The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team is putting in the final touches before they open the season on Friday at Alamosa, Colorado. The way practices and scrimmages are going, there is plenty of talent.
Head coach Billy Engel, who is beginning his second year, said there is plenty of optimism for this year.
"We have our good days, and we have our bad days, but this team is a hard-working team, a very competitive team, and a team that wants to be coached hard," Engel said. "We had a lot of improvement heading into our jamboree weekend and we had a lot of improvements that we made going into our Chadron State scrimmage. We still have some improvement to make before our live games here."
The Cougars will have a busy weekend beginning with the season opener Friday against the Adams State College junior varsity team. The Cougars will then stay in Alamosa on Saturday to scrimmage the Adams State varsity team. After that, they will have just Sunday off before they open the home campaign with a contest with Northwest College on Monday at 7:30 p.m. or after the women's season opener with Northwest College at 5:30 p.m.
"I think we will be ready to go. I think we will be excited and have a lot of energy," Engle said. "I think we will play with a lot of enthusiasm and we will be unselfish when we get down there, but we won't be a final product yet. We still will make a lot of mistakes and we will still have improvements to make after that Friday game."
The busy weekend of three games in four games and they will top it off with the home game on Monday. Engel said this team will put a fun product on the court for the home crowd on Monday.
"There is no place like it with Cougar Palace. Our home crowd is one of the best out there," he said. "I can't really wait to kick things off and go 1-0 on Friday. We can't look too far ahead forward but we will be choppin' at the bits a little bit to get back to play at the Palace and play in front of the home crowd."
This team has plenty of talent and they played well in the scrimmage against Chadron State, a team that is older and a team that doesn't make mistakes. The game was also played at Cougar Palace on Friday and for a scrimmage, there was a good crowd in the crowds watching the team.
"We played a team in Chadron that did not make a lot of mistakes," Engel said. "They were older and more mature players, and they did exactly what they were told to do and coached to do. They didn't make a lot of mistakes and we still have mistakes we still have to clean up."
WNCC will have an experienced line-up back with seven sophomores that are showing a lot of leadership in the locker room and on the court.
"They bring a lot of experience and those seven coming back have built a lot of camaraderie," Engel said. "they have done a good job in the locker room in helping build our culture. Three of those kids have played very big minutes in 20-plus minutes in a game last year. Not just practice experience and what they do in the locker room, but they a lot of game experience as well."
The Cougar men return three players that say plenty of action from a year ago. Those three include Carter Brown, a 6-foot-2 guard from Ogallala. Other returning starters back include Agwa Nywesh, a 6-3 guard from Austin, Minnesota, and Them Koeng, a 6-7 center from Grand Island.
Those three were among the leading scorers on a team that went 8-11 last spring in a COVID year that saw the team starting the last part of January and playing until the first week in April. Koang was the third-leading scorer on the team at 12.7 points followed by Nywesh at 11.2. Brown popped in 8.6 points. Brown led the team in 3-pointers made with 38, shooting 38.8 from beyond the arc.
The other four returners saw action and they will be counted on as well.
They included Jasiya DeOllos, a 5-11 guard from Scottsbluff; Michael Bradley, a 5-10 guard from Casper, Wyoming; Turumbil Zaki, a 6-5 forward, and Sayo Owolabi, a 6-4 forward, both from Denver.
The newcomers are also talented on the squad. They include Rodney Sawyer, a 6-5 guard/forward from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Dimitrije Nikolic, a 6-4 guard from Serbia; Biko Johnson, a 6-2 guard from Carson, California; Carl Thorpe, a 6-7 forward from Rabun Gap, Georgia; Chancelor Johnson, a 6-4 guard from Atlanta, Georgia; Tristan Lee, a 6-2 guard from Minneapolis, Minnesota; Valentin Romero, a 6-3 guard from Paris, France; and Mamadou Sow, a 6-5 forward from Parker, Colorado.
Engel said there is plenty of talent among the returners and the freshmen.
"[Koeng, Nywesh, and Brown] are three returners that played big minutes for us last year," Engel said. "Turumbil Zaki, another returner from Denver, looks to increase his role a little bit this year. We also have some talented freshmen who have shown some big gains so far this fall. Biko Johnson a guard from California, Rodney Sawyer, a big win from Pennsylvania, Carl Thorpe a big man from the Barbados, and we have a handful of other freshmen that are doing a great job. I would say those are three to keep an eye on right now."
Brown, who is in his second season with the Cougars from Ogallala, said this team is ready to get things going.
"I believe we are ready to get going," Brown said. "We, like a lot of teams, have things we need to continue to get better at each and every day, but I do think we're ready to start the season. More than anything, our guys are hungry to compete."
The big thing is a lot of these guys have a year of college under their belt and Brown said that experience at the college level goes a long way.
"Having that year of experience does a lot more for a player than you think," he said. "The game is coming a lot easier simply because us sophomores have played together for a year already. There is a lot of high-level talent on this basketball team," Brown said. "Every guy that steps on the floor is a guy you need to look out for."