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Championship Ring Ceremony (7-30-2007)
It was a year to remember for the nationally-ranked Itawamba Community College men’s basketball program. There were plenty of highlights for the Indians that finished in the top ten at the National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.
This (Monday) afternoon, most of the 12 man squad was back on the Fulton Campus to receive their Elite Eight/Region 23 Championship/North Division Championship rings.
“It’s why we compete on this level,” said two-year Indians starter Tim Green, who along with teammate Larricus Brown, will play at the University of Missouri-St. Louis this upcoming season.
“Rings are it,” said another two-year starter Justin Duke of New Albany. “You even hear the pro’s talk about winning rings are more important than the money.”
14th-ranked (ranking in the final regular season NJCAA poll) ICC chalked up the biggest win in school history in a Sweet Sixteen showdown against fourth-ranked Northeastern JC (CO) at the NJCAA Tournament. That was the highest ranked school that the men’s program had ever knocked off and earned Itawamba a spot in the Elite Eight.
Cooper’s club finished the year at 27-6, which is his best mark in nine years at Itawamba, after losing to number 11 Coffeyville (KS) and Seminole State (OK). All three of the schools that ICC faced in “Hutch” went on to win three games at the national tourney and each placed in the top seven in the nation.
“Today might not be as big a deal to some of these guys right now as it will down the road,” said Cooper, whose squad also captured the north division title with an 11-1 mark and also the Region 23 crown by bettering the south division regular season champs from Gulf Coast, 71-58. “These kind of seasons don’t come around all the time and these rings will be a reminder of a lifetime on what we accomplished this past season.”
Itawamba loses eight key sophomores from this past year’s squad that also grabbed the school’s highest ranking ever with a number nine position in the NJCAA poll in the first week of December.
Six of those eight have signed with four-year schools including two today (Monday) with Mississippi College. Both guards Mike Penson and Greg Smith of Pontotoc inked with the Clinton based school.
Last November in the early signing period, Dell Coleman of Oxford signed with Jacksonville State and New Albany’s Duke with Delta State. Green and Brown both heading to UM-St. Louis rounds out the list of Indians that signed with four-year institutions.
