CHADRON, Neb. – The task for the Chadron State men's basketball program this week is simple – win and in.

After going 1-1 on the longest road trip of the season to Western Colorado and Westminster, Chadron State heads into the final week of the regular season needing one win out of their final two games to clinch a spot in the RMAC Tournament. Both games will be at home, with Saturday also serving as Senior Day.

Chadron State (13-13, 9-9 RMAC) will host Fort Lewis (17-10, 11-7 RMAC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Adams State (12-14, 7-11 RMAC) at 1 p.m. The Eagles have not faced Fort Lewis yet this season, but previously defeated Adams State 91-86 on the road on January 16.

Both games will be streamed by CSC Live on the RMAC Network. Double Q Country and doubleqcountry.com will carry both games on 97.5 FM, with Dave Collins on the call. Fans can also follow along via live stats.

Looking Back
Chadron State defeated Western Colorado 79-62 before falling to Westminster 69-54, with both games on the road.

RECAPS: Western Colorado | Westminster

Five Eagles scored in double figures against the Mountaineers (Zy Wright with 17, Jalen Thomas and Trey Ballard with 14, Dalton Peterson with 11 and Julio Phipps with 10) before CSC's offense struggled to its second-lowest point total of the season against Westminster.

Pregame Festivities
Chadron State will have five players honored in a pregame ceremony ahead of Saturday's game against Adams State – John Jenkins, Dalton Peterson, Julio Phipps, Jalen Thomas and Zy Wright. 

John Jenkins is in his second season at Chadron State after transferring from the College of Southern Nevada. He was CSC's third-leading scorer last season and has appeared in all 26 games this year, making 16 starts. Jenkins ranks in the top five on the team in rebounds (3.9 per game), steals (16) and blocks (13).

Dalton Peterson is another second-year Eagle, coming from Casper College in Wyoming. A pure shooter, Peterson has led the team in three-point makes in both of his seasons in a CSC uniform, draining 68 while shooting at a .400 clip last season and making 41 of 104 attempts to shoot .394 so far in 2024-25. 

Julio Phipps has enjoyed a breakout season in year two as an Eagle, improving from 2.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in limited minutes last year up to 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game under new coach Chris Francis. Phipps has two double-doubles, leads the team with 18 blocks and also leads the Eagles with a .536 field-goal percentage. 

Jalen Thomas transferred to CSC after playing two seasons in NAIA and two seasons of Division I basketball. A two-time RMAC Player of the Week, Thomas has established himself as one of the league's top bucket-gutters, with six 20-point games and a .509 field-goal percentage while ranking in the league's top five in assists and free-throw percentage. 

Zy Wright has been another new addition to Chadron State this season after playing in junior college and at Lone Star foe Texas-Permian Basin. In his lone CSC season, Wright is currently the team's leading scorer (13.2 ppg) and rebounder (6.3 rpg) with three double-doubles and five 20-point games, including a career-high 34 against New Mexico Highlands earlier this year.

In addition to Senior Day, Thomas and Wright will both be honored this week for reaching the 1,000-point milestones across their entire collegiate careers throughout this season.

JT Tracker
While Jalen Thomas couldn't three-peat as RMAC Player of the Week after winning the award on February 10 and 17, the grad student guard put up a pretty compelling case. 

Thomas averaged 15 points per game and shot 57 percent from the field across CSC's two games last week. He scored 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting against WCU before adding 16 points while shooting 7 of 11 from the floor against Westminster.

Thomas is currently sixth in the RMAC with a .509 field-goal percentage and ranks third with an .867 free-throw percentage. The Texan is averaging 13.2 points per game this season but has been upping his average for nearly the entire second half of the season as he is currently on a streak on seven straight games scoring 14 points or more. 

Thomas has also been one of the league's top distributors, ranking fourth in the conference with 3.8 assists per game and third in the league with 98 total assists. 

Double-Double-Double
Last Thursday's win over Western Colorado saw the Eagles have not one, but two players record a double-double. Zy Wright scored a team-high 17 points and added 10 rebounds while Julio Phipps recorded 10 points and 12 rebounds in the game. 

Wright (three) and Phipps (two) are the team leaders for double-doubles this season, with Wright also tallying them against South Dakota Mines (10 pts, 11 reb on 1/28) and MSU Denver (10 pts, 11 reb on 2/13) and Phipps recording one against Northwest Missouri State (18 pts, 10 reb on 11/14). 

Seeding Scenarios
With one week and two games to go in the RMAC regular season, seven of the eight spots in the RMAC Tournament have been clinched. Chadron State has an inside track to the final spot, but the Eagles haven't wrapped things up just yet.

Here is how the standings stack up: 
 

School	RMAC Record
xy Colorado School of Mines	16-1
x MSU Denver	13-5
x Regis	13-5
x Colorado Mesa	11-7
x Fort Lewis*	11-7
x Black Hills State	11-7
x UCCS	10-8
Chadron State	9-9
Adams State*	7-11
Colorado Christian	7-11
Westminster	7-12
CSU Pueblo	6-12
Western Colorado	6-13
South Dakota Mines	4-14
New Mexico Highlands	4-14

 
*= remaining CSC opponents
X= clinched RMAC Tournament berth
y= clinched RMAC regular season championship

With a two-game lead over ninth place with two games to play, Chadron State can seal the deal and clinch a spot by defeating either Fort Lewis on Thursday or Adams State on Saturday. 

Chadron State must go 2-0 this week and receive some help to have any hope of rising higher than eighth in the league standings. A 1-1 week for the Eagles would lock them into the No. 8 seed and an RMAC quarterfinal matchup with league champions Colorado School of Mines next Tuesday. The Eagles could still get into the postseason by going 0-2 if Adams State loses its Thursday game against Black Hills State before facing the Eagles. 

If teams are tied in the league standings, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results. Among teams that CSC could potentially finish with the same record as, the Eagles would win a tiebreaker with Colorado Mesa and Colorado Christian but lose it to UCCS. The Eagles will play Fort Lewis for the first time on Thursday. 

For teams that finish with the same record and also split their head-to-head meetings (like CSC and Black Hills State and potentially CSC and Adams State if the Eagles lose Saturday), the second tiebreaker goes to Performance Indicator, which is a mathematical formula that assigns point values to wins and losses based on the opponent's winning percentage and where the game was played. The final results of the Performance Indicator standings will not be known until the season is complete and each school's winning percentage is finalized. 

Chadron State received some good news on Tuesday night when Westminster lost to Western Colorado, knocking the Griffins out of the running. That means that with CSC leading Colorado Christian by two games with two to play and holding the head-to-head tiebreaker, the only school that realistically could knock the Eagles out is Adams State, who faces Black Hills State and Chadron this week. 

For the Eagles to miss the playoffs, Adams State must go 2-0 against the Yellowjackets and Eagles while Chadron State goes 0-2 against Fort Lewis and the Grizzlies, then the Performance Indicator formula would need to break in ASU's favor. 

To finish higher than the No. 8 seed, Chadron State must go 2-0 and be reliant on any of Colorado Mesa, Fort Lewis or UCCS going 0-2. 

Home/Road Splits
Chadron State has defended its home court throughout the season, as the Eagles are 8-3 in the Chicoine Center. That record includes a 6-2 record in home RMAC games and an active five-game home win streak. 

The Eagles are the exact opposite on the road, however, with a 5-10 total record away from Chadron this season that includes a 4-9 mark in true road games, a 1-1 record in neutral site games and a 3-7 mark in conference road games.  

Chadron State will need to figure out how to win on the road to make a run through the RMAC Tournament, but the Eagles hope a home win this week will ensure they get to play in the postseason. 

In the Polls
The NCAA released its first numbered regional rankings, a preview of how the selection committee sees teams in each region ahead of the national tournament. The NCAA ranked 10 teams under consideration for the eight qualifying spots in the region for the NCAA Tournament. 

Colorado School of Mines was listed as the regional top seed as things stand, followed by, in order, No. 2 Dallas Baptist, No. 3 Lubbock Christian, No. 4 Midwestern State, No. 5 St. Mary's, No. 6 MSU Denver, No. 7 Eastern New Mexico, No. 8 Regis, No. 9 Angelo State and No. 10 West Texas A&M. 

These rankings mean that if the season ended today, the RMAC would have three teams in the tournament field (Mines, MSU Denver and Regis). Bids can be stolen by a team winning their league's conference tournament and earning that league's automatic qualifying bid, which is Chadron State's only path to qualification.

Colorado School of Mines continues to be the RMAC's only nationally ranked program, with the Orediggers at No. 5 nationally in the NABC Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the D2CSC Media Poll. 

With a new coaching staff and predominantly new players, Chadron State men's basketball was picked 15^thin the preseason RMAC Coaches Poll for the 2024-25 campaign. 

Colorado School of Mines, who finished third in the league last season, were picked first for this year, receiving 11 of 15 first-place votes. MSU Denver received two first-place votes to come second, followed by Regis in third, which received one first-place vote. 

Black Hills State was fourth in the poll, while Colorado Mesa received the final first-place vote and finished fifth. The rest of the poll includes CSU Pueblo, UCCS and New Mexico Highlands in the final RMAC Tournament positions, followed by Fort Lewis, South Dakota Mines, Western Colorado, Westminster, Adams State, Colorado Christian, and the Eagles. 

Scouting the Skyhawks
At 17-10 overall and 11-7 in the RMAC, Fort Lewis, which has won the past two RMAC Tournaments, has clinched a spot in this year's edition but can finish anywhere from fourth through eighth in the standings. 

The Skyhawks have undergone a coaching change since those back-to-back RMAC Tournament crowns, however, with first-year coach Jordan Mast coming to FLC from the University of Antelope Valley. Mast and his previous school made national headlines last season when UAV closed down its campus shortly before the basketball team was due to play in the NAIA national tournament; the team received an exception from the NAIA and crowdfunded travel expenses in order to compete. 

The Skyhawks are 4-4 in their last eight and went 1-1 last week, losing 102-98 to CSU Pueblo before beating Colorado Christian 77-68. The Skyhawks favor a high-pressure style that results in FLC forcing the most turnovers (19.7 per game) and steals (12.7 per game) in the conference. A Fort Lewis player has been named the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Week seven times this season.

Offensively, Biko Johnson is the conference's leading scorer at 17.0 points per game. Chuol Deng (13.1) and Tru Allen (12.8) also score in double figures.

Scouting the Grizzlies
Adams State is 12-14 overall with a 7-11 RMAC record. Adams State can potentially still the final RMAC Tournament position from Chadron State if the Grizzlies go 2-0 this week against Black Hills State and CSC while the Eagles go 0-2. 

The Grizzlies have won four of their last five games to put themselves in position to challenge for the playoffs. Last week, ASU went 2-0 with home wins over UCCS (93-69) and CSU Pueblo (115-110 in OT). Chadron State did get the best of the Grizzlies earlier this season with a 91-86 road win on January 16.

Adams State tends to play shootouts, as the Grizzlies score the most points per game in the league (89.0) but also give up the most (88.8 per game). Adams State has scored over 100 points in four games this season and topped 90 points 11 times, but have also allowed 100 points or more on six occasions. 

Unsurprisingly, the Grizzlies have six players averaging in double figures, led by Jude Tapia at 17.0 points per game. Tapia has 11 games of 20 points or more, although the Eagles limited him to eight points in their first meeting. Adams State head coach Kenny Tripp is in his second season and previously coached as an assistant at the University of Idaho (DI), Washington State (DI) and MSU Denver.

Coach's Corner
Chadron State Head Coach Chris Francis is in his first season leading the Eagle men's basketball program. Francis comes to Chadron after serving as the head coach at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (NAIA) since 2015. 

At USAO, Francis put together a career record of 176-94. Francis led the Drovers to five NAIA National Tourney appearances, a Sooner Athletic Conference Championship, and a Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, also taking USAO to an NAIA Elite Eight. Francis is a two-time Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, winning the award in 2017 and 2022. 

A former student-athlete, Francis was a starting guard and captain of the men's basketball team at Rogers State University. In 2011, he helped lead Rogers State to the NAIA Elite Eight and a 30-2 record. Following that season, Francis was named the Sooner Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. He was recently inducted into the Rogers State Athletic Hall of Fame.