RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines men's basketball team was one of the youngest squads in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference last season. Now a year older still with just one senior, the Hardrockers will attempt to take some positive steps this season.

Last season's lineup often consisted of two freshmen, two sophomores, and one junior. Four more freshmen also saw some action on the court, with three of them returning.
Mines head coach Eric Glenn said they want to build off of the finish that they had last year, as the Hardrockers won three of their final five games to finish 8-14 in the RMAC and 10-18 overall.
 
Glenn said going into this season they needed to find more depth, and that depth needs to improve.
 
"It's a combination of maybe going out and getting a guy or two, and at the same time the guys that we have just have to improve," he said.
 
Mines opened the season last weekend on the road, losing a pair of games to Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M International, and will be in Sioux Falls this weekend against Augustana Friday and MSU Moorhead Saturday.
 
Returning to lead the way for the Hardrockers this season is senior forward Kolten Mortensen, junior point guard Alejandro Rama and sophomore guard Brevin Walter. Rama, however, will miss the first semester but could be back out on the court around Christmas.
 
Also back for the Hardrockers are sophomore forwards Keagen Smith, Brannagh Walsh, and Jaxon Lloyd, junior point guard Kolton Frugoli, and sophomore guard Trase Olsen.

The Hardrockers are still young but have some experience. Glenn said that is a blessing and a curse as their experience is from learning trial by fire.
 
"They've never had that leader or upperclassmen to help groom them and that really does pay a lot of dividends," he said. "I thought last year's leadership was not great. We were still so young and everybody was just trying to figure out things for themselves. It's just about guys getting comfortable in the system."
 
Position outlook
 
Point Guards
Frugoli is running the show with Rama out of action for now. Last season he averaged 5.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists a game last season.
 
"Right now it is on his shoulders and he has stepped up and is accepting that role," 
Glenn said. "Along with assists, we also track what we call Hardrock assists. If your pass leads to a shot, and they don't make it, we want to give that guy credit for making the right basketball play. Last weekend his Hardrock assists were in double figures. Some of those guys just have to finish."
 
Rama is an honorable mention All-RMAC performer and was second on the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game. He shot 43.5% from 3 and dished out 3.1 assists per game.
 
Glenn calls Rama a smart player who is on another level.
 
"He's a basketball junkie. He watches so much film for a college-age kid. Today's kids just don't even watch basketball," he said. "I told our guys that this is a great opportunity for others guys to step up to see what they can do. If they can make a few more plays, that helps take a little pressure off him (Rama) when he returns and that's going to help his game out. I'm looking forward to when he gets back, but right now we've got to focus on guys that we have."
 
Off-Guards
Walter led the Hardrockers in scoring at 16.5 points a game in his initial campaign, also grabbing 4.5 rebounds per contest.
 
Sherrell played in 22 games, averaging 3.1 points and just over 13 minutes per game.

Glenn said he was pleased with the play of Sherell, who he said had two good games last weekend.
 
"He defended well and he rebounded pretty well for us. His role is not going to be a big-time scorer for us, but when he gets his opportunities he needs to be very efficient, and he did that for us," he said.
 
Smith averaged 7.9 points and 4.3 rebounds a game in 25 games last season, all starts.

"Keagen didn't get to finish the year last year because of injury, but he was playing really well for us," Glenn said. "I'm excited for what he can do for us."
 
One newcomer that could play a big part in the lineup is junior Kyle Harris, a transfer from Phoenix College.

"His head is still spinning a little bit. He's only a month in with us, so he's still learning the system," Glenn said. "It's a transition period and it showed that first night. I wouldn't say that he played particularly well. The game was moving really fast for him, yet he still had 13 points and five rebounds, so that's a pretty good stat line. We'll take that from him anytime he can give it to us, but he's got improve in some other areas to get us what we need from that spot. He and Bryce can kind of be a two-headed monster in that small forward position."
 
Forwards
Mortensen is a two-time all-conference honorable mention pick for the 'Rockers, who averaged 14.5 points a game, shooting 52.8%, including 44.5% from beyond the 3-point arc. He also led the team in rebounding at 7.6 boards a game.
 
Walsh started nine games and appeared in 26 contests, averaging 3.2 points and 2.2 rebounds a game. Lloyd appeared in 18 games in 2021-22, averaging 8.8 minutes per game.
 
Another key for the Hardrockers this season will be the third forward off the bench. Currently, Walsh and Lloyd are battling it out in that area.
 
"It's kind of a yo-yo. One guy is good one day and the other guy is good the other day," Glenn said. "I just have to choose what I think we need at the moment. He doesn't have to be Mortensen, he doesn't have to be Keagen, but he needs to be a solid player for us. We can't have a drop-off in those areas, which are just effort things."
 
Centers
Tommy Rau, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, played limited minutes in his first year and Jasper Reinalda, at 7-3 redshirt-freshman, joins as a transfer from Division I Montana State University.
 
Season openers
The Hardrockers got off to a slow start last weekend, losing a pair of games in the Conference Challenge between the RMAC and Lone Star Conference. Mines fell to Kingsville 75-42 in Kingsville, Texas, and 81-57 to International in Laredo, Texas.

"If you look at it just on box score, you'd probably say, 'boy you just didn't play very well and stuff,'" Glenn said. "But there were some individual guys that I thought really played well; they are those type of guys that we're looking for."
 
Glenn said that Walter, who scored 26 points in the two games, and Mortensen, who added 22 points, had tough openers. But he added that he is not putting too much credence into that.
 
"One, we were playing two teams that just really disrupt you, and the bottom line is that's a tough thing out of the gates," he said. "We didn't handle it as well as I was hoping we would. Brevin has seen a lot of games and Mort has seen a lot of games. I know what those two are really capable of. They've proven what they can do over a season. Once those guys started getting in the groove, we're going to be OK in that department."
 
The Hardrockers struggled to hang on to the basketball with 25 turnovers in the opener, although they did improve to just 11 miscues on Saturday.
 
"That was a problem for us last year and something we put a lot of focus on this year already," Glenn said. "We want to improve in that turnover department and we were able to on the next night against what I personally think was more pressure as the International team was bigger, longer and a more mature looking-team physically. We had 11 turnovers total, but only eight were from ball-handling errors and three were from offensive fouls. Our goal to keep it below that 12 or below and we were at 11, so I was really happy with that."
 
The Hardrockers, however, didn't do as well on the boards as Glenn would have liked. He said they want to get 76% of the defensive boards that are available and they were at about 67%.
 
"That's a pretty good chunk below where we want to be, so we've got to do a better job in that department," he said.
 
Glenn said they are necessarily the tallest team, but they are not small and are pretty strong. He said they have to learn to use their strength, which is to be physical with teams. They also need to finish better on the offensive and defensive ends and win the paint.
 
"It's just like a football, you have to win the line, and last year we didn't do that," he said. "We didn't shoot particularly well in the paint, although we had some great opportunities. At the same time, we didn't defend it really well when the ball got in there. People shot it at a very high efficiency on us in there."
 
Look for the Hardrockers identity this season to be similar to what it was last season, especially when Rama returns to the lineup.
 
"When Ale comes back he will be a huge playmaker for us. He'll create a lot of opportunities for him to do what he does best," Glenn said. "Mortensen relies on those playmakers to get him looks, whether it is a post touch or a lot of pick and pop action."
 
The schedule
Glenn said he loves to play tough competition and he doesn't worry too much about their record going into the conference. The Hardrockers are on the road this weekend in the East/West Challenge, taking on Augustana at 10 a.m. Friday and MSU Moorhead Saturday at noon.
 
Mines will open its home slate on Nov. 25 against MSU Billings and also face rival Black Hills State on Nov. 28 in a non-conference game, also at the King Center.
"We're starting our first four games on the road, so that's a pretty adverse way to start a season against three NCAA tournament teams," he said. " That's a challenge, but I love it. It shows the guys exactly what it takes to play at that level, as opposed to maybe going to try and buy a win at home. Maybe if we got to play 10 to 12 non-conference games, we would do some of that, but we only have six games to get ready for our conference season. We'll let the chips fall where they may and if we're not good enough to win those games, we're not good enough to win those games. I know we're going to get better from it."
 
The Hardrockers begin RMAC play Dec. 2-3 at home against the University of Colorado- Colorado Springs and Regis respectively.
 
Glenn said he is not much of a prognosticator, but it's pretty easy to predict Black Hills State winning the RMAC. The defending champion Yellow Jackets went all of the way to the Division II semifinal game last year and not only return their entire team, but brought in Matthew Ragsdale, the league's second-leading scorer last season, as a senior transfer from Western Colorado.
 
"I think Ryan (Thompson) is a terrific coach and he has tremendous leadership, and they have Joel Scott, so I think that they're going to be tough team to play," he said.
Glenn also said that Colorado Mines and Colorado Mesa will be teams to watch. The Orediggers also brought in senior transfer Adam Thistlewood, who started 96 games for Division I Colorado State University and return two of the best guards in the league in Brendan Sullivan and Ben Boone.
 
"Our league really changed over the last four or five years. There has become a lot of parity, so I think the teams that were sitting at the bottom are getting better," he said. "maybe they haven't quite got over the hump yet, but the games that they are playing against the league's top eight teams are extremely competitive. There isn't an off night in the league and I don't expect it to be any different this year."
 
About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 10 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.