The Bakersfield College men’s basketball team is set to open the season on an eight-week road trip, playing in five tournaments and three games throughout the central and southern region of the state.
The Renegades first home game doesn’t come until Jan. 8, when they face off against West L.A. Head coach Rich Hughes believes the road challenge will only make his team better down the stretch of the season.
“The most important thing is you want to win early, yes, to gain confidence – but more importantly, you want to win late, and we didn’t win late last year,” said Hughes. “If we hit a few road bumps early and it helps us to grow as a team, and that helps us grow toward the end of the year so that we can make another run at a state championship, then maybe that’s what has to happen for us.”
The Renegades start off the season at the Ventura tournament on Nov. 11-13 and follow that up against rivals Fresno City at the Fresno City tournament on Nov. 19-21.
Hughes mentioned how the team has the talent to win both tournaments, but, in his eyes, the Renegades lack the consistency needed to be victorious. A reason Hughes feels the team is inconsistent is the fact that they are a young team and only return three players from last year’s team.
Guards Stevie Howard and Bart Dandridge along with forward Cooper Damron are the returners.
“I think always every year you’re going to rely on your sophomores. Those three guys played minutes for us last year, some started off and on, we’re going to not only need their experience, but their leadership to lead the freshman,” said Hughes. “Basketball is like life; it doesn’t always go the way you want it to, but it’s how you respond to the adversity. And they’ve been through it, so them leading the freshman through ‘the wall’ will be really key.”
Normally, after the first two away tournaments, BC hosts a Thanksgiving tournament the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, but due to budget cuts and other lack of funding issues, Hughes and staff decided to cut the tournament and add another tournament at Antelope Valley College in early December.
Hughes talked about how he feels defending, rebounding and creating offense will enable the Renegades to win, not only in the early season tournaments, but also throughout the season.
“We have to be able to defend. We have to stop people from getting easy shots against us,” said Hughes. “When you press, sometimes you give some easy ones up, but this years team, we have to be a little bit better defensively than we have been in the past, as far as allowing layups. We can’t allow layups.
“We’re a very small team, so rebounding is going to come from being fundamental and boxing out. We can’t give up second shot attempts,” he said. “We have to get the ball up the floor and create offense with our fast break and not necessarily taking bad shots, but trying to get numbers. Five-on-three instead of five-on-five, and I think this team has the speed to beat people down the floor.”
Hughes is entering his sixth season as head coach of the Renegades, and is assisted by Aaron Chavez, the associate head coach who has been at BC since Hughes has been the head coach.
Together, they have had five 20-win seasons, five playoff appearances and one conference title. The Renegades had a rough outing in last season’s playoffs, losing to Southwestern College and Hughes hopes to make a strong push in conference.
“We’ve been at the top and in first or second in conference the last five years, with Citrus being at the top the past couple years, but I always think we have a chance to win it. We don’t have a lot of returners, but yet, a lot of the other teams don’t either,” said Hughes. “Citrus has a couple returners back too, so we’re hoping to be at the top again and hopefully steal a conference championship out of it this year.”
Last year the Renegades went 23-6 overall, and 9-3 in the Western State Conference and Hughes talked about the wins the team had to have to be the team they want to be.
“We always have our natural rivals. Fresno is in four of the tournaments we’re in, and we split with them last year, went 1-1, and they’re always going to be a rival. We both have been close to the top in state rankings. When we get into league, obviously Citrus has had some very good luck against us,” said Hughes. “We’ve come up on the short end of the stick on a couple of real close games in the last two years, so those two teams, like us are always battling to be one of the better teams in the state, and those are the type of teams that you have to beat to prepare for playoffs.”
Of the 15 active players on the roster, six are from Illinois. Only five players are from the greater Bakersfield area, with three being from in town. The Renegades have no listed center, and two players that are six-foot-six, but the rest are all guards.
The Renegades lost valuable players like forward Bobby Fisher, and guards Skyler Vaden, E.J. Kirby and Ricky Wofford, but Hughes is confident and hopeful for this season.