With a quick huddle before the start of the game, players from the Allan Hancock College men’s basketball team get their bearings straight. The huddle breaks, and the players march toward the center of the court.
“Let’s go brothers,” said Hancock sophomore guard Lawrence Johnson as he gives a low five to one of his teammates.
The whistle blew and it was game on. Within the first four minutes of the Feb. 21 home game, Hancock took a commanding 22-6 lead. Forty minutes and two halves later, the Bulldogs routed Oxnard College with a crushing score of 102-50 in the final game of the season.
The statistics reflect a skilled team. Four Hancock players each scored more than 18 points. Freshman guard Matt Willkomm scored a career-high of 26 points, made eight out of his 10 shots, sunk two out of three shots from the three-point range, and made nine free throws. Sophomores Shamel Williams and Kadeem Minor each recorded double-doubles. Andre Miller, a sophomore guard, made eight steals—a career high. As a team, the Bulldogs made 59 percent of the shots they put up.
The win earned the team a share of the Western State Conference title—their first since 2011—tying three ways between Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo and Pierce College in Los Angeles. The win was hard earned given the rough start of the Bulldogs’ season and the loss of two players in January. It turned out to be a bittersweet victory for the Bulldogs, though, because the team didn’t advance to the postseason despite winning a conference title.
Why didn’t Hancock get a playoff berth?
After the 2003 season, the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) reduced the number of basketball teams to make playoffs from 32 to 20 for each the northern and the southern regional tournaments. The purpose was to cut costs, according to Jason Boggs, the assistant director of sports information and communication for the CCCAA.
“When we’ve done these cuts, it’s always for cost containment reasons,” Boggs said.
The CCCAA has a policy for all sports called the “40-15-10 rule,” Boggs said, and allows no more than 40 percent of teams to enter into the postseason and no more than 10 percent into the state championship. The association was going through a cost-cutting period around the same time as the reduction, and Boggs believes this rule may have had something to do with the cuts, which have been in place since 2003.
“I feel that this may have played a part in not allowing 32 Southern California men’s teams to be involved in postseason play as well,” Boggs wrote in an email to the Sun, although he was not able to officially confirm when the rule was established.
To break the three-way tie, the Western State Conference relied on nine factors that determine how a team is ranked, including which team has a better conference record, or non-conference record, among others. Even though Hancock played against Cuesta and Pierce twice during the regular season, taking one win and and one loss against each team, Cuesta and Pierce finished the season with better conference and overall records. It turns out that Hancock ranked No. 21, falling one spot short of making the postseason.
“Even though we had a tie and share of the title, we actually went in as a third-place team,” said Kim Ensing, Hancock’s athletic director.
Men’s basketball coach Tyson Aye said he was “obviously disappointed,” but the season was not a total loss. The team started with a 1-4 record and then began winning consecutive games. Aye said they played unselfishly and paid attention to detail in their offensive sets.
“We were playing for each other and playing hard,” Aye said.
Then in January, the team suffered a setback when it lost two players, Ali Mohammed and Lavell White, who were arrested and charged in connection with the murder of former Hancock student Terence Richardson. They were removed from the roster, which left the team only seven eligible players. The team pressed on. Freshman guard Willkomm said the negativity never deterred the team from winning and is thankful for what they accomplished. The Bulldogs finished with an overall record of 14-12.
“We came into the gym together, and that was our happy place and sanctuary to get our mind off things,” Willkomm said. “That’s how we approached it. Because being in the gym, we have nothing to worry about.”
Johnson, Williams, Minor, and Miller are leaving Hancock after this year. Playoffs or not, the season turned out to be a win for the team. Minor was selected as the co-MVP for the conference. Three players—Johnson, Miller, and Willkomm—made First Team All-Conference, which is pretty rare for one team, Aye said.
“That’s a testament of the respect that they received from the coaches in our conference,” Aye said.
Contact Staff Writer David Minsky at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2015.