Don’t know if you caught my Jayhawk Conference previews, but in case you didn’t … here’s my men’s story on Garden City Community College coach Kris Baumann, and here’s my women’s story on Hutch shooting guard Heather Robben.
Impressions? Both came off well. Of course, if you’re ending up as our season preview story it usually means you’ve had some type of success. And with both subjects, they’re coming off Region VI titles … you get the point. And as for Baumann’s knickname, Bucket? He’s still not saying how he got it. Just the generic “my teammates and coaches gave it to me” line. Aside from that, I was happy with the story.
Friends redshirt freshman center Zak Vanlooy — a 7-footer from Michigan — is the subject of Tuesday’s KCAC men’s preview and UMKC transfer Jessica Halsig, who should be the man for Friends this year — is the women’s subject. Newman on Thursday.
Here’s this: Washburn just threw up an 82-spot on New Mexico Highlands tonight in Topeka. That’s 82 points. That’s a 61-7 halftime lead. That’s a school-record for points. Sophomore quarterback Dane Simoneau only played the first half, but he made good use of his time with four touchdown passes and 127 yards passing.
Oh, and Zach Watkins had five more tackles.
NO. 22 GARDEN CITY UPSET
Here was a big WOW that came across my desk a couple of hours ago — No. 22 Garden City Community College upset by Air Force Prep 20-13 out in Colorado Springs. Were the Busters thinking ahead to Cessna and Butler? Probably. On a side note, while I was covering the Busters for the GC Telegram back in the day (actually just a couple of years ago) I got super duper sick headed out to Colorado Springs to cover a GCCC-AFP football game. It’s a three hour drive from Garden City to Colorado Springs and my plan was just to head another hour up the road after the game to hang out with family. I got about two hours in and after having to pull over at least 10 times … I finally checked into a hotel room, called my editor and told him it wasn’t happening, called my Grandma B to tell her I wasn’t coming … and then had about 18 hours of fever dreams and tiny sips of Gatorade, in which I thought I hallucinated a K-State game against Colorado playing on the TV. Not pleasant. But the Busters won that day. Trust me, this one isn’t going to play very well in the WK.
Tomorrow, look for scores updates from the MIAA and Jayhawk as I get them. All … night … long.
So it’s 2003 and there’s this kid, Vincent Banks, and he’s really good at basketball. Like he’s-one-of-the-best-high-school-players-in-the-country good. He’s from Atlanta, so there’s no shortage of exposure. He decides to go to Miami, but doesn’t qualify academically. So he goes to prep school for a year then heads to Cincinnati to play for Bob Huggins. He ends up a partial qualifier for the Bearcats and has to sit out a year and then, finally, when he’s going to be the focus of Cincy’s offense … he decides to leave school for personal reasons, leaving Huggy Bear and Cincy and the whole lot of them feeling foolish for going to bat for him. And then he gets on a plane from Sydney to LA and nobody sees him for almost six months.
A couple of small college moves around the state that could have big impacts next season, with a pair of 6-foot-7 forwards finding their college homes.
Region VI champ Garden City Community College made a big splash — quite literally — by signing 6-foot-7, 240-pound Ronald Cobb out of Wichita Southeast. Cobb is a nice player who seemed to be playing his best basketball at the end of the year in the Buffs’ run to a Class 6A runner-up finish and averaged 8.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He put together a nice string of double-doubles at th eend of the year and showed that he’s got a great upside. GCCC coach Kris Baumann thinks Cobb can develop into a mid-major Division I player.
“He’s not an above the rim guy, but he’s got a high basketball IQ,” Baumann told me Sunday night. “We feel like he’s a great addition.”
Goddard’s Ryan Chippeaux (10.7 points, 5.7 rebounds) picked Tabor — which also beat out Garden City, amongst others. He’s another player with a lot of upside — don’t think that he won’t be one of the top players in the KCAC someday. 6-foot-7 and can run. That’s all I’m saying.
Garden City Community College’s epic postseason run ended Thursday night with a loss to Connors State in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Tournament.
The Broncbusters have put on a heck of a show, and because of my fondness for this team … I’m going to honor them with the first annual Sunflower Slate Johnny Drama Award.
Quick question: If Johnny Be Good – aka Bryce Brown — picks Kansas State on Monday, would that make him more popular than the governor? Just a question … talk amongst yourselves.
Ok, back on topic.
Kansas is Ground Zero for NJCAA national tournaments this week, with the men at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson and the women at Salina’s Bicentennial Center. Your Region VI teams — Garden City for the men and Hutchinson for the women — don’t have a lot of name recognition but both have solid resumes. I talked to both coaches on Sunday night, Garden City’s Kris Baumann and Hutchinson’s John Ontjes, along with first-team all-Jayhawk West pick Heather Robben, a Maize H.S. product.
