Basketball season is right around the corner, and Bakersfield College’s men’s basketball team is looking for big production from a big freshmen class this year.
BC has 14 freshmen on the team with just six returning sophomores. Despite this, the team’s head coach Rich Hughes thinks that all his players will contribute to help the team win.
“I think that all the new guys are going to bring their own special talent that will help the team, but it will just be about putting the pieces together,” Hughes said.
Hughes said that before cuts he had over 40 players and had to cut some returning players because of the talented freshmen class.
“It was not easy to make cuts this year, but that’s part of the job,” he said.
“We had a lot of talent coming in, so some guys from last year got cut because they got beat out by the new guys.”
He added that the team has improved on some areas that cost success them last year.
“I think we have an inside presence and we’re a good perimeter shooting team that’s something we didn’t really have last year,” he said. “I think when you have both good perimeter play and an inside presence you have a good chance to win because when you look back at the years we won we had both.”
Just some of the things that Hughes said the team still needs to address is shot selection and not turning the ball over as much.
“It will take some time for us to put all the pieces together, so the first couple tournaments will show us what we need to work on as a team,” he said.
With their first tournament approaching, which will be held Nov. 11-13 at Cuesta College, Hughes still hasn’t decided on his starting five.