By Piper Wright and Aaron Heller//
Hood College men’s basketball capped a historic season with its coach and star player winning District 5 honors.
Coach Chad Dickman was named d3hoops.com District 5 Coach of the Year and junior guard Jevon Yarbrough won d3hoops.com District 5 Player of the Year.
The Blazers season ended on March 14 with a loss to No. 1-ranked Trinity College in the Sweet 16.
The posted an overall record of 26-4, winning the MAC Commonwealth championship and making an appearance in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in school history.
“I’m really happy with how the season went as a team and individually,” Yarbrough said. “Obviously, we would have loved to win the national championship, but we made history and went further than any team in Hood history.”
Hood has pushed into D3 hoops national rankings numerous times in the past, but the Blazers reached its highest ranking–making it to No. 15.
Dickman, who has been on the Blazers squad since the 2015-16 season, has held a winning record every year except the 2017-18 season. This season, Dickman finished with a .867 win percentage overall and a .929 conference win percentage, his best since arriving at Hood.
Hood racked up big wins throughout the season, most notably against No. 22 Catholic University, three times against No. 23 York College and No. 9 University of Redlands.
A lineup– with no seniors–ranked fifth in the nation in points per game, 14th in the nation in assists and ninth in field goal percentage.
“We broke a ton of records and so far that is the best season ever for men’s basketball,” Yarbrough said. “Hopefully, next year we can surpass what we did this year.”
Not only were the Blazers good as a team, but individually, the Blazers saw themselves within the top 10 in numerous rankings.
Yarbrough ranked second in the nation in total points with 779, fifth in the nation in points per game with 26 and 11th in the nation in field goal attempts with 473.
The Blazers had many record-breaking accomplishments over the course of this season. Yarbrough scored his 1,000th point, becoming just the eighth player to accomplish the feat. Yarbrough also became Hood’s all-time individual season point leader, scoring 779, breaking previous leader Mason Wang’s 647.
The Blazers received many player awards for their successful season. Junior Jude Huseby received Second Team ALL-MACC, Junior Kullen Robinson received Second Team ALL-MACC, Dickman received MACC Coach of the Year and NABC District 5 Coach of the Year, and Yarbrough received First Team ALL-MACC, MACC Player of the Year, and All District 5 Player of the Year.
“Next year we’re just trying to be better than we were this year,” Yarbrough said. “Of course, that is a big goal as we went really far this year, but with bringing everyone back and being a year older and better I think we have a strong chance to winning the national championship.”
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