With the regular season starting the first week of November, the preseason polls are being released for the colleges and universities competing in basketball during the 2024-2025 campaign.

In addition, two players from the Centennial State – Colorado’s Lior Garzon and Colorado State’s Emma Ronsiek – are on the watch list for the Cheryl Miller and Katrina McClain Awards that honor the top small and power forwards in women’s Division I women’s college basketball.

Here are the results of the preseason polls.

Big 12 Conference / Men – With Colorado returning to the league for the first time since the 2010-2011 season, the Buffs were picked 15th out of 16 schools.  READ MORE

Big 12 Conference / Women – Colorado was picked ninth, with Tabitha Betson being tabbed as the preseason freshman of the year.  Former Buff Aaronette Vonleh was named the co-newcome of the year as she begins her career at Baylor.  READ MORE

NOTE – Buff newcomer Lior Garzon is on the watch list for the 2025 Cheryl Miller Award that honors the top small forwards in women’s Division I women’s college basketball.  READ MORE / Colorado guardFrida Formann was selected as one of 50 players for the Los Angeles Athletic Club John R. Wooden Award®, presented by Principal, Preseason Watch List on WoodenAward.com.   READ MORE

Mountain West Conference / Men – With 11 schools ranked, Colorado State is listed sixth and the Air Force 11th. Nique Clifford of the Rams was a pre-season all-league selection. READ MORE

Mountain West Conference / Women – Colorado State is listed third and the Air Force eighth in the preseason rankings.  The Rams’ Emma Ronsiek was named the co-player and Newcomer of the Year.  CSU newcomer Kloe Froebe was tabbed the preseason Freshman of the Year.  Joining Ronsiek on the preseason All-MW team is Air Force’s Milahnie Perry.   READ MORE

NOTE – Ram newcomer Emma Ronsiek is on the watch list for the 2025 Katrina McClain Award that honors the top power forwards in women’s Division I women’s college basketball.  READ MORE

Summit League / Men – Denver was listed ninth out of nine schools in the preseason poll.  DeAndre Craig was a preseason second-team selection.  READ MORE

Summit League / Women – Led by first-team preseason pick Jordan Jones, Denver was slotted sixth in the standing projections.  READ MORE

Big Sky Conference / Men –  Northern Colorado was listed third in the coaches and fourth in the media polls.  READ MORE

Big Sky Conference / Women – Northern Colorado tabbed fifth in both the coaches and media polls.  READ MORE

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference / Men – Colorado Mines is atop the poll with 11 of the 15 first-place votes. MSU Denver is second, followed by Regis third, Colorado Mesa fifth, CSU Pueblo sixth, UC Colorado Springs seventh, Fort Lewis ninth, Western Colorado 11th, Adams State 13th, and Colorado Christian 14th.  READ MORE

Adams State’s Jude Tapia, Colorado Christian’s Bradley Land, Colorado Mesa’s Christopher Speller, Colorado Mines’ Majok Deng and Alex Romack, CSU Pueblo’s Brevin Walter, Fort Lewis’ Chuol Deng, MSU Denver’s Brayden Carter and Caleb McGill, Regis’ Chase Mayo Harmon, UC Colorado Springs’ Xavier Martinez and Western Colorado’s Kade Juelfs are on the RMAC men’s preseason watch list.  READ MORE

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference / Women – Colorado Mesa was tabbed as the preseason favorites after collecting seven of the 15 first-place votes.  UC Colorado Springs was second, followed by CSU Pueblo third, Adams State fourth, Colorado Mines fifth, Regis sixth, MSU Denver seventh, Colorado Christian eighth, Western Colorado tenth, and Fort Lewis 12th.  Players to watch will be announced on November 5.  READ MORE

Adams State’s Kiiyani Anitielu, Colorado Christian’s Maggie Hutka, Colorado Mesa’s Kylie Kravig, Olivia Reed, and Mason Rowland, Colorado Mines’ Jenna Siebert, CSU Pueblo’s Alisha Little and Autumn Watts, Fort Lewis’ Sydney Bevington, MSU Denver’s Mikayla Espinosa, Regis’ Erin Fry and Athena Saragoza, UC Colorado Springs’ Amyah Moore Allen and Maison White, and Western Colorado’s Rachel Cockman are on the RMAC women’s preseason watch list.  READ MORE

NOTE – There is a change to the RMAC conference basketball schedule this season.  League games for both men and women will be played on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons instead of back-to-back days on Fridays and Saturdays, as has been the standard for recent seasons. Additionally, the teams will play 20 league games this season, a decrease of two from the previous seasons, while all 15 league schools that sport basketball have been broken up into five three-team pods.  Each school now plays six league schools twice and the other eight teams once.

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference / Men – Colorado College is third in the preseason poll.  The Tigers (16-12; 8-8 SCAC), which posted its highest win total since the 2015-16 season, return two-time all-SCAC senior guard Scott Ruegg, who averaged 10.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game a season ago.  Last season, CC advanced to the SCAC title game for the first time since 2016.  READ MORE

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference / Women – After posting its first 20-win season since 1981, Colorado College is ranked second in the preseason poll.  Colorado College (20-8 overall; 12-4 SCAC), who has finished as tournament runner-up to Trinity each of the last four seasons, earned two first-place votes and finished second in the poll with 111 points. The CC Tigers return the league’s 2023-24 Player of the Year in senior center Zoë Tomlinson. A consensus all-American, Tomlinson led the SCAC in scoring (17.7 points) and rebounding (14.0 rebounds) last season and is already seventh on the league’s all-time rebounding list with 910.  READ MORE

Here are the colleges and universities competing in basketball in the Centennial State.