CHARLOTTE, NC – With the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Women’s Basketball season set to begin in less than two weeks, eight Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference teams have found their way onto the preseason rankings released by the NJCAA National Office on Monday, October 19th.
Both the NJCAA Division 1 and Division 2 women’s basketball preseason polls have four representatives from the KJCCC, with six of the six teams ranked and the remaining two teams both receiving votes. All four qualifiers from last year’s NJCAA Women’s Basketball National Tournaments are ranked, with four teams ranked inside the top 15 of their respective poll.
The highest-ranked KJCCC team in either of the two polls is Johnson County, with the Cavaliers holding the NJCAA Division 2 preseason number three ranking after going 35-1 last year and finishing in third at the NJCAA Division 2 Women’s Basketball National Tournament. The Cavaliers are joined by NJCAA Region 6 Tournament Semifinalist and preseason number 14-ranked Allen Community College, number 16 preseason-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College, and Region 6 tournament runner-up Neosho County, who is receiving votes in the preseason poll. The four teams ranked or receiving votes earned a combined 89 wins last season, and were all picked to finish inside the top three of the KJCCC Division 2 Women’s Basketball Predicted Order of Finish poll.
There’s also no shortage of KJCCC representation in the NJCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball poll, with preseason conference favorite Dodge City leading the way with the number seven preseason ranking. The Conquistadors finished second in the KJCCC standings last season and advanced to the second round of the NJCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament to finish the year with a 27-6 record. The furthest advancing team from the KJCCC at last year’s NJCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament, Hutchinson will enter the season ranked preseason number 11, while Coffeyville is ranked preseason number 19 after going 23-9 last year and advancing to the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament semifinals. Butler Community College rounds out the group of four teams from the conference in the poll by receiving votes and will be led by first-year head coach Deneen Parker.
The NJCAA Women’s Basketball Week 1 polls will be released on Monday, November 9th as the regular season will get underway on Friday, October 30th. Polls will then be released weekly on Monday afternoons (Tuesday afternoons on weeks with National holidays on Mondays) through December 14th, before starting up again on January 11th and running through March 1st.
