 
Kellon Johnson's strong freshman season has seen him net 7.4 PPG on .446 shooting with 29 three-pointers, 57 assists, 23 steals and six blocks. Kasen Lehman is scoring 6.1 PPG on .365 shooting including .313 from three, while Trent Minter and his 103 assists rank near the top of the RMAC while scoring 5.9 PPG with 4.4 RPG on .466 shooting with 31 steals and 12 blocks. Will Cordonnier is scoring 4.8 PPG and shined down the stretch as he's shooting .352 with 35 assists, 19 steals and 11 blocks. Cooper Mroczek scores 4.7 PPG on .446 shooting with 25 assists, while Braydon Jacob has 28 three-pointers to back up .336 from the field this season with 44 assists and 19 steals. Derek Lamb finished strong the last two weeks and has 10 blocks while shooting .455 while Silas McCurnin remains a threat defensively and from the three-point line.
 
This season, Mines has scored 78.3 PPG and is +2.4 in scoring margin while shooting .455/.356/.707 compared to .456/.324/.713 by opponents. They average 36.9 RPG and are +3.1 in rebounding margin while dishing out 16.8 assists per game. Mines turns it over 13.1 times per game and is -2.5 in TO margin while scoring just 11.3 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the Orediggers net 6.5 steals and 4.2 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING CSU PUEBLO
The Pack enter the postseason winners of eight in a row to end the regular season and sporting a 13-2 record this year at Massari Arena. CSUP knocked off Fort Lewis 82-61 last Thursday before edging out Adams State Saturday to end the regular season 70-68.
 
Under first-year boss Zach Rubesam, CSU Pueblo enjoys three players averaging better than 11.0 PPG lead by Jordan Blair. Blair nets 13.3 PPG on .444/.383/.664 shooting and is also the top rebounder at 6.4 RPG while dishing out 71 dimes, pocketing 20 steals and blocking seven shots. Jaden Kennis has spent most of the season as a starter and averages 11.5 PPG on .416/326/.806 shooting with 5.3 RPG, 66 assists and a team-best 31 steals. Dylan Sanders rounds out the trio at 11.2 PPG on .440/.411/.864 shooting and is second on the team with 51 three-pointers while posting 34 assists and 27 steals. Each of the three mentioned above have at least 30 three-pointers this season.
 
Bryce Riehl leads the second unit for CSUP at 7.6 PPG on .496/.471/.800 shooting and leads the team with 56 three-pointers to go with 38 assists and 19 steals. Kyren Allen lads the way with 16 blocked shots and averages 6.8 PPG and 5.1 RPG while shooting a brisk .710 inside. Mac Terry nets 6.5 PPG behind .368 shooting with 36 three-pointers and is tops on the team with 93 assists to go with 22 steals and seven blocks. Ty Adam scores 6.2 PPG on .523 shooting, while Sam Howery shoots .377 and scores 4.0 PPG with 85 dimes and 28 steals. Cash Callaway and Corbin Garver figure into the mix defensively as well as Kaleb Mitchell, who is second on the team with 15 blocked shots.
 
On the year, CSU Pueblo averages 72.8 PPG and is +8.6 in scoring margin. They have shot .452/.370/.704 this season while the opposition has posted a line of .407/.314/.682. CSUP averages 35.6 RPG and is +4.0 in rebounding margin, while dishing out 16.2 assists per game. They turn the ball over 11.4 times per game and are +0.4 in TO margin while scoring 14.7 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, CSU Pueblo averages 6.9 steals and 2.5 blocks per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Mines will look to atone for dropping the season series to the ThunderWolves by scores of 63-54 in Pueblo back on January 15 followed by a 70-63 loss in Golden on February 21. All-time, CSUP leads the series 38-33 and 23-15 in Pueblo. Tuesday will be the first-ever postseason meeting of the teams.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
With a win, the Orediggers will advance to the semifinals of the 2026 RMAC Men's Basketball Championship at the site of the highest remaining seed following Tuesday's games on Friday March 6. With a loss, the season will come to an end and Mines will begin preparations for 2026-27.
 
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.