Despite being the defending conference regular season and tournament champion, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team didn’t earn the top spot in the preseason poll.
The Skyhawks were predicted to finish second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in a preseason poll by the conference’s coaches. Colorado Mines received 186 total points to be selected first. FLC, which received the most first-place votes with seven, earned 180 points to be selected second. Metro State was a close third with 178 points.
Colorado Mines received five first-place votes, and Metro State received three.
The Orediggers finished second in the conference with a 17-5 record last season, and three of those losses came to FLC. The Skyhawks, who went 19-3 last season, own four consecutive wins against Colorado Mines dating back to the 2014-15 season.
“We don’t take a ton of stock in the preseason poll,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It’s a nice compliment that coaches think we have a good team this year. But this team, the 2016-17 ’Hawks, we have a lot to prove.”
FLC received another compliment in a national poll entering this season. Division II Bulletin selected the Skyhawks No. 16 in its preseason poll. The Skyhawks have the longest active home winning streak in the nation at 19 games. Pietrack, who has been either a player or coach for FLC since 2000, said he can’t remember the team ever entering the season in a top-25 poll.
“Our team became accustomed to be ranked last year, so it became a norm for us,” Pietrack said of the team’s reaction to the ranking. “It’s not a big deal for us. We understand the expectations we have at Fort Lewis. We take it as a compliment that people across the country think highly of our team, but we understand we haven’t earned anything yet as far as this year goes.”
FLC star senior guard Joshua Blaylock was named the 2016-17 RMAC Preseason Player of the Year by the conference coaches. The All-South Central Region First Team selection and RMAC Tournament MVP from a year ago scored 18.1 points per game and shot 53.8 percent from the field in his first season at FLC last season. The transfer from Otero Junior College also led the team in made 3-pointers with 91 and steals with 30.
“Josh is such a hard worker,” Pietrack said. “In a league that’s got a lot of really good players, he’s an elite player in the league. It’s not lip service; he proved it last year in the RMAC Tournament championship when he poured in 25. We’re thankful he’s wearing navy and gold.”
Junior guard Rasmus Bach was also selected to the Preseason All-RMAC Team after being named a All-RMAC Second Team player a year ago when he averaged 14.1 points and 5 rebounds per game.
Colorado Mines senior Gokul Natesan, an elite player in the RMAC all four years he’s been in college, was named the RMAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
FLC will begin practice Thursday and will play an exhibition at Northern New Mexico on Nov. 5 before opening the season at West Texas A&M on Nov. 11. The team’s first RMAC game is Dec. 3 at home against CSU-Pueblo.
“West Texas A&M is No. 7. What a huge game,” Pietrack said. “In the RMAC, there are a lot of good teams, and we play 22 conference games. All of them are just as important as the next. There’s gonna be a lot of really hard games, and it will be hard to tell what the league looks like until we start playing.”
Sports writer Joe Fries contributed to this report.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
