Athletes of the Week: CMU Men’s Basketball

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - The Colorado Mesa University Men’s Basketball Team has been red hot recently, rattling off ten wins in their last eleven games.

The lone loss was Tuesday, on the road against Westminster.

The recent winning streak has vaulted the team towards the top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings, with the season winding down.

“We really honed in, focused up and just played play the way we need to be playing recently,” Redshirt Sophomore Trevor Baskin said.

“I mean, it’s obviously good to have success. But one thing we really stress last year was not being complacent,” Redshirt Sophomore Guard Blaise Threatt said, “Not getting complacent on our success and making sure we stay humble and keep the same approach every day has been our secret sauce.”

But according to Head Coach Mike DeGeorge this has been part of the team correcting themselves after an up and down start to their season.

“That first conference weekend, we really struggled at home. The guys really responded with some of the mistakes we were making. It was really work, to fix those. And we’re about 80% through that. We still got a lot more to go. But we’ve made a lot of progress,” DeGeorge said.

It’s not just that the Mavs have been having success against their recent opponents, but who they have beat. On this recent stretch of success, the Mavs have taken down several RMAC opponents, including two teams ahead of them in the standings, Fort Lewis and Black Hills State. Black Hills State was the team that ended the Maverick playoff run last year.

“It’s been a big rivalry between the two of us. It seems like we’ve sort of been alternating wins back and forth and they got the big one last year in the Sweet 16 against us and went on to the Final Four. But that’s the third year in a row we’ve won at their place now,” Degeorge said.

“We switched our defensive gameplan a ton compared to other teams, we worked all week throughout the whole week on just that one team, which we usually don’t really do. So going out there and I felt we were overprepared,” Threatt said.

On top of having success on the court, the recent couple of road trips, have brought the team closer together according to Baskin.

“After the game against South Dakota Mines we ended up spending the night, which we usually don’t do because we just usually drive straight back. It was a good moment for our team like we all bonded really well. Coaches swam with us, and we all had a good time with the pool. That’s definitely a moment I will remember for a while. Obviously the wins, we’ll remember but it’s the memories we make along the road, is what we remember in the long run,” Baskin said.

The good news for the Mavericks is five straight road matchups they are returning home this weekend to host Western Colorado University on Saturday.

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