First semester is close to being closed

Well, talk about an interesting first half of the season for your DCB Lumberjacks Men's Basketball team. We are 11-3 right now, with one game remaining in the semester. Tonight we played Jamestown JV for the second time this season. We won 98-82, Abdul-Hakim Fofana had 14 points and 17 rebounds, Terrell Alfred continued his hot shooting with 27 points, Youssouf Traore stepped up off the bench and gave us 16 points and 11 rebounds (his best game of the year, definitely looking for him to step up more in the second half of the season), Guillermo Rodriguez also continued his hot shooting, adding 18 points, and BIRTHDAY BOY Deylon Hunt (freshly 21 years old today) had 12 points and 6 rebounds. We have had a good first half of the season so far, Coach Hollowell and myself are very pleased with what we have been able to do. The guy's have responded to us, and have done everything that we have asked of them on and off of the court. It's nice to have a group of guy's that do what you ask of them, and do it to the best of their abilities. We have been kind of spoiled with our first year and having such a great group of guy's. That's not saying we haven't had any issues, but we haven't had any issues to cause any strain or dilemma to the overall team. Guy's have stepped up when they've been called upon, and done a tremendous job. Like I said, basketball wise, but just not basketball, these guy's have been a blast to be around. Each day is a new experience and is part of the process, but these really guys have been a joy to coach and be around, which has made coaching them, that much better! They make myself and coach Hollowell look pretty good on and off of the court and we can't thank them enough for that. We play Dakota County tomorrow at 4pm in NDSCS Baymont Inn Classic, hoping to pull off another W and end the semester 12-3. Wish us luck, it will be a tough test, but one that we are looking forward too.

First half breakdown
     
   Team Stats

100 PPG (5th in Nation)
49.5% FG% (14th in Nation)
9.2 3PM (16th in Nation)
43 RPG (25th in Nation)
23 APG (4th in Nation)
12 SPG (12th in Nation)

Individual Stats

Terrell Alfred - 19.8 PPG  50% FG  42% 3P  82% FT   3RPG  3APG

DeTario Scott - 15PPG  8APG  4RPG  3SPG

Tommy Collinjs - 14PPG  5RPG  2SPG  1 BPG

Abdul-Hakim Fofana -  14PPG  10RPG  1 BPG  1 SPG

Guillermo Rodriguez - 8 PPG  3RPG

Cedric Crutchfield - 7PPG  5RPG

Tashawn Berry - 5PPG  3RPG

Steven Freeman - 5PPG 40% 3P

Youssouf Traore - 5PPG  5RPG

Deylon Hunt - 5PPG  3APG

Tyrone Jenkins - 4PPG 3APG

Josh Smith - 2PPG 2 APG

Hunter Brandvold - 1PPG  1RPG



MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A HAPPY LUMBERJACK NEW YEAR!! In case I forget to stay up on this blog, I apologize for being so hit or miss with the blogs. I'll be better second semester!

Cobblestone Sweep

Lumberjacks were able to pull off a sweep this past weekend for the Cobblestone classic. We now stand at 7-1 overall, and 5-0 at home, it's always nice to win in front of the home crowd. This week we head to Ellendale. ND to play Trinity Bible College on Tuesday November 22nd, and then we leave Thanksgiving Morning for a Thanksgiving Tournament in Sheridan, WY.

We will eat at the golden corral for our thanksgiving lunch and then follow that up with a thanksgiving dinner at Perkins! It may not be what most of our guys are used to on thanksgiving but it's better then nothing. We will play two D1 NJCCA teams; Sheridan, and NW Wyoming. It will be a good test to see what improvements we have made from our last game against a D1 opponent (Gillette). Hopefully we have made strides in the right direction.


This past weekend, Tommy Collins and Abdul Hakim Fofana both played extremely well. Steven Freeman was able to come off the bench Saturday night and give us a nice spark. The  guys overall as an entire team played well. We still have a lot of improvements to make on the defensive end but the guys are starting to see that we aren't just harpening on them about it for no reason. So we are hopefully that things start changing in the direction we would like it to go. We are staying positive and trusting the process and believing in the everyday grind of the season.

We would like to thank the community, and the college for all of their support throughout this first part of the season! We hope to continue to give you something to be proud of and to talk positively about.

Cobblestone Classic is set to tip off this weekend

Good Morning,


We have the Cobblestone Classic starting today and going to Sunday. We were suppose to be playing tonight at 8 against presentation college but they were unable to make it tonight due to weather conditions. So they will becoming Saturday and will play Saturday and then play us Sunday at 11 AM. The game time for Sunday is much earlier than normal, as there is a Father-Daughter dance at the college that night! So if you are in need of something to do this Sunday, then come on over to the Woodshed and check out the game and then come back for the Father-Daughter dance. It should be a fun and exciting weekend here at the college.

Saturday we will play Red River College from Canada at 6 PM. Last year I believe we split with them; going 1-1. It should be an intense and exciting game.

We as a team have been battling some issues and dealing with minor injuries here as of late. This past weekend we went to Devils Lake to take part in the Holiday Inn Classic. We played Candeska College and Gillette College. We split there, bringing our record to 5-1. We are trying to get better at one thing every day right now. As long as we keep improving, then things should go fairly well for us this year, I believe.

 We held our first lil jacks basketball camp this past Sunday, we had a great turn out too; 48 kids. The kids had a great time, as well as all of us. The guy's seemed to really enjoy being around them and the kid's seemed to really enjoy spending some time with the guy's.


it's crazy that the first of the of season is almost over, just a few weeks left this semester. It's been an interesting and fun start to the season, and we are hoping to continue the success we have had early on, to stay with us till the end of the season.

Jack boys start out 4-0 - score a combined 467 points

We've started the season off on a decent note (4-0). In the four games we have scored a combined 467 points in 4 games... but on the other side of the ball we have given up close to 350 points. So we still have a lot of work to do. Overall though, I am really happy with the group of guys we have. Everyone brings something different to us as a group, and it seems to mesh very well. At times we seem to play selfishly and make some idiotic plays, but we are all very young and still learning. All I can hope for and ask for is that we get better and improve every time we step on the court. If we keep doing that, then we should be playing our best basketball towards the end of the year, when things really matter. It's nice to get off to such a good start in my first season, but we can't develop a false sense of how good we are or how bad we are, we have to keep in mind to just continue to improve every time we take the court.

A little breakdown on some of our student athlete's through these first 4 games...

Abdul-Hakim Fofana has been a monster for us. He averaging close to 20PPG 14 RPG 3 SPG and 2 blocks

Tommy Collins (2 sport college athlete - football) has been the perfect spark plug off of the bench for us. He is averaging close to 13PPG 7RPG and dunking on opponents on a nightly basis.

Detario Scott - has been a good floor general for us - he is averaging close to 15 PPG 9APG 5RPG and 3 SPG, he is known as Mr. Triple Double back home and he's been close twice this year so far.

Cedric (Cjay) Miles - our other floor general - he has stepped up his scoring the last two games with games of 31 and 21 which has brought his average up to around 18PPG 7 APG 4 RPG 4 SPG

Terrell Alfred - is a deadly shooter from deep - he has been stretching the floor tremendously for us. He is averaging 23 PPG 5 RPG and averages around 5 three's a game; shooting close to 50% from 3

We are coming together better, but it's a long year and there will be bumps along the way, we just have to continue to move forward at a steady pace. I tell the guy's all the time that we need be comfortable with being uncomfortable. There's going to come a time when we will be with our backs against the wall and we will need to show resiliency and fight to withstand the adversity.

Overall - happy with our guys and our start, but must continue to get better!

We appreciate the support we have been given from the students and faculty/staff at DCB and along with the community. We hope you enjoy watching us and we hope to continue seeing you out at the woodshed!!

See you next week back in the woodshed!!

First W of the year - Kevin Thom's Classic this weekend

We played TMCC at Belcourt this past Tuesday. We won the game 107-92. It was nice to open the year off with a win, but we have a lot of improving to do throughout the year. We had some really nice performances from a few of our student athlete's (DeTario Scott 15 points, 11 Ast, 7 Rebs, 5 Steals - Abdul-Hakim Fofana had 27 points - 15 rebounds - 4 blocks - Terrell Alfred had 24 Points - hitting 6 3's and scoring 22 points in the second half).  We welcomed a new student athlete onto our team as well - Tommy Collins. Tommy played for the football team this year. Tommy made an a huge impact right away - entering into the game and dunking on one of TMCC right off of the bat and giving us a big boost of energy. We still have a lot of improving to do, but it's nice to get the first W out of the way.

This weekend is the Kevin Thom's Classic - We will be playing at 8 on Saturday against Providence College - and then Sunday at 6 against Jamestown JV. So if you have nothing else to do and want to catch some basketball - we will have plenty of games going on. Games start at 2 PM Saturday and 12PM on Sunday.

We look forward to seeing everyone out there!

Season Begins TONIGHT!

Good morning,

The season gets underway tonight in Belcourt against Turtle Mountain Community College. We have had an interesting preseason, but glad it is over and ready to start the season off right. We all have learned a lot about ourselves from the top to the bottom - starting with myself.  We have a really good group of student-athletes on the team and they're ready to go tonight! We are hoping to start the year off on a good note and carry it over to this weekend for our home opener Saturday. 

GO JACKS!!

PRACTICE #1 Starts FRIDAY AT MIDNIGHT

The season is close to kicking off! We finished our pre-season strength & conditioning yesterday morning. The guys have been going 5:30AM - 7:30 AM for the last 3 and a half weeks. I am sure they are very pleased with being done with this part of the process. They will really like me more once I remind them that we will have 6 AM weights 2-3 days out of the week for the rest of the year.

 We have been doing a few community service projects the last few weeks and have more coming. We went out to Sheppard Hill and helped split logs and stack them for a few hours. The guy's were in shocked when they saw all of the logs stacked up. I am sure a lot of them had never been in a situation like that before. They seemed to enjoy themselves though with the work. We also went down to Souris one evening and helped rake leaves out of the bushes in the park in Souris. 

Next week we are teaming up with DCB baseball and we will be going over to the grade schools and helping out with the after school program every first and third Monday of each month. The guy's enjoy being around and playing with the kids. 

We also will be hosting a basketball clinic/camp 2 Sundays out of every month starting in November. We had sent out a form with no price or registration out to see if there would be any interest, now that we have seen an interest, we have sent out new forms with the price and registration form on it. The cost will be $75 for all 10 sessions or $10 a session. 

We have a very good group of student athlete's this year. They have been working very hard and for the most part have been doing everything we have asked of them. Of course we have had our minor hiccups, but nothing out of the ordinary for a new freshmen. We only have a sophomores on the team this year, so we are extremely young, and will make our mistakes, but we will fight to make up for any that we make. 


We are preparing ourselves to be able to put the best possible product out on the court for everyone's enjoyment. We feel we have the type of student athlete's that can make a huge impact on the court and also in the classroom.
 

Introduction

Hello everyone!

        I am Coach Lemon. I am the new Men's Basketball Head Coach at DCB. This will be the start of my third year here at Dakota College. I have been an Assistant Coach on both Basketball and Football teams here, an admission counselor, retention, housing, and now I am the head men's basketball coach along with serving as the academic coordinator for our TRiO program here on campus.

       A little background information on myself and the coaches on staff. I am 26 years old and originally from Jacksonville, Illinois. I attended Routt Catholic High School graduating in 2008. I attended Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. I graduated from their with my Bachelors in Organization and Professional Development in 2012. While at EIU, I worked for the men's basketball team under Coach Mike Miller (Currently serving as the Westchester Knicks, New York Knicks D-league Head Coach) as a student manager, video coordinator, and the director of basketball operations. After graduation I moved to Brenham, Texas and worked at Blinn College as an assistant basketball coach and housing director. I then helped out for a year at a NCAA Division 3 school, Illinois College in my hometown before moving up here. I live here in Bottineau with my son, Kash Lemon. He was born this past July.

       James Hollowell will be on staff as an assistant coach. James is originally from Indianapolis, IN. James graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 2012 with a Bachelors in Sports Management. He was also a member of the Men’s Basketball team at EIU, participating in the Ohio Valley Conference, James was first team all-new comer. He then proceeded to continue playing and his education at the University of Indianapolis, where he graduated with his masters in sociology, while also being named second team in the GLVC and making the all-academic team. James has been coaching at North Central High School, as the JV Head Coach and a Varsity Assistant. He also served as the Head Coach of Indiana Elite, one of the top AAU programs in the state of Indiana. James is currently in the process of completing his licensure in special education from Butler University. James will be Assistant Basketball Coach, Residence life (Milligan Hall) , Diversity, Intramural Director, and Judicial Officer while here at DCB. James is married to his wife Ceara Hollowell, and have one daughter; Jade who is 1 year old. 

      JC Chisholm will also be helping out with the program this year. JC was a member of the Watford City High School State Champions back in the day. JC manages the Cobblestone Inn here in Bottineau. JC brings a wide knowledge of basketball from within the state. JC and his wife Tracy (teaches Math here at DCB) reside here in town with their 2 kids, Elizabeth and Alexander.

      We will have around 20 student athletes on the team this year, with 4 returners from the previous year. We are looking to build upon the success that the program has had recently, and continue to rise expectations of the basketball program.

     We are looking forward to getting out in the community and doing different community service projects. If anyone is ever in need of help moving things, or anything we would gladly help, free-will donations will be accepted :) but is not required. 

     If there is ever anything we can do to help out, please get a hold of me. We are looking forward to this upcoming season, and we hope to see you all out at the games this year.

         We will also be setting up a team store online this year, so be on the look out for that!

Thanks!

Coach Lemon

GO JACKS!!