Bob Pietrack and his assistant coach Daniel Steffensen loaded two vans for an 800-mile trip with the 14th ranked men’s basketball team in NCAA Division II. When the vans pulled back into Fort Lewis College, they were two wins and two spots in the national poll richer.
Pietrack became the fastest head coach to 50 wins (50-7) in D2 history Saturday night when the Skyhawks defeated Colorado State University-Pueblo for the second time this season. A night earlier, Pietrack’s team dominated the second half in Las Vegas, New Mexico, en route to a season sweep of New Mexico Highlands.
Riding an eight-game winning streak, the Skyhawks moved up two spots to No. 12 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches NCAA Division II men’s basketball rankings released Tuesday. It is the team’s highest ranking of the season after coming in at No. 14 a week earlier and No. 15 in the preseason poll.
FLC (20-3, 15-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) is one game ahead of Colorado Mines in the conference standings with five games to play. Colorado Mines (19-4, 14-2 RMAC) fell from No. 19 to No. 25 in this week’s poll after losing 60-55 on Friday night at Regis. FLC and Mines are scheduled to face each other for the first and only time this regular season Feb. 17 in Durango. First, the Skyhawks have a pair of home games this weekend against Western State and Colorado Mesa.
Pietrack, the 2015-16 RMAC Coach of the Year, is in only his second season as head coach of the Skyhawks. His humble team with an even humbler budget has punched well above its weight class with a 48-7 overall record that includes a 34-5 mark in conference the past two seasons. Pietrack also earned two wins as the Skyhawks’ coach in 2013 when he served an interim role while former head coach Bob Hofman missed two games with a health complication.
The team’s highest ranking in program history is No. 4, which was achieved last season. That year, FLC won the RMAC regular season and conference tournament championships and set program records for most wins in a season, most RMAC wins and most home wins.
After going 17-0 at home last year, FLC is 9-0 at home this season with a program record for consecutive home wins active at 28 games.
They’ll try to push that streak to 30 games this week and continue the climb toward the top 10.
In the Women’s Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll released Tuesday, CSU-Pueblo (23-0, 17-0 RMAC) remained No. 3 in the rankings. Regis (17-4, 12-4 RMAC) dropped out of the top 25 but still received votes despite standing in fourth place in the conference behind Colorado Mesa and UC-Colorado Springs.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
