City of Basketball Love

Kevin Callahan (@CP_KCallahan)
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You would think Harcum College wouldn’t sneak up on anyone.

After all, the Bryn Mawr school - Philadelphia area’s only Division I junior college – has been a pipeline to Division I under head coach Drew Kelly the past 16 years.

Evidently, Logan College had not been paying attention.

“I talked to somebody before the game, I don't know who it was exactly but he was like, ‘you know, we got the 4-13 game,’” assistant coach John Ball said about Harcum being seeded 13th while Logan was No. 4. “And he's basically saying, ‘like, yeah, we should be all right in this game.’

“I don't know what the affiliation with the team was, but I found that to be a very interesting comment.”

Perhaps Logan, as a team, was just over confident while enjoying the best season in the history of the Illinois community college.

Without its top scorer reaching double digits, Harcum rolled to a 109-91 win in a second-round game Wednesday in the NJCAA Division I men’s national tournament at Hutchinson Sports Arena in Kansas.

“I don't think they gave us the respect that our young men have earned, that's for sure,” Ball added about Logan, which won a school record 29 games (four losses).

Obviously, the Vols didn't know Harcum’s history.

The Bears have won at least 20 games in every season since the program started in 2005 under Kelly. 

And, Harcum has finished in the top five twice nationally and top ten four times, including the 2013-14 squad advancing to the NJCAA Division I Final Four while winning a school record 32 games.

The current Bears tied the win record while losing just two games this season and Harcum can set a new standard tonight (6 p.m. tipoff) in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. against No. 5 Chipola, which knocked off the host school Hutchinson.

Harcum's 2021-22 men's squad (above) is in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA tournament out in Kansas. (Photo courtesy Harcum College athletics)

Harcum’s 2013-14 team sent five players to NCAA Division I programs and it remains to be seen how many Bears go D-I, but they are certainly deep and talented as top scorer Tre Dinkins finished with only nine points. No worries, though, as five Harcum players reached double digits.

In fact, Dinkins a 6-2 redshirt freshman guard from Cardinal O’Hara, didn’t score until 11:30 left in the game with the Bears holding a comfortable 74-59 lead.

“On any given night, anyone can go out there and be the quote-unquote man,” Ball said. “I think that's what makes us such a good team, such a well-rounded team is everyone plays for each other and whoever has the hot hand that night, everyone recognizes it and they get that person the ball.”

Yazid Powell paced Harcum with 21 points. The  6-4 sophomore guard from Philadelphia also snatched 11 rebounds.

Mohamed Wague, a 6-10 redshirt freshman forward from Mali, collected 20 points and 13 rebounds.

Derrius Ward, a 6-6 redshirt freshman forward from Philadelphia (Sankofa Freedom), chipped in with 20 points and eight boards.

“Derrius has done an incredible job out here this tournament,” Ball said, referring also to the Bears 92-65 win over Southern Idaho in Monday’s opening round. “He is not only making shots, but he is distributing the ball to his teammates.”

Jordan Martin, a 6-2 redshirt freshman guard from Willingboro, N.J., added 19, including four 3-pointers.

“Jordan was unbelievable, he hit shots and was just really good,” Ball said about the Bordentown High School product.

Amarhie Simpkins, a 6-4 freshman swingman from Brooklyn, N.Y., scored 10 points to help negate a 43-point outburst by sophomore Sean East, which is a postseason scoring record by Logan.

“This current group is just everyone's playing with the chip on their shoulder,” Ball said. “They’re a bunch of fighters who look at every opportunity to prove everybody wrong and prove all the naysayers wrong.

“We've been counted out and underestimated all year long. That's just kind of our mentality going into these games. We feel under-seeded. We feel disrespected, so the kids are just out there ready to prove that everything that they did this year and that this record wasn’t a fluke, that we didn’t win games by accident.

“It's been a great journey. This group is so much fun. They're good kids. They're funny kids. We just have a really, really good time and we're enjoying the ride,” Ball continued.

“You know a lot of times that gets lost in this, you get caught up in the moment so much you don't take a step back and enjoy the ride.

“They understand the opportunity in front of them and they're excited to have that opportunity.”

They are also playing for future opportunities. Ball said there are over 100 Division I coaches at the tournament.

“This isn't just like the NCAA tournament where you're not worried about getting recruited,” Ball said. “The big part of this is the recruitment aspect of everything. And these guys are here and not worried about that. They are worried about Harcum, they are worried about each other and they've done an amazing job of just playing for each other.”

Harcum has been so committed to the moment of just winning that Ball didn’t even use the pre-game comment he heard as hype material.

“Our guys were fired up enough, we didn't really need to get them going,” Ball said.

“They were kind of just ready to roll. They wanted to get out there and play and prove to everybody who we are, who we think we are and prove to everybody else that they've been ignoring us, underestimating us.”