With hopes high that it is improved, the Chadron State College men’s basketball team will visit the Weber State Wildcats in Ogden, Utah, for an exhibition game on Thursday night. Tipoff will be at 7. The game will be aired on KQSK-FM Radio.
This apparently will be the first competition for a Chadron State team versus Weber State, which has a student population of about 28,000. Its athletic teams are in the Big Sky Conference.
Men’s basketball is one of the Weber State’s most prominent sports. This is Randy Rahe’s 13th season as the head coach. His career record there is 248-138 and he has been named the Big Sky Conference’s Coach of the Year four times.
This year’s Chadron State team combines five lettermen, three redshirts, six transfers and four freshmen. The Eagles will have more size up front, speed and depth than last year’s team that finished at 3-25, but will not be at full-strength early in the season.
Alliance native Jordan Mills, who was in the regular rotation and averaged eight points last season, has barely practiced this fall because of a hamstring issue. Another setback occurred last week when one of the top transfers, Colby Jackson, suffered a broken hand while catching a pass in practice. He probably won’t be able to play until at least Thanksgiving.
Head coach Houston Reed, who is beginning his third year at CSC, said Jackson, a junior who averaged 16.8 points and 5.8 assists last season at Peninsula College at Port Angeles, Wash., was expected to be the Eagles’ starting point guard.
All is not lost, however. The team is well-stocked with guards. They include senior Jaisean Jackson, no relation to Colby, but last year’s primary point guard who averaged 12.5 points and always plays hard. Also expected to help run the show are Michael Sparks, a highly-regarded recruit a year ago, and freshman Trey Hladky, Wyoming’s Gatorade Player of the Year the past two seasons.
Sparks missed all of last season because of a sports hernia, but has been going full speed again and was among the bright spots when the Eagles scrimmaged Gillette College last Friday night in the Chicoine Center. Hladky also demonstrated lots of moxie during the scrimmage.
Although the Eagles shot poorly during the first half of the scrimmage, they outscored the athletic Gillette Pronghorn in the second 20-minute session.
Senior center Adoum Mbang and sophomore forward Walker Andrew, along with Sparks, were the Eagles’ scoring leaders in the scrimmage.
Another senior, forward Jeremy Ruffin, who averaged 8.9 and 6.9 rebounds last season, is also being counted on to help lead the Eagles again this winter. Three transfers—seniors Charles Gavin at center and Diontae Champion at small forward and sophomore Brady Delimont at off-guard–also are expected to help make the Eagles more potent this winter.
Reed also believes redshirt freshman Jacob Jefferson, a 6-7 forward, has a bright future and will provide good minutes this season.
Weber State has won 20 games each of the last two years and has been tabbed to finish second in this year’s Skyline Conference’s preseason poll by both the coaches and the media.
Among the Wildcats’ top guns is 6-foot junior Jerrick Harding, who earned first team all-conference last season while shooting 53 percent from the field, including 42.5 percent from 3-point range, and 88.2 percent (127-144) from the free throw line while averaging 22 points.
A native of Wichita and the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Years as a high school senior when he averaged 27 points a game, Harding fired in 46 points during a 95-92 overtime win at Montana State in the Wildcats’ final regular-season game last season.
This year’s roster also includes a pair of 6-9 seniors, Zach Braxton and Brekkott Chapman, who averaged 12.3 and 10.8 points and 7.8 and 5.9 rebounds, respectively, last season.
The CSC men will open their regular season by hosting Texas A&M-International and Texas A&M-Kingsville on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 9 and 10.
The CSC women will play an exhibition game at the University of Wyoming on Wednesday, Nov. 7 and then visit their counterparts at the Texas A&M schools that weekend.