DENVER – After a quality weekend of wins, the MSU Denver men's basketball team has a new catchphrase.
 
Suppress the Success.
 
"It's always easier for guys to accept hard coaching and to be corrected after getting some wins," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "And now our challenge is to make sure that we suppress the success. We're glad we won, and now we focus this weekend. We're not talking about last weekend, we're focused on what we need to do to get better, where even in our wins we could've won more comfortably if we had executed better on offense or had been more locked in defensively for 40 minutes."
 
MSU Denver snapped a four-game losing streak with wins last Friday over New Mexico Highlands and last Saturday over CSU Pueblo. Now the Roadrunners (6-8 overall, 3-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) hit the road for games Friday at 7 p.m. at UCCS (12-4, 6-3) and Saturday at 5 p.m. at Regis (6-8, 3-5). After that, the Roadrunners return home to face Nos. 9 and 7 Colorado School of Mines (14-1, 8-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
 
MSU Denver's recent turnaround, which includes a near-miss at Chadron State on Dec. 31, coincides with a change in the starting lineup, with forward Chandler Bevans and guard Ghage Kenan moving into starting roles. That means that Tyrei Randall and Jaden Kennis, first and third, respectively, on the team in scoring, are coming off the bench – though they are still playing just as much as ever.
 
The additional offensive firepower off the bench has helped support a unit that has gotten the team off to solid defensive starts.
 
Randall has remained steady as ever, and Kennis has taken extremely well to the role, averaging 13.3 points while shooting 50 percent from the field (14 of 28), including 45.5 percent from 3-point range (5 of 11), since being moved to the second unit.
 
Kennis had three spectacular dunks and hit two clutch 3s in the win over New Mexico Highlands.
 
"He was great," Ficke said. "We've talked about playing with a chip on his shoulder, and I couldn't be more satisfied with what he did last weekend and I'm looking forward to more going forward."
 
The two wins have helped MSU Denver inch back to a tie for 10^th in the RMAC standings – eight teams eventually advance to the RMAC Tournament. Beyond those distant postseason aspirations, Ficke has identified and emphasized more pressing motivation.
 
"These aren't just RMAC games, they are also in-state RMAC games," he said. "Our goal is to get back to being one of the top, if not the top, Colorado program – although Mines has that on lock right now. But we want to take our pride and intensity to another level for these games against any Colorado school going forward."