#RV Mines (5-3, 1-1) at South Dakota Mines (4-4, 2-0) – Friday, 7:30 p.m.– Rapid City, S.D. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#RV Mines (5-3, 1-1) at Black Hills State (3-5, 1-1) – Saturday, 6 p.m. – Spearfish S,D. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Week two of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play awaits as the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team will open up a four-game road trip before this Christmas break this weekend when their head north to take on South Dakota Mines Friday night in Rapid City before heading to Spearfish on Saturday to square off with Black Hills State.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Coverage of this weekend's games will be available on the RMAC Network and have live stats available at minesathletics.com.
 
AT THE HELM
The 2023-24 season will be the 23rd for the Orediggers under the guidance of head coach Pryor Orser. Already the winningest coach in program history, he eclipsed the 400-win mark in November of last season and has a career record of 426-221 overall and a mark of 301-151 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, the second-most wins in conference history. Under Orser, Mines has won five RMAC regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles, and qualified for 12 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
THE CAPTAINS
Second-year graduate transfer Sam Beskind and redshirt sophomore guard Cade Mankle will serve as captains for the Orediggers in 2023-24. Beskind burst onto the RMAC scene last year, averaging 9.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while also shooting .481/.338/.835 on the season and ranking second in the conference in total assists with 120 and leading the league in assist to turnover ratio at 2.2. Mankle split time between the starting five and the bench rotation in his first season of action last year, averaging 4.4 points and 1.6 assists per game while shooting .397/.310/.542 for the year.
 
IN THE POLLS
The most recent set of rankings from the NABC in the regular season came out Tuesday and saw the Orediggers earn votes in this week's poll. MSU Denver dropped their first contest of the season over the weekend and subsequently dropped from inside the Top 10 all the way down to 18th while Colorado Mesa ascended to #15 with Fort Lewis holding firm at #20. In the D2CSC Media Poll, the Roadrunners checked in at #16 with the Mavericks at #17 with opening weekend opponent Bentley ranked #25
 
Speaking of the RMAC, Mines earned a trio of first place votes and was picked to finish third in the league season behind Colorado Mesa, who earned eight first place votes, and Fort Lewis who earned four. Black Hills State and Chadron State rounded out the rest of the top five.
 
WEEK 4 RECAP
The Orediggers went 1-1 on the first weekend of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, dropping a close 86-79 decision to #18 Colorado Mesa Friday night followed by a rebound win over Westminster 75-54 Saturday evening. Against the Mavericks, Mines did a good job limiting Owen Koonce, but Mac Riniker, Trevor Baskin and Colorado transfer Isaac Jessup along with Ty Allred were too much to overcome. Cade Mankle went for 15 points to lead four players in double-digits along with Majok Deng, Riley Schroeder and Juani Dassie as the Orediggers shot .583 in the second half but were doomed by a late slump in the first period. Saturday against the Griffins, Deng did a lot of the heavy lifting, scoring 26 points and pulling down a career-high eight rebounds and going 9-9 from the charity stripe as Mines never trailed in the game. Schroeder went for 13 while Alex Romack posted his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards while Markus Pastorcic-Straun also added 10 off the bench and was a perfect 5-5 from the floor in the win.
 
A BUSY, BUSY MAN
Graduate student Sam Beskind is an ambitious man and a bright one at that. After all, how many people can boast having two degrees from Stanford (B.S. & M.S. in Management Science & Engineering) already to their name while working on a second Master's degree while at Mines (Humanitarian Engineering/Advanced Energy Systems)? The Tucson native is also doing all that in the classroom while also running the Orediggers offense from his point guard spot and is currently averaging 9.7 points per game and scored in double-digits in four of six contests this season while also averaging 5.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. And as if he weren't busy enough, he hosts his own podcast called "Built for Earth", which is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Started in January 2023, the series is already 23 episodes deep and features interviews with industry leaders in the renewable energy space and discuss wide-ranging solutions to help preserve the planet and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If you need something new to listen to and maybe learn a thing or tune, be sure to tune in. We're sure Sam won't mind some new listeners when he checks his analytics.
 
SLINGIN' SAMMY BESKIND
Graduate student Sam Beskind has picked up this season right where he left off last year when it comes to dishing out assists. The RMAC runner up in that category behind former BHSU point guard Adam Moussa, the Stanford transfer is atop the league with 38 assists and is averaging 4.8 per night, dishing out 19 alone last weekend with nine against Colorado Mesa and 10 against Westminster, setting a career high on back-to-back nights. Also one to fill up the rest of the stat sheet, Beskind is also scoring 8.6 PPG with six steals and five blocks while shooting .473 from the field.
 
BLOCK PARTY
As is no surprise when it comes to Pryor Orser coaches teams, defense plays a big part in the success of the team and how the year will go. Through eight games, Mines leads the RMAC with 30 blocks for an average of 3.75 per game and are led by senior Riley Schroeder with nine. Alex Romack has seven while Sam Beskind has five with another seven players recording at least one rejection this season.
 
ROAD WARRIORS
After this weekend, the Orediggers will look forward to spending some time at Lockridge Arena once the calendar turns over to 2024. After this weekend, Mines will have played seven of their first 10 games of the season on the road with long-haul trips to Florida and Texas highlighting the journey around the country so far. This weekend's trip to South Dakota will be the fourth different state this season the Orediggers will have played in and run their total number of cities played in this year to six.
 
SAY HIS NAME
Majok Deng has been nothing short of impressive in his first eight games as an Oredigger. The Pepperdine transfer ranks fifth in the RMAC in made three-pointers with 21 and ninth in total field goals with 43. He's averaging 17.1 PPG and shooting .457 from the floor and .438 from downtown and dropped 26 in the win over Westminster Saturday, giving him his second game with at least 25 points this season. He's gone for at least 10 points in each game this season and turned in his best defensive game of the season Saturday as well with eight boards. Heading into a big weekend on the road, look for him to rise to the occasion once more.
 
BOARD MAN
Freshman Alex Romack has made himself known in the four weeks of the season by being a major force on the glass. Entering this weekend, Romack is averaging 8.8 rebounds per game and posted his second double-double of the season against Westminster with 10 rebounds. He now has three games with 10 or more rebounds and has eight or more in seven of eight games, giving him 70 on the season to rank second in the RMAC. The native of the Hoosier State has sure been showing his prowess in the paint in the early going this season.
 
LOOKING AT THE STATS
Majok Deng leads the Orediggers in scoring heading into their four-game road trip at 17.1 PPG is shooting .457/.438/.789 from the free throw line and averaging 4.1 RPG. He's joined in double-digit scoring by Cade Mankle at 12.0 PPG who is shooting .545 with 13 assists. Riley Schroeder is on the cusp of joining them in scoring average, checking in at 9.0 PPG and 3.9 RPG with a team-high nine blocks and seven steals and is shooting .429 from the floor. Sam Beskind is next at 8.6 PPG with 38 assists, six steals and five blocks while going .473 from the field.
 
Freshman Alex Romack is the leading rebounder on the team at 8.8 per night and is also scoring 7.1 per contest at a .619 clip with four steals and seven blocks while fellow first-year player Markus Pastorcic-Straun is coming off the bench to score 7.0 PPG with 10 assists and seven steals. Juani Dassie has been emerging in recent weeks as well, as the sharpshooter has been coming off the bench for some key makes and is scoring 5.5 per night and has nine made treys.
 
On the year, Mines is scoring an even 70 points per night and is +3.5 in scoring margin while shooting .466/.310/.628. They are averaging 37.4 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 13.9 turnovers, 5.9 steals and 3.8 blocks per game and find themselves +5.5 in rebounding but -3.0 in turnovers. Opponents are scoring 66.5 PPG and shooting .413/.331/.810 with 31.9 rebounds, 11.3 assists and 10.9 turnovers per night.
 
SCOUTING SOUTH DAKOTA MINES
The Hardrockers are off to a solid start this season, winners of their last three games against Black Hills State in a non-conference bout on November 27 by a score of 77-69 and swept UCCS and Regis by scores of 70-68 and 82-64, all of which have been on the road. SDM played an exhibition Tuesday night at Division I Wyoming, paying a visit to former Fort Lewis standout Akuel Kot in an 80-59 loss.
 
Leading the Hardrockers is the reigning RMAC Offensive Player of the Week Alejando Rama, who is averaging 18.5 PPG and 5.8 RPG while leading the team in assists (26), steals (17) and blocks (12) while shooting .420/.359/.750 on the season. He's joined in double-figure scoring by three others as Cameron Cohn follows at 13.8 PPG and is second on the team with 17 made three-pointers. Kolton Frugoli checks in this week at 12.0 PPG and has 10 assists to his name while Keagen Smith is averaging 11.4 PPG shooting .531 on the season and .500 from deep with 16 treys this season.
 
Off the bench, Brannagh Walsh is scoring 6.2 PPG and shooting .419 with six dimes, three steals and two blocks while Abel Hutchinson is scoring 5.0 PPG with four assists and three steals.
 
On the season, SDM is averaging 68.6 PPG and shooting .418/.358/.681 with 32.0 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 11.1 turnovers, 7.0 steals and 2.4 blocks per game. They are just +0.6 in scoring margin and are -4.9 on the boards and +1.8 in the turnover department. Opponents are scoring an even 68 per night and shooting .419/.284/.681 and hauling down 36.9 rebounds per game while turning it over 12.9 times.
 
SCOUTING BLACK HILLS STATE
Life after Joel Scott is taking some adjusting for the Yellow Jackets who are two games below .500 after being ranked in the preseason Top 25. They dropped a 66-54 decision to Regis last Friday before knocking off UCCS 67-56 in a bounce back win Saturday.
 
Matthew Ragsdale is the lone man averaging better than 10 points per game for BHSU, checking in at 18.1 PPG with 13 assists and six steals while shooting .505/.362/.727 with a team-high 17 three-pointers. Hoku Fisher isn't too far from joining him in double-figure scoring at 9.6 PPG with 14 assists and eight steals while Caelin Hearne has 12 assists, six steals and three blocks to go with 8.9 PPG.
 
Ronnail Tape is averaging 7.4 PPG and is second behind Ragsadale in three-pointers with 12 while John Shanklin has a team-best seven blocks and is pulling down 5.5 RPG and scoring 7.0 per night while shooting .692. Joel Speckman comes in averaging 6.6 PPG with eight steals and shooting .561 with Myles Johnson being the sixth man off the bench, scoring 6.0 PPG with six steals and four blocks and shooting .500 from the floor.
 
For the season, the Yellow Jackets are averaging 67.5 PPG and are -4.0 in scoring margin while shooting .480/.342/.648. They average 32.5 rebounds, 9.8 assists, 14.4 turnovers, 5.0 steals and 2.6 blocks per night. They also find themselves -3.1 in rebounding margin and -4.4 in the turnover battle. Opponents meanwhile are scoring 71.5 PPG and shooting .417/.348/.691 with 35.6 rebounds and 10.0 turnovers a night.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Mines got the upper hand in both games against the Hardrockers last season, winning in Golden by a score of 68-61 in December before outlasting SDM in a 98-92 shootout in Rapid City in February to improve to 20-9 all-time in the series and raise their record to 5-8 when playing away from home. The Orediggers are currently riding a six-game winning streak in the series and have won 11 of the last 15 going back to 2016. Meanwhile the Orediggers will look for a reversal of fortune against Black Hills State, as despite leading the series 15-12 the Yellow Jackets have won the last four meetings, including all three games last season by a score of 85-77 in overtime in Golden in December, 85-66 in Spearfish in February and 68-48 in March in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. One needs to go all the way back to 2021 to find the last Mines win on the road, which was an 85-83 overtime win. All-time, the Orediggers are 5-4 against BHSU when playing away from home.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Mines will be back on the road next Wednesday when they head downtown to take on MSU Denver at 7 p.m. on December 13.

Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on X and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.