The Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team has rewritten the school’s record books with regularity over the last two seasons. When the final National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll came out Tuesday, the Skyhawks did it again.
For the first time in school history, Fort Lewis finished back-to-back seasons ranked in the top 25. Tuesday’s poll has the Skyhawks (25-6) at No. 23, down from No. 21 last week. FLC was ranked in the top 25 for 15 of the 16 weeks this season, and received its highest ranking of the season in mid-February at 11th in the nation.
“Being nationally ranked for pretty much the entire season just shows the consistency in which we’ve played,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “As a coach, you can’t judge yourself on wins and losses, but you do judge yourself on consistency.”
The feat is just the latest in a number of impressive marks set by Pietrack’s team in his two years in charge. The Skyhawks put together school-record streaks that included a 30-game home win streak and a 22-game win streak against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents. The Skyhawks also won 25 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in FLC history and have been nationally ranked in 27 of the last 28 NABC top 25 polls going back to last season.
“The two-year group has been great,” Pietrack said. “We lost six seniors last year, but there’s been an era of guys here who have come in and played the last two years and don’t know anything other than these insane numbers. Success is all they know and they deserve a lot of credit for what we’ve done as a group.”
No. 23 Fort Lewis is one of four returning teams at this year’s NCAA South Central Regional Tournament. The fifth-seeded Skyhawks face the defending regional champions in fourth-seed Tarleton State (22-7) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. After losing four consecutive games, Tarleton State dropped out of the latest NABC poll.
jfries@durangoherald.com
