Latest success at NJCAA Nationals is part of long-term performance
–By Jeff Johnson, The Gazette
[CEDAR RAPIDS ]— Sometimes they’re mockingly referred to as the University of Southwest Cedar Rapids. But perhaps you should change that to plain old Basketball U.It’s hard to imagine many better men’s and women’s hoops programs at the junior college level than what Kirkwood has.
The Eagle women won their third consecutive NJCAA Division II national championship Saturday night in East Peoria, Ill., routing Schoolcraft College of Michigan, 62-38. The Eagle men made it to the national title game for the fourth time, dropping a 63-49 decision to Johnson County (Kan.) Saturday night in Danville, Ill.
T-shirts some Kirkwood students were wearing Saturday night in East Peoria said it all. They’re fans of both programs because “chasing championships never gets old.”
“Ah, yeah,” women’s center El Sara Greer said in a duh-like tone, when asked if Kirkwood has the best combined D-II hoops programs in the country. “I mean, the boys (program) is great. They’re runners-up, we’re champs. Everything is great.”
Women’s Coach Kim Muhl has won five national championships in 20 years at Kirkwood, taking the school to 13 national tournaments, including the last seven. He has a 587-111 career record.
Doug Wagemester is 304-75 in 11 years guiding the men’s program. That includes seven national tournament appearances.
The only bad deal is that the Eagles haven’t won a men’s national title since 1998, losing three championship games since then, including Saturday night. Kirkwood (27-6), which upended No. 1-ranked Columbus State, 73-60, and rolled Lincoln (Ill.), 76-58, in its previous two tourney games, was the victim of icy 30.1-percent shooting from the field.
That included a 5-for-25 performance from 3-point land. Distance shooting had been one of this team’s strengths.
“We just couldn’t get any rhythm offensively,” Wagemester told the Danville Commercial-News. “When we did get open opportunities, we didn’t finish like we needed to, for whatever reason.”
Kirkwood trailed by just two points at halftime, 25-23, but while Johnson County made 12 of 16 field goals (75 percent) in the second half, Kirkwood made just 7 of 24 (29.2 percent).
“They are a tough outfit,” Wagemester told the Commercial-News. “They changed their defenses up on us and they kept us off-balanced. We fought hard enough to keep ourselves in there, but we just couldn’t score enough buckets against this team.”
Kirkwood’s women, meanwhile, scored plenty of buckets to run away from what was a 31-21 game at the half. Forward MyKenya Johnson was a force inside with a game-high 16 points, but 11 Eagles contributed points, a trademark of this team, which finished 36-1, winning its last 30 games.
Leading scorers McKensey Long (who made the all-tournament team with Greer and Johnson) and Alicia Wright averaged just over 10 points a game this season. Eleven women averaged 4.8 or more.
Defense was its bailiwick. Kirkwood held opponents to 43 points per game in the regular season and 41 in three games at the national tournament.
“I’m so excited, just really happy. It’s a great moment,” said Greer, the tourney MVP after grabbing 18 rebounds in Kirkwood’s semifinal win over Parkland (Ill.) and 15 (with five blocked shots) in the final. “I mean, we were here last year, but this one was on us. We pushed the freshmen to get us over that hump.”
“These kids stuck together through a lot of sickness and injuries,” Muhl said. “We got healthy at the national tournament, actually. They just stuck together and did a hell of a job.”
Winning consistently at the junior college level is difficult considering you get your players for only one or two years. There are some outstanding players for both the men’s and women’s teams who will be moving on.
But you can bet there will be a lot of winning going on at Johnson Hall again next winter. After all, this is Basketball U.
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[This article appeared in The Gazette, March 23, 2009. Used by permission of Gazette Communications, all rights reserved.]