The Fall Preview: Men's Basketball 2017-18
The mens basketball season is just around the corner. Last season the team came close to reaching the Final Four but they lost to Fullerton College. Lead by Brian Beard, the team won the South Coast North Conference in their inaugural season in the conference.
They are hoping to go back to back. This year’s team has a lot of learning to do. They are taller in stature, but head coach Jeff Klein has yet to see a Brian Beard type player. He said this team will have to make its biggest adjustment when it comes to scoring. They will have to pass the ball more, and not rely on one guy when they need a basket.
Klein said that this is a young team and they are going to play their best basketball in the second half of the season. Their talent showed in the first tournament of the season. “We were winning all four games,” Klein said. “In many of them we were up by over 10 points, but playing a full game at this point wasn’t in the cards.”
Because of the team’s lack of experience, Klein feels that some teams are disrespecting them. He said he really felt the disrespect when he heard that Fullerton chose to play them in the first round of the Fullerton tournament. Not even a year removed from the playoff game against Fullerton he said it surprised him.
Klein said Chaffey has always been a team you don’t want to play. “I’m Hoping we are not the all airport team.” Klein said they hope to play as big as they are. He does not want to look good and then stink it up. The team is looking to improve from last year. It will be quite a process.