PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo head women's basketball coach Tommie Johnson has announced his team's 28-game schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
 
This season's schedule includes nine games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament last season, nine against teams that won 20 or more games last season, and two home tournaments at Massari Arena in November.
 
There is one new wrinkle to the schedule this season, which is an adjustment to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference slate of games as the league games will now be played on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons as opposed to playing back-to-back days on Fridays and Saturdays as has been the standard in recent seasons. Additionally, the teams will play 20 league games this season, which is 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, leading to the Pack only playing six league schools twice and the other eight teams once.
 
This season, the Pack will play Westminster, Chadron State, Colorado Christian, UCCS, Mines, and Adams State two times, while facing Western Colorado, South Dakota Mines, Regis, New Mexico Highlands, Black Hills State, Fort Lewis, Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver one time each. The Pack will play also two league schools (Colorado Mesa and Regis) in non-conference games.
 
CSU Pueblo, who returns four starters and eight letterwinners from last season's 17-15 team that finished eighth in the RMAC with an 11-11 record and advanced to the semifinals of the RMAC Tournament, begins the 2024-25 season with back-to-back games on Nov. 8-9 at a South Central Regional Crossover event hosted by the University of Texas-Tyler. The Pack will open the two-day event on Nov. 8 against Lubbock Christian, before facing UT-Tyler the next day on Nov. 9. Last season, Lubbock Christian went 21-10 and advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional, while UTT went 27-9 and advanced to the finals of South Central Regional Tournament.
 
After the season-opening regional crossover event, the Pack will open the home portion of its schedule with two games as part of the annual Al Kaly Shrine Classic on Nov. 15-16. At the event, the Pack will open with a 5 p.m. game on Nov. 15 against Texas A&M-Kingsville and then will host Missouri Western on Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. The other team in the event is Colorado Christian, who will play Missouri Western on Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. and at 3 p.m. on Nov. 16 against Texas A&M-Kingsville. Missouri Western 25-6 last season and advanced to the NCAA Central Regional Tournament.
 
Following the homestand, the Pack will return to the road for a non-conference contest on Nov. 20 in Grand Junction, Colo., against defending RMAC regular season champion Colorado Mesa. The Mavericks, who went 25-7 last season and advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional a season ago, lost 66-57 to the Pack in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament last season on their home court.
 
On Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 29-30), the Pack will host a Thanksgiving Classic as they will face Haskell Indian Nations University on Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. and play Northern New Mexico on Nov. 30 at 5 p.m.
 
The Pack will then open RMAC play with two straight road games on Thursday, Dec. 5 and Saturday, Dec. 7 against both Westminster University at 5:30 p.m. and Western Colorado at 1 p.m. respectively. After the two RMAC games on the road, the Pack will open its home RMAC slate on Dec. 12 and Dec. 14 against Chadron State and South Dakota Mines.
 
After its Christmas holiday break, the Pack will open the New Year on Jan. 3 with a non-conference game against Regis University at 5:30 p.m. Regis went 26-6 last season and advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.
 
Following the non-conference tilt with Regis, the Pack will return to RMAC play with a 5:30 p.m. home game on Thursday, Jan. 9 against Colorado Christian, before traveling up I-25 to Colorado Springs, Colo., two days later for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 11 at UCCS. The road swing will continue the following week as they play games on Jan. 16 and Jan. 18 at Colorado School of Mines and Regis. UCCS, who defeated the Pack 58-54 in the semifinals of the 2024 RMAC Tournament, went 23-9 last season, while Mines went 21-9 a season and advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.
 
Following the three-game road trip, the Pack will return home to begin a four-game homestand on Thursday, Jan. 23, and Saturday, Jan. 25 with RMAC games against Adams State and New Mexico Highlands and then concludes the homestand the following week on Thursday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Feb. 1 against Colorado Mesa and Westminster. Adams State was 25-9 last season and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.
 
After the four-game homestand, the Pack will return to the road for games on Thursday, Feb. 6 at Black Hills State and on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Chadron State and will conclude the road swing with a 6 p.m. game on Tuesday, Feb. 11 against Colorado Christian.
 
Following the CCU game, the Pack will return to Massari Arena for a 5:30 p.m. game on Thursday, Feb. 13 against UCCS, before taking a week off due to a bye week in the RMAC schedule.
 
After a week off, the Pack will return to the road for games on Thursday, Feb. 20 at Fort Lewis and Saturday, Feb. 22 at Adams State. Following the road games at Fort Lewis and Adams State, the Pack will conclude the regular season with home games on Thursday, Feb. 27, and Saturday, March 1 against MSU Denver and Mines respectively.
 
Following the conclusion of the regular season, the top eight teams in the RMAC standings will qualify for the RMAC Tournament, which begins with quarterfinal games on Tuesday, March 4. The semifinals and finals are scheduled for March 7-8 and the winner of the RMAC Tournament receives the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament.