DENVER – For MSU Denver, this is perhaps the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's toughest road trip.
Eight-plus hours on a bus to play at Westminster the next day. Then four more hours on the bus to play at Nos. 9 and 14 Colorado Mesa the following night.
"That's just part of what makes the league so tough," MSU Denver coach
Dan Ficke said.
Last year's trip – which was in December and was the first weekend of RMAC play – had mixed results. The Roadrunners were roughed up by Westminster in a 28-point defeat, but somehow regrouped and beat a Mesa team that eventually spent most of the season ranked in the national top 25.
"Those that were here last year remember that it was our first RMAC road trip, and going to Westminster showed us just how good this league is," said Ficke, the Roadrunners' second-year coach.
Tip times are Friday at 7 p.m. at Westminster, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Colorado Mesa.
MSU Denver (15-7 overall) goes into this weekend tied for fourth in the RMAC at 9-7 and has won four of its last five games. While Westminster is 7-16 and last at 3-14, the Griffins are getting hot as the season nears its end.
"Westminster is playing well, and playing with nothing to lose right now," Ficke said. "They've won two of their last three. So for us it's about handling the road trip the right way and focusing on nothing but the game in front of us.
"They seem to be playing with more confidence. They've made a few tweaks to their lineup. And when you're playing with nothing to lose, you have an edge against teams that are scared. Westminster is a tough matchup. They want to play somewhat like us and dominate the paint."
MSU Denver opened league play this season at home against Westminster, winning by 31 (85-54) to improve to 7-0. But Mesa escaped the Auraria Event Center with an 85-82 win, starting a streak in which the Roadrunners lost three of four.
"We let one slip away when we played them here, so now we need to even the score so that we can hold serve against them," Ficke said. "We handled that back-to-back well last year, and hopefully we can refocus for Saturday."
It's a big weekend for an MSU Denver team hoping to make a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
The Roadrunners' November wins over West Texas A&M (still the No. 1 Buffaloes' only loss all season) and Fort Hays State (Kan.) will play well in many of the statistical categories that the regional ranking committee uses to determine at-large qualifiers and seedings for the South Central Regional.
But for now MSU Denver is clearly behind the RMAC's top three teams (Fort Lewis, Colorado Mesa and Colorado School of Mines), having gone a combined 0-4 against them. Only eight teams qualify for the regional, which also includes teams from the Lone Star Conference.
Securing the fourth seed for the RMAC Tournament, and a first-round home game, would help MSU Denver in its bid to advance to the postseason. A top-four league finish, and a first-round win in the league tournament, would potentially crystallize the Roadrunners' status as regional contenders – particularly if there are no upset winners in the RMAC or Lone Star Tournaments.
"Our team has the talent, has the pieces, Ficke said. "Now we need to be mentally there night in and night out and stay consistent for the last few weeks. We need to use this weekend to build and keep rolling for the final three weeks of the season."
