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Here’s a current look at Fort Lewis basketball’s RMAC, NCAA tournament prospects

Men are fighting for RMAC’s top seed, women are fighting to play in RMAC tournament
Fort Lewis College women’s head coach Taylor Harris talks with his player Kate Gallery on Jan. 19, 2024, while playing Chadron State College at FLC. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

February is flying by and March is almost upon us, the best month of the year for any college basketball fan.

Both Fort Lewis basketball teams are trying to achieve different goals. The men are looking to host the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament by winning the conference regular season title for the third time in coach Bob Pietrack’s nine-year tenure. The women look to make the RMAC tournament for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

The Fort Lewis men’s team is 16-1 in the RMAC and is in first place, but Colorado Mesa is right behind the Skyhawks at 15-1. Fort Lewis beat Colorado Mesa in the teams’ prior meeting on Jan. 26. The Skyhawks and Mavericks won’t play each other again in the regular season.

Colorado Mesa has a huge game tonight against Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers are 14-3 in the RMAC and 20-5 overall.

“We understand the value of being at home,” Pietrack said. “We have the very best atmosphere in all of the RMAC. We’re third in the country in attendance per game so we have a distinct advantage at home. Not only because of our loyal fan base but because of the elevation and the game atmosphere that (athletic director) Travis (Whipple) has cultured through athletics, so we want to be at home, obviously.”

In the final five games of the season, the Skyhawks men’s team plays three teams with winning records in the RMAC and two teams with losing records.

Colorado School of Mines is 14-3 in the conference. MSU Denver and Black Hills State are both 9-7 in the RMAC. South Dakota Mines is 7-9 and Western Colorado is 5-11 in RMAC play.

The Fort Lewis women have struggled lately and therefore are on the outside looking in for a chance to play in the RMAC tournament.

Losers of four straight, the Skyhawks are now in ninth place in the RMAC and the conference tournament only takes the top eight teams.

“It would be awesome,” Fort Lewis women’s coach Taylor Harris said. “Ever since the season ended last year, we've had that goal to make it to the postseason tournament. With the injuries that we've had, it could have been really easy for us to just kind of fold the towel in and make that the narrative of the season that, ‘Oh, well, we didn't make it because of injuries but we rallied behind it.’ And even with this latest losing streak, we're still staying positive and we just have to take it one game at a time.”

Harris said he and his coaching staff learned a valuable lesson at the beginning of the season about looking too far into the future.

At the beginning of the season, the team made a big deal about starting the season 6-0 so they could get to 20 wins this season. This talk backfired as the Skyhawks started 0-3 as they lost sight of the games right in front of them. Harris said he doesn’t bring up a magic number of games that the team needs to win. Instead, they’re just trying to stay positive and look at the next game.

“The number one thing is just having a sense of urgency from the beginning,” Harris said about snapping the losing streak. “The consistent theme in this losing streak has kind of been easing into the game and then going with the tempo and the flow that the opposition gives us. We're really good when we have a sense of urgency from the beginning and we set the tone. So that's our biggest thing Saturday is just try to come out from the jump and play Fort Lewis basketball and not play Western Colorado basketball.”

The importance on playing three straight home games also has not been lost on Harris. Fort Lewis has its next three games inside Whalen Gymnasium. The Skyhawks women are 8-4 at home this season and 3-7 on the road.

Harris said it’s hard to get a routine at home and there will be a benefit to only playing one game this weekend.

In the final five games of the season, Fort Lewis will play three teams with losing records in the RMAC and two with winning records.

Western Colorado is currently 4-12 in the RMAC, while South Dakota Mines and MSU Denver are both 5-11 in the conference.

Black Hills State is 11-5, while Colorado School of Mines is 14-3 and currently in first place in the RMAC.

Beyond the RMAC tournament, the Fort Lewis men have a chance to make a splash in the NCAA Division II tournament. The Skyhawks are in a great position to get a good seed in the South Central Region.

Phillip Myers of inkblotsports.com does bracketology for both the Division II men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments.

In Myers’ latest bracket, he has the Skyhawks has the No. 3 seed in the South Central Region behind No. 1 seed West Texas A&M (the No. 1 team in the country) and No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist.

Fort Lewis is fourth in the region in rating percentage index behind West Texas A&M, Colorado Mesa and Dallas Baptist.

The Skyhawks aren’t helped by a poor strength of schedule that’s in the bottom 10 of the region.

Pietrack said he isn’t concerned whether the team gets a No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

“I don't think there's a difference to be honest with you,” Pietrack said. “If you're not number one, you would prefer not to be No. 8, because you don't want to play a true road game right off the bat. Seeds two through seven, in our time at Fort Lewis, we've been all of them. Except one, we've never been one we've never been eight.”

Pietrack said he’s focused on getting his team to play the best basketball of the season heading into the postseason. He knows every team at the NCAA tournament level is a good defensive and rebounding team.

Fort Lewis has the chance to make it to the Division II Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

bkelly@durangoherald.com



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