The Western Nebraska Community College Thanksgiving Classic will be stuffed with basketball talent when games tip off Thursday night as four teams that have had national recognition in the past five years hit the courts of Cougar Palace.
WNCC, 8-1, will open the tournament against Williston State at 7 p.m. while the Eastern Wyoming Lancers face No. 15 Indian Hills Community College at 5 p.m. The tournament runs through Saturday.
WNCC coach Russ Beck said his goal is to bring in top-notch competition to Cougar Palace and this weekend should wet a basketball fans' appetite.
"This is a big tournament and these are big games," he said. "Last year Williston State was one game from getting to Hutch and Indian Hills is ranked 15th in the country right know. We have two, quality opponents that will be coming in that bring different things to the table. But, I like our momentum going into this weekend."
WNCC is entering the tournament with quite a bit of momentum after stunning then No. 13 ranked College of Southern Idaho 89-87 in front of 2,000 people in the K&T Invitational in Twin Falls, Idaho. The Cougars also picked up wins against TAAG Academy, a top Prep school, and Sullivan College, who was ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA Division III polls.
The three wins came at a time when the Cougars needed some positive energy after being upended at home on Nov. 16 by Central Wyoming College. That loss turned out to be a positive thing for the Cougars.
"We want to bring in quality teams, quality opponents. We started out the year with Oglala and Buckley Air Force Base," Beck said. "You know every team around plays teams early on that helps them get started. You always have to warm up that engine before you go out and rev it up. We are in that point of time where we want to rev that engine a little bit and we want to see where we stand against some of the nation’s best teams. That is why we play teams like CSI, Indian Hills, Williston, Sheridan and Salt Lake. Those are games that are not built into our schedule that we went out and found ourselves.
The Cougars' opener against Williston State will be against a team that has plenty of offensive weapons. The Tetons are led by 6-0 freshman Blake Nash of Casa Grande, Ariz., and Terrance Motley, a 6-5 freshman from Maricopa, Ariz. Nash is averaging 20.7 points a game, including making 51.4 percent from behind the arc.
"Blake Nash is their point guard and has the reputation of being one of the best guards on the west coast or in junior college," Beck said. "He is being highly recruited and is a red-shirt freshman. He sat out last year so he could play this year and then have three years to play Division I. He is a scorer and he will pull up in transition. We will have to definitely key on him.
"They also have a few big bodies who will bang around on the inside. They have a nice power forward Terrance Mattley out of Arizona that we watched play this summer a little bit and he is a slasher, scorer and plays with emotion. This team plays really, really hard."
WNCC, however, will counter with plenty of offensive and defensive mentality of their own. Several players stepped up in the weekend games in Twin Falls, Idaho.
"Justin Omogun gives us a lot of athleticism and Marko [Kovacevic] is starting to come into his own. He had about 15 dunks this last weekend." Beck said. "Justin Standley is a red-shirt from New Mexico State and had a huge game for us on Saturday. He was 5 of 7 from the 3-point area and we expect him to continue to be that aggressive. Hauns Brereton is a great player for us. Going down the list, I think this team is really balanced. We don’t lose a whole lot as we substitute."
The Thanksgiving tournament will also feature women's contests on Friday and Saturday. Friday's schedule has the EWC women facing Oglala Lakota College at 3 p.m., the Williston and Indian Hills men at 5 p.m. and then the WNCC women facing Williston State. Games on Saturday begin at 1 p.m.
Beck is hoping for a big crowd to seem some good junior college basketball this weekend.
"I hope everybody comes out and supports us," he said. "This will be a big weekend for Cougar basketball and we want to restore some of that magic to the palace."
COUGAR NOTES: The athletic department will also be having two promotions over the Thanksgiving Classic. On Thursday during halftime of the WNCC men's game, there will be turkey bowling where individuals can win a turkey. Then, on Saturday, the Playhouse Skate and Fun Center will set up one of their bounce houses for the youngsters to jump in during the Cougar men's and women's games.
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