DENVER – The top half of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in men's basketball this season has proven to be one of the best collection of teams in NCAA Division II.
 
Fort Lewis, Black Hills State and Colorado School of Mines have all been ranked in the top 10 in the country (Fort Lewis and Black Hills State currently are), and Colorado Mesa gives the league a fourth team currently in the top 25 (and the Mavericks are surging towards a possible top-10 appearance of their own).
 
In the unbalanced, 22-game schedule for the 15-team RMAC, only one team will play each of the top four teams twice.
 
It's MSU Denver.
 
Throw in fifth-place Chadron State and sixth-place Westminster, and the Roadrunners are the only team to play each of the top six teams twice.
 
"It's a little bit luck of the draw," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "You want to test yourselves against the best, and we've done that. You can look at it and say whatever you want, but that's the schedule and the schedule is the same next year, too. It'll give us motivation to continue developing in the offseason and in recruiting as we try to get to the point where other teams are saying, 'Oh, man, we've got to play MSU Denver twice.'"
 
The Roadrunners wrap on the regular season this weekend on the road, with 7:30 p.m. games Friday against Fort Lewis – ranked Nos. 5 and 6 in the two Division II polls – and Saturday at Adams State.
 
MSU Denver is 1-6 thus far against the top four teams and 2-9 against the top six. That means the Roadrunners (11-15 overall) are a fairly impressive 6-3 against the teams that are seventh or lower in the standings.
 
"We're not far off from where we need to be," Ficke said. "We beat Mesa, we had Fort Lewis on the ropes, played a great game against Mines the second time. We feel like we're right there with Chadron and Westminster. As we continue to develop and grow, there are a lot of positives."
 
Here's one more: despite the losses incurred against the league's top teams, that difficult schedule helps MSU Denver as it is part of the evaluation in many multi-team tie situations in seeding for the RMAC Tournament.
 
And, with six teams – including the Roadrunners – still in the running for the final two spots with two games left to play, those multi-team tiebreakers seem almost certain to be needed.
 
"We're still playing for something," Ficke said. "Even if it's the last two playoff spots. Thinking about how started the first half of the year, to get to the position we're in now … I'm happy with the progress we've made. I'd like to be a little higher in the standings, and we could be if we can get the job done this weekend."
 
There are multiple scenarios, many of them realistic, determining how the final two spots will look. There are some scenarios where MSU Denver could lose once and still be seeded as high as seventh. There are others where the Roadrunners could win twice and not make the field (key safety tip, avoid a three-way tie with UCCS and Regis).
 
But rather than focus what could happen, Ficke has emphasized the only thing his team can control.
 
"We've just focused on today each day," he said. "Let's have the best practice we can have today. Let's win each day on our way to Friday. You can't put the cart before the horse. If you tried to figure out all the possibilities, you could go crazy. You have no control over that."
 
Friday's opponent, Fort Lewis, has been impressive while going 24-2 overall and 18-2 in league play. But the Roadrunners nearly pulled a major upset Jan. 28, leading the Skyhawks by eight points with 1:35 left before losing 77-76 – and even then MSU Denver had a 3-pointer that was on-target at the buzzer bounce off the rim.
 
Adams State, though playing a similar style as Fort Lewis, is on the other end of the spectrum at 5-21 overall and 3-17 in league play. The Grizzlies, though, will be playing their final game of the season against MSU Denver.
 
The Roadrunners will do what they can to make sure it isn't their last as well.
 
"If we don't make the tournament, we have a chance to win our last game of the season, and not many teams are able to do that," Ficke said. "We owe it to our seniors (Tyrei Randall and Chandler Bevans), to give it everything we have – anything else would be disrespectful to those guys. We're going to leave it all out there and give ourselves the best opportunity we can to move forward."