The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference released its basketball preseason coaches polls on Wednesday, and Fort Lewis College earned one first-place vote and ranked fifth out of 15 teams.
Colorado Mesa University, the defending regular season and tournament champions, earned 192 points and 12 of the 15 first-place votes. The Mavericks rank No. 4 in the country in the preseason National Association of Basketball poll.
Colorado School of Mines came in at No. 2 in the RMAC poll, with 183 points and one first-place vote. The Orediggers are also ranked on the national scene, entering the 2021-22 season at No. 5 in the NABC poll.
Black Hills State claimed the No. 3 spot with 163 points and one first-place vote, while the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs edged out Fort Lewis for fourth place in the poll with 134 points.
Fort Lewis received 132 voter points and is coming off an abbreviated and hectic 2020-21 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7-9 overall and 6-8 in the RMAC, but qualified for the RMAC Tournament as a No. 6 seed given its strength of schedule.
The Skyhawks return a deep and experienced team, led by two-time first-team All-RMAC forward Riley Farris and junior forward Brenden Boatwright, who garnered second team All-RMAC honors after a breakout 2020-21 campaign.
In total, FLC welcomes back four starters and 10 players who saw meaningful rotation minutes last year with senior guards Will Wittman, Corey Seng and Logan Hokanson; juniors Dunnell Stafford, Brendan La Rose and Joey Naccarato; and sophomores Junior Garbrah and Akuel Kot.
The Skyhawks have also added NCAA Division I transfer JacQuess Hobbs, who made 35 starts and averaged 4.5 points in 90 career games for Eastern Kentucky University from 2017-21.
Following Fort Lewis in the poll were New Mexico Highlands (116), Metro State (115), Regis (106), South Dakota Mines (88), Westminster (83), Adams State (78), Chadron State (62), Western Colorado (58), Colorado Christian (36) and Colorado State University-Pueblo (29).
The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team was selected to finish 11th in the RMAC, according to the coaches' preseason poll.
Fort Lewis received 66 votes, in a three-way tie with Adams State and UCCS.
The Skyhawks are coming off a 6-9 mark during the abbreviated conference-only 2021 season, including a two-game win streak to conclude the season. The Skyhawks have added 11 players to this season’s roster, joining five returners to bring the roster to 16 athletes.
Colorado School of Mines comes in as the preseason favorite with 190 points and 11 first-place votes. Colorado Mesa (164) and MSU Denver (151) round out the top three spots with Colorado Mesa receiving a pair of first-place votes. Western Colorado (150) came in fourth, followed by Westminster (147), CSU-Pueblo (134), Black Hills State (116), South Dakota MInes (110), Regis (102), Colorado Christian (71), Fort Lewis, Adams and UCCS, Chadron (25) and New Mexico Highlands (17).
