PUEBLO, Colo. - With the NCAA Men's basketball season ending this weekend with national championship games for all three divisions in Indianapolis, the Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball program featured its top award winners at a banquet on Monday (March 30) at the Pack House.
 
The 2025-2026 CSU Pueblo men's basketball season was highlighted by a 22-win campaign directed by new coach Zach Ruebesam and his assistant Michael Ranson.  At Monday's, the following awards were presented.

With the second-most wins in the program's 4-year history, the Pack posted a 22-8 record and reached the semi-finals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, where CSU Pueblo dropped a 47-46 decision to Colorado Mesa.
 
The Pack reached the 20-plus win mark for the first time since the 2014-2015 campaign, when the ThunderWolves posted a 21-9 record in Coach Ralph Turner's fourth of eight campaigns at the school.
 
The 2025-2026 season was the 63rd campaign for the school in the 4-year competition, with the winning record the first since the 2016-2017 campaign. Since the inaugural season in 1963-1964, CSU Pueblo has posted only seven 20-plus-win campaigns, highlighted by the Joe Folda-coached 25-8 squad that captured the 1991 district title and advanced to the NAIA nationals in Kansas City.
 
As for improvement from one season to the next, the 2025-2026 squad was a plus-10, as CSU Pueblo was 12-16 in Matt Hammer's sixth and final campaign coaching the ThunderWolves. The most improved win total by a CSU Pueblo was plus-15 by the 1990-1991 squad, with Ruebesam's Pack matching the plus-10 win total by the 1976-1977 season.
 
With a 15-5 RMAC record to tie for second in the conference with Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis, CSU Pueblo posted the most league wins since the 2016-2017 season, when the ThunderWolves compiled a 17-5 RMAC mark.
 
The RMAC playoff appearances were only the second in the last nine seasons as the Pack hosted a league postseason game for the first time since 2017. With their 82-70 win over Colorado Mines in the conference quarterfinals, the ThunderWolves won their first postseason at home since 2015.


 
On the road to the RMAC playoffs, CSU Pueblo won all eight games in February after snapping a three-game losing streak at the end of January. During the victory streak, the Pack upset nationally ranked Black Hills State 71-53 on February 5.
 
The win was the men's basketball program's first victory over a nationally ranked opponent since an 80-71 win on January 17, 2015, against then fifth-ranked Colorado Mines, a span of 10 years and 19 days, or 3,672 days.
 
The 2025-2026 season also marked the 80th anniversary of athletics resuming at the Pueblo-based school since the end of World War II. Ruebesam is the eighth head coach in that span, and the Pack's 22 wins were the most by a first-season coach in school history.
 
The 2025-2026 ThunderWolves established themselves as the premier defensive unit in the RMAC, leading the league by holding opponents to just 64.2 points per game and a 41.1% field goal percentage.