MCC men open basketball season Wednesday at Garden City

An experienced McCook Community College men’s basketball team opens its season on the road Wednesday, to launch the 2023-24 season that includes a home-heavy start to the season.

The Indians, one of Region IX’s most experienced teams, will be tested early with three November games against nationally prominent teams, with two of those at home.

MCC opens the season Wednesday on the road against preseason No. 16 Garden City Community College, then returns home to face Laramie County Community College Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Eastern Wyoming and Saturday at 4 p.m. The Indians will host No. 14 Indian Hills Community College on Nov. 7 and one week later will host Dodge City, a team that made its way into the Elite 8 of the NJCAA National tournament in March.

In Coach Jacob Brandl’s fourth year MCC will be one of the more experienced region teams and Brandl said this is the most depth he’s had in his four years here.

“I like where we’re at and I’m excited about the season,” he said. “We have a good group of guys that have bought into the message and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

What is the team hoping to accomplish in 2023-24?

“We’re going to be fast paced, we’re going to share the basketball but at the end of the day we’re going to hang our hat on defense and rebounding and really trying to enforce our will onto other teams,” said Brandl.

One year ago, MCC tied for second place in the Region IX South Standings with Western Nebraska, but MCC fell to the third seed because of the first tiebreaker – the Cougars swept MCC during the regular season. After starting the Region IX South schedule 1-4, MCC went 5-2 in February to finish at 6-6 in the standings and 11-20 overall.

Brandl believes the team will improve on those numbers because of eight experienced returners and a roster filled with versatile athletes.

“I think the strength of our team will be our depth,” Brandl said. “Most teams look at eight to 10 guys in their rotation and I feel really good about 10 guys that we can put on the court at any time to either get stops for us or score the basketball.”

Anchoring the sophomore class is 7-0 post Noah Boyed (Castries, St. Lucia) who was named honorable mention Region IX and tabbed for the all-Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference team.

Boyed led all Region IX south players in rebounds, averaging 8.5 per game, and also topped all players in blocked shots with 46. In 31 games he averaged 10.9 points and shot 56.7 percent from the field. He had 19 games scoring in double figures including eight of his final nine games of the season. He scored a season-high 21 points against then No. 5 College of Southern Idaho on Nov. 25. He also had 14 games of double-digit rebounds.

“Noah’s made leaps and bounds from his first year here to where he’s at now,” said Brandl.

Over his final nine games of the season, he averaged 14.1 points and 10 rebounds per game. For the season he scored 339 points with 263 rebounds and 46 blocked shots.

Because of those improvements, Boyed is getting a lot of interest from NCAA D1 schools. Some have visited, some have offered scholarships and Boyed in the process of lining up more school visits.

“Obviously people see his name popping up on recruiting sites and what not, but I’ve been more proud of is his leadership skills and just his work ethic,” said Brandl. “And he’s still learning how to play the game and really hasn’t played a lot of basketball, but the strides he’s made have been crazy.”

Martel Evans (Omaha) was an honorable mention pick for the Nebraska Conference team. The 6-1 guard from Omaha Creighton Prep, played in 25 games, starting 14 and averaged 9.7 points per game, 2.6 rebounds and shot 44.3 percent from the field. He scored in double-figures 15 times in the season including a high of 22 Feb. 18 at Western Nebraska to go along with six rebounds.

“He was up and down for us, had some injuries, but still averaged almost double-figures,” said Brandl.

Zeki Cavli (Bodrum Turkey) was recently selected as the team’s recipient of “Teammate of the Year” through the MCC Teammate Scholarship program honoring student athletes exhibiting the attributes needed to be a good teammate. As a freshman, Cavli started 14 games at the guard spot averaging 5.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He reached double-figures in five games with a career-high 21 points against Colorado Northwestern on Nov. 25 when he went seven-for 12 from the 3-point line.

“He ended up having to start a lot of games for us early because of injuries and at times was the only guard we had on the roster that could play,” said Brandl. “So he’s battle-tested.”

Trey Summers, 6-3 guard from Greeley, Colo., is back for a third year at MCC. He was off to a great start last season before sustaining a season-ending injury Nov. 12 and receiving a medical hardship exemption to come back for another season.

“Before he got injured with that broken wrist, he was having a first-team all-region type of start,” said Brandl. “Anytime you get a three-year player coming back to your program and can help lead those younger guys is huge. And we have three of them.”

In five games Summers averaged 13.2 points per game, was shooting 43.2 percent from the field, 36.8 percent from the 3-point line and 84 percent from the free-throw line. As a freshman, he played in 31 games averaging 5.0 points, shooting 32.2 percent from the field and 27.9 from beyond the arc.

Along with Boyed and Summers another three-year player is 6-8 post Thabo Manyere (Auckland, New Zealand). Along with Boyed, both arrived on campus in January of 2021, but Manyere has yet to see the court.

“A healthy Thabo is good for our program,” said Brandl. “I felt terrible for him when he went down the first week of workouts last year with a partial ACL tear, he’s worked extremely hard rehabbing and is looking good right now.”

Brandl said he’s excited about that group and the leadership these returners have demonstrated and their commitment to defense, rebounding and in being a hard-nosed team.

“When teams play McCook we want them to know they are in for a fight for 40 minutes,” Brandl said. “We’re going to keep coming at them and keep playing hard no matter what the score is.”

The coach said this mentality has been prevalent in the fall practices, the scrimmages and jamborees. But the one area he wanted to improve on this season was in scoring. Last year out of the 196 division 1 teams, MCC ranked 171^st in offensive efficiency. The team averaged 68.9 points per game (ranked 169), ranked 157^th in field goal percentage (42.5 percent), 176^th in 3-point shooting (29.0 percent) and 170^th in turnovers per game, averaging 17.

“Our focus has been to add more scoring in this off-season and to fit pieces around our returners,” Brandl said. “And I felt good about the guys we brought in.”

Freshman Louie Tucker, a 6-5 guard (Bristol, United Kingdom) is a player Brandl said can “flat out score” and has been consistent in the preseason. Bryan Akanmu, is a 6-7 wing (Paris, France) who transferred from New Mexico Military,

“He brings an added toughness to the four position, is versatile, can guard multiple spots and can rebound,” said Brandl.

Newcomer Ridley Shema, 6-8 sophomore (London, England) started games last season at Murray State (Oklahoma) where he averaged 4.5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, shooting 46.1 percent from the field and 35.7 from the 3-point line.

“At 6-8, he’s another versatile guy who can give you a lot of minutes and play different spots,” Brandl said.

Brandl went to Kansas to recruit one shooter, but this one comes from his own family. Freshman cousin Jaxson Brandl is a 6-3 guard from Tribune, Kan., who has shot the ball well in preseason. Redshirt freshman Sacha Boizette (Tatineau, Quebec) is a 6-7 wing who sat out last season with an injury and is what Coach Brandl calls a straight “flame-thrower.” Sophomore Kolon Hager is a 6-5 wing from Wallace, who played in 16 games last season, scoring 21 points with 11 rebounds and five steals. Others looking for freshman minutes include guard Luke Justice (Baltimore, Md.), Isaiah Fox (Paxton), and Josh Guen, 6-8 wing from Albert Lea, Minn.

“So we have a lot of pieces to come in and give us minutes in these other roles, play defense and guys who can move around,” Brandl said.

In R.J. Hines Jr., 6-5 wing from Gainesville, Fla. Brandl said MCC has a player who redshirted at a division 1 program a year ago and has experience at a high level and can bring depth to the wing spot. At the five position, Brandon Kabuya Mpoyi (Paris, France) brings a little different look for defenses at with his 6-9, 250-pound frame.

“At the end of the day, we have to take care of the basketball and make shots,” said Brandl. “That was one of the reasons we brought in Ty Foster.” Foster is a 6-1 point-guard from the Bronx, N.Y. “He’s done a good job taking care of the basketball and being that leader on the defensive end.”

Foster made his mark in Region IX at Western Wyoming during the Covid-19-shortened 2021 season when he started 17 games for the Mustangs who went 16-6, losing to MCC in the Region IX Tournament semifinals. He averaged 7.5 points, 3.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game, his freshman year, did not play in 2021-22 and appeared in 21 games last season at Seward County CC.

While MCC may have as much experience and depth as any of the 14 teams in the region, Brandl knows it’s going to be another rumble in Region IX. Trinidad State has won Region IX the past two seasons.

He said Western Wyoming will return key players, everybody has some solid returners. Casper has a new coach in Tom Parks coming over from State College of Florida.

“Casper will be tough. NJC is always tough and they’re going to be big and physical, and you can’t rule out Trinidad State with their Princeton-stuff, they’re always hard to guard,” said Brandl. “It’s just a solid region from top to bottom and now we’re bringing back Gillette (after the school eliminated sports in 2020) for several years, and we’ve had the chance to watch them some in preseason. I think they’ll be a tough matchup,” Brandl said.

Since taking over the program in 2020, Brandl said he’s been trying to schedule more teams from the Region IX North. With a few early tournaments this season, MCC will play five of the seven teams in the north division in eight games.

“That’s by design. It’s always good to see them because when you get to the Region IX tournament – after the first-round play-in games – the next several rounds will be against teams in the north,” he said. “So we don’t’ want any surprises and want to know what we’re going to face.”

After MCC’s opening weekend games against Laramie County and Eastern Wyoming. MCC will face those two teams again Dec. 1 and 2 on the road. On Nov. 24-25 MCC will play Western Wyoming and Casper in the Casper tournament and play Central Wyoming and Western Wyoming again in the Region IX Crossover tournament in Sterling, Colo. Dec. 8-9. The only teams from the north MCC won’t play are Northwest College and Gillette.

Up-to-date information about MCC basketball including schedules, statistics, rosters and photos can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com.