Barton: 2023-24 NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Champions

 HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KWCH) - The Barton Cougars were the team to beat in junior college basketball for nearly the entire 2023-24 season. The Cougars brought a 35-1 record into Saturday’s NJCAA Division I National Championship game with a trophy to bring back to Great Bend on their mind.

Their opponent, Triton College held an early first half lead before a three-point attack gave Barton a 23-21 advantage. Barton went on to the locker rooms with a 46-39 lead at halftime.

Down the stretch Triton again made Cougar fans sweat, closing the deficit down to single digits in the final minutes, but it was Barton that prevailed 88-73. After falling in their lone national championship appearance 25 years ago, Saturday marked Barton’s first national championship in program history.

“It’s special. We wanted to be the first team to bring home the trophy,” said Barton guard Ring Malith. “I’m happy we did it, we had a great season.”

“You saw it here today, there was a lot of people here,” said third year head coach Jeremy Coombs. “We started to see that in our home games a lot this year. The place was packed, it was a great environment for the guys to play in. We’re happy to bring it back to Great Bend but we’re really excited for our team just because they worked so hard for it.”

The one-seeded Cougars dominated their way through the national tournament in Hutchinson Sports Arena, defeating their tournament opponents by a combined 59 points in four matchups as they were determined for the outcome they saw Saturday.

“Since the preseason it was our goal,” Tournament MVP Lajae Jones said. “Win the conference, region, and the national championship.”

San Berdoo...why do you fail? <_<#

I have heard of Cal State San Bernardino at least once or twice in my life. And that was when I was looking for the right place for me to get a college education after I was done with Long Beach City College. At San Bernardino, their athletic teams are called the Coyotes. They were established only recently, and they are younger than the beach by a few decades, so their enrollment is small, Division-II quality. As of this writing, they have never won a national championship in anything, but their men’s basketball team was poised to be the first from San Bernardino to bring home their first piece of real hardware.

Their head coach was Jeff Oliver, a Cal Poly grad who worked with then-head coach Larry Reynolds as an assistant before ascending to his current role. They had some good payback, defeating Humboldt State to get to the Elite Eight in Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield is home to the YMCA that welcomed basketball to the world via one James Naismith. Yesterday, they thumped Wingate by nearly 30 points, also scoring 100 in the process. Today they face the Bulldogs of Barton College. This school is small, with an enrollment of barely over 1,000. How this team is even Division II is beyond me. My high school has higher enrollment than this.

The kicker is that they are Division II’s “Beasts from the East,” having been seeded first in the East Regional, and winning it as well. If San Bernardino wins this game, they take on either Central Missouri or Winona State for all the marbles.

Unfortunately, they didn’t. They lost 80-79 to the Bulldogs. Which means: they fail basketball. Which also means: Who fucking cares?

Nice way to fail, Coyotes. Enjoy not getting a national championship in any sport for the next 100 years.