Taking the next step
Sophomore-heavy AWC striving to reach national tournament after falling short last year
The Arizona Western men’s basketball team has improved its record each of the past three seasons, culminating in the team’s first Region I Championship since 2012 and to go along with being co-champions of the conference for the regular season.
A two-year college program rarely gets to have a season like the Matadors did last year and return virtually the entire roster. AWC ended its season at home in a biting 92-89 defeat against the College of Southern Idaho in the District I Championship when Dajuan Beard — who had his best game of the season that night, coming off the bench to score 22 points — narrowly missed a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
A win would have sent the Matadors to the NJCAA National Tournament
for the first time since 2006. But Beard is back, as are seven of AWC’s eight leading scorers in 2016-17. The Matadors appear poised for another crack at getting to the national stage.
“The expectations last year were kind of unknown because we had a lot of new players,” AWC coach Charles Harral said. “The fact that we won the conference and then the region tournament was something we didn’t know was going to happen, and we were happy we did that. I feel like this year, we want to take it a step further and make the national tournament.”
The Matadors, who are ranked No. 22 in the NJCAA’s preseason poll, begin the new season tonight at home against Imperial Valley at 7:30 p.m.
The one departed sophomore from last year’s team is Torin Webb, a guard who was the team’s leading scorer at 15.3 points per game. Five sophomores will start: Beard, Brandon McGhee and Daryl Adams at guard, and Lamont Traylor and Andre Jones at forward.
It is always easy to pencil in the best team on paper with an abundance of returning starters, but Harral knows not to underrate the fact that their Arizona Community College Athletic Conference opponents will not overlook the Matadors this year.
“How they handle this year with being the team to beat, versus last year kind of being the new group, will lie on their shoulders,” Harral said.
Traylor and Jones made an impact from the jump, while Adams (14.7 points per game in final 14 games) played his way into a bigger role midway through the year
and Beard peaked at the end.
The forward combo offers versatility. Traylor is a physical post player, who had per-game averages of 11.1 points and a teambest seven rebounds. His 64.2 field goal percentage was tied for 21st-best in the nation. Jones (13.5 points, 5.8 rebounds) is a stretchfour type.
Harral said Andre Allen, Marvin Mapaga, Alfonso Plummer and TJ Smith will likely be the four players in the rotation off the bench.
Regarding Smith, a 2015 Cibola graduate, Harral said, “He’s probably one of our better, if not our best, on-ball defensive player.”
Following tonight’s seasonopener, the Matadors will have an early gauge on their team starting this weekend. They play No. 3 South Plains and Howard at the Texan Classic in Levelland, Texas. And on Nov. 25, they will have a chance to claim some retribution from last year’s heartbreaker when they play at No. 10 Southern Idaho.
“People ask me if I like the schedule; basically, I created the schedule so I can’t be disappointed or not disappointed about it,” Harral said. “I think it’s what’s best. I think you only get better playing against good teams. If you play average opponents, you really don’t improve.”