(By Steve Carpenter, HCC Sports Information Director)
2015 QUARTERBACK CLASSIC
When: Friday-Saturday, October 30-31
Where: Hutchinson Sports Arena
Teams: Hutchinson, Labette, North Lake College, Sterling College JV
Daily Admission: $5 – Adults; $3 – Students; HCC All-Sport Tickets not valid this weekend; HCC students free with student ID
Live Stream: Hutchinson games only, starts approximately 7:20 p.m. each night
Twitter: @bluedragonsport
Friday’s schedule
3:30 p.m. – North Lake College vs. Sterling College JV
7:30 p.m. – Hutchinson vs. Labette
Saturday’s schedule
3:30 p.m. – Labette vs. Sterling College JV
7:30 p.m. – Hutchinson vs. North Lake College
There are just certain teams that will have ridiculously high expectations thrust upon it no matter the circumstance.
The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team is one of those programs. High, high, high expectations from their fans are usually accompanied by the national nods from those who cover junior college basketball are nothing new for the Blue Dragons.
So how does seventh-year head coach Steve Eck and his team handle those lofty hopes?
“You can’t pay attention to it that much,” Eck said. “You just have to coach the way you coach and let the guys play. It’s better than being ranked No. 100.
“We have some guys back this year who want to go further than last year.”
The 2015-16 Blue Dragons don’t have to worry about triple-digit national rankings. HCC starts the season ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA Preseason Men’s Division I poll and were tied with Coffeyville at the top of the Jayhawk Conference preseason coaches’ rankings.
Hutchinson opens the new season on Friday with the annual Quarterback Classic at the Sports Arena. HCC plays Labette at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and will meet North Lake College at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Sterling College junior varsity is the fourth team in the field. The other men’s game will be played at 3:30 p.m. each day.
The Blue Dragons return for key members of last season’s 29-7 team that won the Region VI Tournament and advanced to the NJCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the first time since 1994.
The leading returning scorer is sophomore guard Bashir Ahmed, who was first-team All-Jayhawk West, first-team All-Region VI and was an NJCAA All-American honorable mention selection. Last season, Ahmed (6-foot-7, 215 pounds, Bronx, NY) averaged 16.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Ahmed shot 45.5 percent from the field overall and 36.4 percent from 3-point range with a team-high 47 made 3-pointers.
Guard Akbar Hoffman (6’1, 170, Newark, NJ) also averaged in double figures at 10.7 points per game while shooting 38 percent from the field. He made 42 3-pointers and a 28.6 percent clip. Hoffman led last year’s team with 53 steals.
Guard/forward Keanu Pinder (6’8, 220, Perth Australia) is also back. His overall numbers weren’t impressive at 6.3 points and 6.5 rebounds, but Pinder played huge in Hutchinson’s run to a 20th Region VI championship. Pinder also blocked a team-high 68 shots last season.
Forward Moataz Aly (6’9, 225, Alexandria, Egypt) blocked 60 shots as a freshman. He averaged 1.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
Eck is adding one transfer – Larry Dennis a Wichita athlete comes to HCC from Florida International – and seven freshmen to that group of sophomores as HCC embarks on a new one-division Jayhawk Conference.
“I don’t know about the No. 2 ranking in the country right now,” said Eck, who is 164-38 at Hutchinson. “We have some things to work through.”
One of the things to work through that Eck referred to is the preseason injury to point guard James Conley (6-2, 170, Derby). Conley is a quick guard who is strong defensively and likes to set up teammates to score offensively. No timetable has been set for his return.
Without Conley, Hoffman and Samajay Haynes-Jones (5-11, 170, Wichita) will run the point “by committee” according to Eck, who has climbed to No. 6 on the Blue Dragon coaching wins list.
When they aren’t at point guard, Hoffman and Haynes-Jones will be at the 2-guard spot.
Ahmed and Pinder, along with Shakur Juiston (6’7, 220, Paterson, NJ) and Tyler Kohl (6’4, 215, Allentown, PA) will be at the 3-guards. The forwards and centers will be covered by Pinder, Aly and Juiston. Also returning from injury last season is 6’7 Jawan Emery (Overland Park), who played only five games last season and Larry Dennis (6’8, 225, Wichita).
For the first time since the last 1970s, the Jayhawk Conference will be one division with 14 teams.
There are no longer West and East divisions in the Jayhawk this season and teams will play a staggered schedule. Hutchinson will play Seward County, Dodge City, Barton, Garden City, Colby and Cloud County twice this season. HCC will play the other seven schools only once – Neosho County, Independence and Cowley at home and Coffeyville, Allen, Pratt and Butler on the road – this season.
Hutchinson’s 19-game conference schedule opens on Monday, November 30 with Neosho County at the Sports Arena.