CONCORDIA – With two experienced floor generals and a strong frontcourt presence, the Cloud County Community College men’s basketball team enters the 2019-20 season with high expectations thanks to a mix of experience and newcomers to start the year.
In total, the T-Birds will have four players returning from last year’s roster to go along with 10 newcomers in which two of are transfers from teams that combined to go 56-11 and both finish ranked inside the NJCAA Top-25.
“We joke that we have two and a half guys back as Ty Duin was lost after seven games last year due to an injury” said Cloud County head coach Jordan Altman. “This probably created our biggest advantage right now as DJ Sims came in and played over 20 games for us last year and averaged 18 minutes per game so we are really happy with our experience at the point guard position.”
Adding to the backcourt will be sophomore transfer Jay Lewis as the Conroe, Texas native joins the T-Birds following one season at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming where he helped the Generals go 31-4 while appearing in 32 games and averaging nearly seven points per game while playing 12.6 minutes per game.
“Jay Lewis played on one of the best teams in the country last season at Sheridan College, so we are very optimistic at how effective our back court can be this season.”
Taking the reins of the front court will be returner Iyen Enaruna as the Amsterdam, Netherlands native appeared in all 31 games for Cloud County a year ago, starting nine while averaging 6.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. The sophomore is expected to take a new role to try and replace the efforts of Adetomi Ayilara and Edoardo Del Cadia who combined to start 32 games last year at forward while averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds per game.
“Iyen Enaruna’s presence in the front court will change games as teams will have to change game plans and try to stop him from day one so we’ll be interested in seeing how well he adjusts to a very different role than what we had for him last year.”
Other key players to watch for the T-Birds this season will be transfer guard Chad Vincent-Simon and forward Michael Ozomah as the pair will both battle for playing time this year. Vincent-Simon joins CCCC following one year at Daytona State College where he appeared in 19 games for the Falcons and was part of a squad that went 25-7 and finished the season ranked number 21 in the country. Ozomah averaged 10.6 points per game as a senior and helped lead his team to the state tournament.
With Cloud County playing seven games in the span of three weeks to open the season prior to the start of conference play, the T-Birds will have their hands full in trying to fill in the pieces in preparation of the gauntlet that is playing in the KJCCC.
“Our hardest obstacle by far is trying to get our guys prepared for the level of play that we’ll face night in and night out as our guys have played very different styles than what they’ll see in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.” “Playing a 20-game conference schedule along with an extremely tough non-conference schedule is going to force us to try and prepare our players to be ready the best they can as we won’t have an off night when it comes to competition this season.”
Following a season-opening road game at Redlands Community College on Saturday, T-Bird fans will get a four-game home stand over the course of two weeks to see CCCC in action which will begin on November 5th against the Sterling College JV team. Cloud County will also play home games against Central Community College, Sunrise Christian Academy, and North Platte Community College before playing Barton Community College and Des Moines Area Community College at the Iowa Western Classic to finish pre-conference action.
KJCCC play will get off to a quick start with a trip to Garden City and a home game against Seward County during the week of Thanksgiving as the T-Birds will then host Colby for their only home game in the month of December. A four-game road trip begins with a trip to Dodge City and will be followed by trips to Hutchinson, North Platte, and Iowa Western to close out the 2019 portion of the schedule as Cloud County will get nearly three weeks off for the holidays.
Three more cross division opponents await CCCC out of the break with home games against Northwest Kansas Tech and Pratt along with a road game against Barton sandwiched in between will serve as the primer for KJCCC East Division play. As division play begins, Cloud County will host Butler before back-to-back road games at KJCCC East favorites Coffeyville and Cowley before closing out January with two out of their final three games at home (home vs. Allen, at Independence, home vs. Neosho). The start of February will kick off the second time around in the east division as the schedule reverses from the first time around with CCCC hosting Coffeyville, Cowley, and Independence. Ending the season with a non-conference game, Cloud County will host Iowa Western on Feb. 21 to end the regular-season.