WNCC women ranked 18th in NJCAA basketball pre-season poll, men open season in one week

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team had a hard-luck season last year, falling in the quarterfinals of the Region IX tournament. This year, however, could be a different story according the NJCAA pre-season rankings that were released Monday morning.

The Cougar women, 24-8 a year ago, are pre-season ranked No. 18 in the country. Defending Region IX champions Casper College enters the 2010-11 campaign ranked No. 3 in the nation in the NJCAA preseason poll. Gulf Coast Community College is the pre-season No. 1 team followed by Central Arizona, Casper, Copiah-Lincoln and Monroe Community College.

WNCC women’s coach Dave Harnish said it doesn’t matter where you are ranked now, it is the end of the season that matters the most.

“We don’t know what we have and I think the biggest thing is to find out how the team competes, not only in a scrimmage or a game,” he said. “To be a top 20 team, you have to do a lot of things well. One of them is being able to compete hard on a nightly basis. The pre-season outcasts are based basically on talent. As we saw last year, we were ranked high and had the talent, but we never could put it together or have that competiveness atmosphere. For all teams early in the year, you really don’t know what you have and the same thing with rankings, you don’t know what you have until you go out and play games. We will learn where we should be in the rankings.”

Unlike the women, the men’s basketball team finds themselves unranked in the NJCAA pre-season polls after being ranked No. 9 in the Sporting News Magazine poll. Men’s coach Russ Beck said that his team is preparing for the season as usual and isn’t too concerned right now about the rankings.

“With the first NJCAA poll or any poll really like the Sporting News poll, it all is based on what people think you have,” he said. “A lot has to do with the team’s success the previously year or years past. You can’t take a lot out of a pre-season poll because no one has done anything yet. We did have a chance to see Casper and they look like a pretty good team. Sheridan has a good team, but I feel like our team is right up there with those guys. It gives us something to work for. It is not about where you start, but where you finish.”

Casper College is the only Region IX team ranked on the men’s side, coming in at No. 30. Midland College starts out the season at No. 1 followed by Howard College, North Idaho College and Northwest Florida State College. WNCC will play a couple of ranked teams in November, facing No. 14 Indian Hills Community College at home over the Thanksgiving break, as well as playing No. 24 College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho.

The men’s team will open the season in one week when they travel to Kyle, S.D., to take on Oglala Lakota College on Nov. 2, while the Cougar women open the season Nov. 5-6 at home. The women will have two pre-season scrimmages coming up when they face Metro State in Denver on Friday and the Chadron State Wednesday, Nov. 3 at Cougar Palace.

Harnish said his squad is making headways through the first few weeks of practice.

“It is just like last year where we have 12 freshmen and it is always difficult when you are dealing with a lot of freshmen and not a lot of returners. The steps are small,” he said. “But, I think the kids have enthusiasm and excitement. They have gotten better every day, which is helpful.

“Only time will tell what our strengths and weaknesses will be, but I would hope that we are a little bit more athletic and more up tempo then we were the last two years. That is something we are going to try to stress. It depends how the kids react. We have a couple scrimmages coming up and we will find out a little bit more about ourselves.”

The women return four players back from last year’s squad in 6-foot-7 Thais Pinto, 5-10 Carolina Alves, 5-9 Tiffany Moorer and 5-4 Shelby Campbell of Hemingford.

Beck said his team is ready to open the season.

“They are pretty excited for the season to start. I think after the scrimmages ended in Casper on Saturday, I think they realized that we are about a week away from opening it up,” he said. “They put in a lot of hard work. We have done a lot of conditioning, a lot of lifting, and a lot of people have commented at the jamborees from college coaches of how strong our guys look. That is a good compliment to Coach Bonner and to the guys. If we play smart, hard and together, I think this team has a chance at some very good things.”

Beck sees a lot of potential after watching his team perform at several jamborees throughout October. The Cougar men went to a jamboree in Casper, Wyo., over the weekend.

“I have seen in the early scrimmages that we will be able to do things pressing-wise that we weren’t able to do last year because of depth,” he said. “Our guard play has also been good. We really have missed Marko [Kovacevic], who has been out with a broken hand for five weeks. He came back this weekend, but he is a little rusty. It will take him a little bit of time to get that feel back. But, we had guys like Justin Omogun and Aaron Turner really step up in his absence. They helped solidify us in the post. I think our team defense has been getting better and offensively we are still learning our system a little bit because we have a lot of freshmen.”

The one that stands out with this year’s team is the number of players that make plays. Something they lacked last season.

“We have more guys that can make plays with the ball than last year,” Beck said. “Last year we had some very good skilled guys with Paco and Geddes, who could get us a basket when we needed it. This year we are more even across the board. We have a little bit better depth and I think that will help us stay fresher. I think we may have made Paco and Geddes play a lot of minutes last year, I think that wore on their bodies as the year went along.”

Both the men’s and women’s team open the home season Nov. 5 and 6. The women will face Little Big Horn College on Friday and then Hastings College junior varsity on Saturday. The men will take on Buckley Air Force Base on Nov. 5 before hosting Oglala Lakota College on Nov. 6.

“We are progressing, which is good, but we are definitely still green,” Beck said. “We are trying to learn some little things that will help us have success in the long run. But, I am pleased with effort. We have gotten more and more competitive the deeper we got into practice and a few of our scrimmages.”

The women are also getting excited for the season opening games that are about 10 days away.

“I think every team is excited for their first home game and to get the year started,” Harnish said. “It will have been almost five weeks since the start of practice, so everybody is excited whether it is coaches or players for the first game.”