Eagles striving for return to NAIA national tourney
The Northern New Mexico College mens basketball team is counting on a successful mixture of new and old faces to reach their goals in 2018-19.
The Eagles tipoff the season at 7 p.m., Oct. 25 when they host The University of the Southwest.
In last year’s campaign, Northern finished 15-15 overall and reached the semifinals of the Association of Independent Institution’s conference tournament, but fell to the eventual champion Stillman College from Alabama.
All sights are set to exceed last year’s finish and players and coaches alike are excited about the formation of this year’s roster.
“Our expectations are pretty high this year,” junior guard Bryce Simmons said. “We lost in the second game of the conference tournament last year to the champions who won it. Our biggest thing is to keep the pace going the whole game and teams won’t be able to run with us this year.”
Simmons returns as the team’s leading scorer from a season ago at 14.8 points per game. However, their second leading scorer in Walid Aly will not be back after returning to his hometown in Cairo, Egypt.
“Walid was a big part (last year), but we’re so athletic and our bench is so deep,” sophomore forward Tyrique Weaver said. “I feel like we can go farther in the tournament than we did last year. When we played Stillman last year, they were a little more athletic than us. I haven’t seen any of the other teams in the conference this year, but I definitely feel a conference championship is in our sights.”
The boost in depth is thanks to several junior college transfers at the guard position. Among the new players head coach Ryan Cordova is excited about is Makye Richard from Siracusa, La., who played for Baton Rouge Community College last season.
“He’s super special,” Cordova said. “I’m telling you, I haven’t seen a guard with that ability since we played Damian Lillard at Weber State. He’s a 6’2”, 6’3” point guard.”
“He’s one of our best defensive players and a rebound guard who’s like a little (Russell) Westbrook,” Weaver added.
The Eagles also bring in senior Seth Warfield from New Mexico Highlands University, Naquwan Solomon from Cochise College, Jose Rodriguez from Colorado Northwestern Junior College and Jeremy Anaya, who Cordova said was promoted from the junior varsity team. Returning are guards Gus Cuch, Estevan Martinez and Simmons.
“Those guys will be big impact players,” Cordova said of the transfers. “Especially Naquwan, Makye and Seth. Those guys will have a major impact right off the bat.”
The addition of Richard will allow Simmons to move back to his natural two-guard position after playing the point last year.
Frontcourt
Northern loses their leading rebounder Dominique Josephs to graduation, but have brought in Ibrahima Diagne via Orleans, France and Cal Poly Tech Pomona.
At 6 foot 8, the senior has the ability to play and guard multiple positions, but will start at center.
“If there’s one position I feel we’re really lacking, it’s the five (center),” Cordova said. “Ibrahima helps and is long and lanky and can take the ball coast-to-coast at almost 6’10”.”
Along with the versatility of Diagne, Cordova said he’ll have the luxury of sliding Weaver to center if needed.
“Ib’ is athletic,” Weaver said. “Even though he’s 6’10”, he can guard a 5’2” guy if he had to. We like to switch a bunch on defense, so that helps us, being as athletic as he is.”
Freshman Dawson Roberts will also provide depth in the frontcourt along with Lucas Chavez and possibly Javier Roper, who’s eligibility is still in question.
Cordova said the College is currently in an appeal-process with the NAIA and Roper’s return may be possible by January. Roper also transferred from Baton Rouge along with Richard.
Conference Expansion
The AII conference will expand from 15 to 17 teams this season, meaning the top-eight finishers in the regular season will make the conference tournament. Six teams advanced prior.
First and second-place finishers from the conference tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NAIA’s Division II National Championship tournament, as well as the winner of a third-place game, which is a new addition this season.
“I imagine us finishing in the top-four out of the 16 teams for sure,” Cordova said about the season’s outlook. “I know how deadly this team can be, but we still have to get better every day. I see this team getting 20 wins and getting in position to get to the national tournament again.”
Simmons believes the newly-required depth will help the Eagles reach their first National Championship tournament appearance — and only in the program’s history — since 2014.
“I feel like we’re pretty deep,” he said. “The number one thing they (new players) bring is hard work. That will definitely help us down the road in the end when we need everybody to step up. Everyone is just hungry and we got all the same goals.”
Northern women hope to stay injury free in 2018-19
Northern New Mexico womens head basketball coach Tony Gallegos knows his Lady Eagles can improve off last year’s 10-14 record — if they can avoid the injury bug.
It was the all-too-familiar story last season when multiple players continued to be sidelined.
“We had a potential four starters go down with injuries last year,” Gallegos said. “It was not a surprise (last year’s record). I think even being competitive all year was good for us. We played seven to eight freshman along with just two seniors.”
Sophomore Jade Hill, the team’s leading rebounder and second leading scorer from last year has already been declared out for this season with a knee injury requiring surgery.
Of the several players returning from their own injuries, none is more important than senior point guard Cheyenne Cordova, who played in just eight games last season before a biceps injury ended her season.
“Id say she’s the best guard in the conference,” Gallegos said. “It’s hard to recover when your quarterback is gone, like my 49ers right now, they’re struggling now without the quarterback and that’s kinda how we were last year.”
Northern has also added height to their frontcourt with the transfer of Cheyenne Livingston (5 foot 10), freshman Erykah Tallman (6 feet) and Raeanne Cordova (6 feet).
“We have a lot longer post forwards compared to the last couple of years where we have all kinda been the same height,” Cheyenne Cordova said. “The wingspan on some of these girls, I can’t get those passes in there like I used to and it helps and is good practice for when we go against teams that are going to be bigger than us.”
Sophomore Raeanne Cordova missed all of last season because of double hip surgery, but is set to return. She ranks sixth in New Mexico high school basketball history with 187 career blocks while at Valencia High School.
“It just helps to have her on the floor,” Gallegos said. “We’ll have to be smart with her and bring her back slowly. A couple hard minutes here and there and then rest will be a good start.”
Gallegos is entering his fifth year as the head coach and this will be the first season that all of the players on the team are his recruits.
He’s been able to add more depth to the backcourt to support Cheyenne Cordova, fellow senior Holly Woodbury (also returning from injury) and Leah DeAguero, who played a lot of minutes as a freshman when the injuries began to pile up.
“She’s an Española Valley kid and really under control,” Gallegos said about DeAguero. “She grew up a ton last year and had to step in when Cheyenne went out and did an excellent job for us and shot the ball well.”
Two transfers in Jazlynn Muñiz and Shamika Benally also join the Lady Eagles from Little Priest Tribal College in Nebraska.
Both players can score the ball, as Muñiz was Little Priest’s all-time leading scorer (974) and Benally was the second. Muñiz is known for her ability from beyond the arch — she made 173 three-pointers in two seasons and had a 64 percent effort (9-of-14) versus Southwestern Community College.
“She hasn’t quite found her range here yet,” Gallegos said about Muñiz. “Once that happens, she’s just an amazing athlete. I think we’ll be in the 30s (percent) as a team hitting threes as last year we had multiple games where we were like 9, 11, 8 percent — and that’s not going to win you any games.”
Gallegos said this year’s squad features better finishers at the basket, but shewing up the defense has been a priority, as the shell drill has become apart of the everyday practice plan.
“If you can’t score, you got to be able to stop someone from scoring,” he said.
Despite the return of many players and the addition of others, Northern still lost five of their top seven scorers from a year ago.
Kyanne Kowatch (led team with 10.93 points per game) has transferred, Ashley John has graduated, RanDee Toya is focusing on academics and is away from the team and Alexis Lovato has moved on from the sport.
Gallegos said (Oct. 17) he’s still unsure of the starting lineup and who will be those top scorers beyond Cheyenne Cordova, but said he has a group of eight players he sees being in his rotation.
He’s most happy about this year’s team being close — saying himself and the other coaches haven’t had to push the girls to do more things together to build camaraderie.
“This group as a whole is just a little tighter-knitted together than we’ve had in the past,” Gallegos said. “This year, they just kinda do things together without any effort. Katelyn Yuzos has come in as a freshman and been a great vocal leader and Cheyenne (Cordova), she’s pretty quiet as for a vocal leader, but she’s loud with her game.”
Cheyenne Cordova said she’s been looked upon as a leader since high school, but would like to see the team lead each other collectively.
“If I see something wrong I’ll talk to them about it and if they need work I’ll help them,” she said. “But I expect the same from them too. I don’t care if you’re a freshman or sophomore, if I do something wrong I want them to tell me too because this is a team.”
The womens program has never made an appearance in the NAIA national tournament and Gallegos said he continues to use that as motivation.
“I tell them we want to put a banner up there and be apart of the history,” he said. Our goal (in conference) is to be a top-two team because you determine your own fate.”
Like the men, the top-three teams from the Association of Independent Institution’s conference tournament will receive automatic bids to the national tournament.
The Lady Eagles begin their season at 5p.m., Thursday (10/25) before the men take the floor at 7 p.m.