Parallels can be drawn between this season’s Barton Community College Cougars and last year’s.
The Cougars won their first 14 games in 2011 in being ranked No. 7 in the National Junior College Athletics Association Division-I Top 25 poll, entering Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division play in January.
Fast forward to today. The Cougars are ranked No. 11 in the latest poll, moving up from No. 15, after getting off to a 10-0 start with two games remaining before the semester break. Barton travels to Highland this weekend, playing games on Friday and Saturday at the Scotties Classic.
“There are some scary parallels,” Barton head coach Craig Fletchall said. “Our guys didn’t come back from break last year very focused or very well-conditioned because we dropped our first two conference games.
“We definitely want to finish on a similar note as last year this weekend in our last games of the semester and going into break with an unblemished record (at 12-0), but three weeks is a long time off and it’s imperative that our guys have a ball in their hands during that time.”
While Fletchall, who turned 50 on Tuesday, says he doesn’t want a repeat performance of starting out the conference season 0-2, it definitely has gone the other way for the Cougars during seasons gone by.
During the 2006-07 campaign, the Cougars rode a 14-0 mark into the holidays and continued their assault of Jayhawk West foes in January, winning seven of their first eight games and capturing the West title in finishing the regular season 21-1. Barton lost to Coffeyville in the Region VI finals that season.
The Cougars are coming off a pair of victories last weekend during the Best Western Angus Inn/Barton Booster Club Thanksgiving Basketball Classic at Kirkman Activity Center.
“I thought this past weekend was a good test for us,” Fletchall said of the Cougars drubbing Neosho County 89-62 last Friday night and outlasting Hill (Texas) College 86-75 on Saturday night. “It’s a tough time of the year because the out-of-state guys, in particular, have been away from home for four months and they want to go home.
“We have one week to finish up and we have to play well this weekend. Hopefully we can move up into the top 10.”
On Friday, Barton takes on North Central Missouri at 3 p.m. and then meets the Midland University junior varsity at 2 on Saturday.