Click here to view the complete 2010-11 RMAC men's basketball preseason release

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men's basketball coaches chose Fort Lewis College to win the conference championship, RMAC Assistant Commissioner Eric Danner announced today.

The Skyhawks, who finished 19-9 overall and 13-6 in RMAC games last season, received nine first-place votes and 17 total points to easily outdistance Metro State (four first-place votes, 24 points) and Colorado Mines (one first-place vote, 34 points) in the annual preseason poll. (Point totals correspond with the finish assigned by coaches; thus, a first-place vote on a given coach's ballot is worth one point.)

Fort Lewis College head men's basketball coach Bob Hofman, in his 15th season at FLC, was surprised at the pick, thinking Mines and Metro, both of which advanced to last year's NCAA Division II playoffs, are equally worthy of top billing.

Skyhawk senior DeAndre Lansdowne, a six-foot-two guard from Sandia High School in Albuquerque, N.M., was unanimously chosen as RMAC Preseason Player of the Year. He was also tabbed as the RMAC's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

“He's had a great career,” said Hofman. “It's a nice preseason honor.”

Lansdowne averaged 21.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in 2009-10. He earned a bevy of honors as a junior, including first team Daktronics All-Central Region, second team NABC All-Central Region, first team All-RMAC and first team All-RMAC West Division accolades. He was also tabbed as the 2009 RMAC West Division Preseason Player of the Year and a member of the 2009 preseason All-RMAC and All-RMAC West Division teams.

Last month, he was chosen as a preseason All-America honorable mention selection by The Sporting News.

In addition to Lansdowne, 6-foot-1 senior guard David Kanyinda (Albuquerque, N.M., Sandia High School) was named to the ten-player Preseason All-RMAC squad. Kanyinda averaged 15.3 points in 2009-10.

Fort Lewis hosts Northern New Mexico College (an NAIA school) in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Whalen Gymnasium. The Eagles are coached by Fort Lewis College alumnus Ryan Cordova, who is a former FLC football player and men's and women's assistant basketball coach in the late 1990s and early 2000s. NNMC's top assistant, Zack Cole, was a point guard for the Skyhawks from 1999 to 2003.

The Skyhawks officially open their season by hosting the George B. Boedecker Classic on Nov. 19-20 in Whalen Gymnasium, where they'll face Eastern New Mexico University at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Northwest Nazarene University at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Boedecker Classic also features games between UC-Colorado Springs and Northwest Nazarene at 5:30 p.m. Friday and UC-Colorado Springs and Eastern New Mexico at 3 p.m. Saturday.