The upcoming season for the Scottsdale Community College men’s basketball team is set to start on Saturday, Oct. 7.
Division Champions last season, the Artichokes fell short to #6 Orange County in the first round of the NJCAA DII National tournament, but the team is looking to finish what they started by bringing home the hardware this year.
First-year head coach Curtis Millage has some big shoes to fill after his predecessor raised the team up from obscurity to two consecutive National tournament appearances.
Millage, who played professionally overseas after playing for L.A. Southwest Junior College and Arizona State, believes that he can lead this team in the right direction.
“It’s a bonding, once you get everybody on the same page and buy in to your system, anything is possible,” Millage said.
Millage told Northeast Valley News about his goals for this season.
“Just looking for a group of guys to compete. Be disciplined—in the classroom and on the court, and just have fun and play together,” Millage said.
With a new head coach, often come new players, and Jayson Hunt is one of them. Similar to Millage, he is ready to win.
Hunt is a center position player who transferred from Phoenix College.
“I know that we win! We are an environment that loves to win,” Hunt said.
There are some familiar faces as well, returning guard Jake Smith, helped lead the squad to the National tournament last year.
He’s excited about the new coaching change.
“I’m looking forward to how he motivates the guys. His sets that he runs and how he organizes the team overall,” Smith said.
Only time will tell if Millage can duplicate the success that the team has enjoyed over the last couple of seasons. Both new and returning players seem to look forward to the style of play that Millage displays. There will no doubt be plenty of hurdles to leap, and the team will likely need to look to returning players like Smith to keep them on the road to a championship.
The artichokes first chance to see how they play together will be at the ACCAC Jamboree at Phoenix College on Saturday. Scottsdale will scrimmage against South Mountain in the south gym at 10:00 a.m. and tip off against Cochise in the north gym at 1:00 p.m.
