Grizzliy men re-enter regional rankings

INDIANAPOLIS— Last weekend’s two home wins have helped the Adams State College men’s basketball team re-enter the NCAA Division II Central Regional Rankings, that were released for this week by the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Committee on Wednesday.

The Grizzlies are ranked ninth.

Those rankings, which will continued to be updated each week through March 2, will eventually determine the at-large selections and seeding for the Central Regional portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament, which will begin Mar. 11, a week after conference tournaments.

The Grizzlies had checked in fifth in the initial set of rankings back on Jan. 26 but slipped to seventh and then out of the top 10 in the ensuing two weeks after dropping three of their next four games.

However, Friday’s win over UC-Colorado Springs and a Saturday night triumph over Colorado State-Pueblo have helped the Grizzlies, 16-6 overall, and 12-6 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, get back into the rankings and in position for a second possible NCAA Tournament appearance.

The Grizzlies last made the NCAA Tournament in 2007 as the sixth seed.

Minnesota State held on to the No. 1 spot in this week’s rankings despite a 1-1 weekend that saw the Mavericks’ NCAA Division II record slip to 19-3.  They are 17-3 in in-region contests.

Meanwhile Colorado Mines and Fort Lewis flip-flopped in this week’s rankings heading into their Friday night clash in Golden.  Colorado Mines, which will visit Plachy Hall and the Grizzlies on Saturday, is now ranked second and sports a 16-3 NCAA Division II and in-region record.  Fort Lewis is now ranked third and has 17-5 records.

Mary (N.D.) and Augustana (S.D.) both moved up a spot in this week’s rankings while Metro State, which went 1-1 last weekend, slipped two spots to sixth.

Mesa State is up two spots to seventh while New Mexico Highlands slipped a spot to eighth, partially because of their home set-back to the Mavericks last week.

Winona State (Minn.), which had been ranked eighth last week, is behind the Grizzlies and rounds out the top 10 rankings.

Before Saturday’s encounter with Colorado Mines, the Grizzlies will host Colorado Christian (7-15, 6-12 RMAC) in their penultimate home game of the season.  Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. and can be heard live on KSPK-FM (104.1 in Alamosa) and via the internet at www.kspk.com.

NCAA Division II Central Region Men's Basketball Rankings
(as of Feb. 16)