Kirkwood Mens Basketball

No. 1 Kirkwood men aiming for 2nd title

Kirkwood men's basketball coach Bryan Petersen is flattered that the Eagles are ranked No. 1 in the country in the preseason poll, but he's glad the national tournament is four months away.

The Eagles are talented, but they have a lot of work to do before they can make a serious bid at winning their second straight NJCAA Division II national title.

Kirkwood begins the new season this weekend with two games at the Indian Hills Classic in Ottumwa, meeting Carl Sandburg College Friday at 4:30 p.m. and facing Indian Hills Saturday at 7 p.m.

"I think we're talented," Petersen said this week, "but it's taken awhile with this group to kind of get things right.

"We do have some good pieces. It's just a matter of trying to get them to fit together a little bit better and just learn how to play a little better."

Kirkwood bumped off top-ranked Triton, 83-76, to win the national crown last season with a remarkable run in the postseason tournament. The Eagles finished with a 31-4 record, but they lost a lot of talent with All-American Hunter Rhodes, Nick Richards, Christen Wilson, Jacob Olson, Josh Bartlett and Josh Meier all gone.

Byron Harp, Da'Rion King, Kaliph Fagan, Elijah Henry, Al'Tavius Jackson and Shakur Triplett return this year after helping Kirkwood win the title and they've been joined by a talented group of newcomers.

With six veterans on the club, Petersen was not surprised when the Eagles were ranked No. 1 heading into the new campaign. Most coaches have questions and concerns heading into a new season and Petersen is no different.

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New class gives Kirkwood chance to repeat

Bryan Petersen is not satisfied with winning just one national title with the Kirkwood men's basketball program. He wants another title this coming season and perhaps more championships after that.

It's not that Petersen is greedy. And he certainly understands how tough it will be to repeat as the NJCAA Division II national champs after hoisting the trophy in March.

It's simply a statement of fact at Kirkwood: All their teams want to compete at the highest levels and winning titles.

"That's what we're here for and that's what I talk about," Petersen said Wednesday in his office at Johnson Hall. "I think there's going to be a good amount of pressure on this team and on me, and that's fine, because we accomplished something great last year."

The Eagles return six players from their championship team and a seventh (Chris King) who joined the club at mid-year and was red-shirted. Now Petersen has signed eight new players for the 2016-17 campaign and probably will have a ninth newcomer in the fold in the next few days.

As it turned out, winning the national title was a two-edged sword on the recruiting trail this spring and summer. Lots of talented players wanted to join the Eagles, but Petersen had only a limited number of spots with seven guys returning.

"This was probably the hardest recruiting year, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since we just won the national championship," he said. "I probably had to tell kids "no" more than ever, which is not a fun part of this job, because they really wanted to be at Kirkwood.

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Kirkwood's Hunter Rhodes signs with UNI

University of Northern Iowa head men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson has signed junior college All-American Hunter Rhodes to a National Letter-of-Intent to play for the Panthers next season.

Rhodes earned first-team NJCAA Division II All-America honors last season after helping lead Kirkwood to the NJCAA national title. He averaged 12.6 points per game, shot 44.3 percent from 3-point range and handed out 4.1 assists per game for the Eagles and head coach Bryan Petersen.

Rhodes also earned first-team all-region honors and was named the NJCAA Division II Region XI Tournament MVP.

Rhodes, a 6-foot guard, played his prep basketball at Canton (Ill.) High School, where he averaged 23.2 points per game and was named the Daily Ledger Player of the Year as a senior.

Kirkwood's Richards signs with Wilmington

Nick Richards is headed home to Delaware to continue his college basketball career at Wilmington University after helping Kirkwood win the NJCAA Division II national title this season.

Richards, a 6-foot-3 guard, averaged 12.5 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Eagles, who finished 31-4 this season. He was named to the all-tournament team at the national tournament.

Wilmington is an NCAA Division II school that's located in Richards' home town of New Castle, Del. The Wildcats play in the Central Athletic Collegiate Conference against teams from Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.