This is the time of year when the coach of some heretofore successful college basketball team might be tempted to take it easy and try to avoid a major injury and ease on into the NCAA Tournament. And, with a 20-2 overall record and a 14-1 mark in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Mesa State would certainly seem to qualify.
But things are never quite as they seem, especially for coaches, who can pick out the one cloud looming on an otherwise spectacular day. Which is why, as far as Jim Heaps is concerned, there will be no letup.
“We’ve gotten some breaks, won some games we could have lost,” Heaps said. “You have games where the ball bounces your way. The schedule favored us against Metro State, where we played them here instead of at their place. It’s the whole package. Luck has something to do with it.”
It’s not that Heaps is a glass-half-empty kind of guy. He’s merely being objective.
For example, Mesa State has indeed played traditional RMAC and NCAA Division II national power Metro State twice this season, but both games were in Grand Junction. And the Mavs won by a combined eight points. Similarly, the team has won six other games by seven points or fewer. And the league game Mesa lost, 80-72 to Western New Mexico, dropped the Mavs from No. 9 in the nation to No. 15.
Of course, that was their first conference loss of the season, and their first defeat of any kind since falling to Quincy (Ill.) College just before Christmas.
To be sure, this hasn’t happened with smoke and mirrors. The Mavs are one of the deepest teams around, using a regular 10-man rotation, a group buttressed by six seniors.
“There’s nothing they haven’t seen; they don’t panic,” Heaps said.
For that reason alone, even before the season started, Heaps thought he had a team with the chance to be special. Another reason why things have come together so nicely is the play of Mike Dominguez.
As a transfer from Florida International, a Division I member of the Sun Belt Conference, Dominguez knew that the quality of his game wouldn’t be the first thing his new teammates would look at.
“I was a senior with only one year left and coming in from Division I, so sometimes players think that all you want to do is take all the shots,” said Dominguez, who is shooting 54 percent from the field and averaging 20.9 points. He has been the RMAC player of the week five times.
“When we played pickup during the summer, I think they saw that I could play,” he said. “From there, all I really wanted to do was show them that I wanted to win, just like they did. That’s why I came to Mesa State, to have a chance to win the RMAC and do the things we’re doing right now.”
Mesa hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since the 2003-04 season. The winner of the RMAC, as well as the Northern Sun Conference, gain automatic bids into the Division II field, as well as the next six teams in the Central Region rankings, which Mesa State currently leads.
The drought appears near its end.
“This team has goals that it’s made, winning the conference title and playing in the NCAAs. The kids felt they should have made it last year, and they didn’t, and they’ve played with a chip on their shoulders,” Heaps said. “That’s what we’ve been focused on for most of the year, (but) we’ve slipped up a little in some spots. Our focus in these next couple of weeks is to get back to playing how we’re capable of playing.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
