General

City Colleges Kicks Off Basketball Season With Jamboree

The Winstrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park, IL played host to the City Colleges of Chicago Basketball Jamboree Friday.  The four hour event hosted 12 teams from six City Colleges totalling nearly 250 student-athletes, coaches and officials as each got a tune-up for the upcoming start of the regular season on October 31.  The result of the event was high level competition against sister colleges and the preseason City Colleges rankings.

On the women's side, Olive-Harvey's run to conference, Region and District championships led to a trip to Wyoming and the NJCAA Women's National Tournament.  Coach of the Year Jeff Dillard will enter the season ranked second among City teams behind perennial conference power Malcolm X and veteran head coach Kim McQuarters.  The Hawks are followed by Kennedy-King who finished second in the conference.  Two of the Lady Statemen's seven CCC wins were against Malcolm X.  Daley is picked to start the season where they finished last year -- fourth.  All three of their wins came against the last two teams in the preseason rankings Truman and Wright.  Truman is hoping to improve on a 5-16 finish a year ago while the Rams were winless in conference last year with a lone win in 25 regular season games came against Harper.

Daley will begin the year as the men's top team in the preseason rankings.  Half of the conference welcome new head coaches including Daley who hired Antonne Samuels over the off season after previously serving on the staff at South Suburban.  The Bulldogs finished last season with wins in five of their final six games and look to build on that positive momentum.  Another first year head coach Jason Straight at Olive-Harvey.  The Panthers are hoping to turn their fortunes around this season after a disappointing seven win season last year.  Third year head coach LaTroy Farrow will begin this season ranked third.  After winning the conference in his first season, the Statesmen followed that by a strong second place finish in 24-25.  Truman is ranked fourth and are expected to improve on their last place finish last seaosn.  Though defending CCC champion Malcolm X starts at five, don't sleep on the Hawks.  Veteran Head Coach Ron White's trademark has become a deep roster that can come at teams in waves of rested players off the bench without sacrificing production.  The Hawks won nine of their first ten games to open the season last year before finishing with 23 wins and were a perfect 10-0 in City Colleges play.  For the first time post-pandemic, Wright has a new coach at the helm of the men's program.  Former Chicago State assistant Ramim Bhuiya is getting up to speed quickly after being hire this Fall.  He'll rely on his vast coaching experience to quickly get his team in stride for their regular season opener November 4 at Lake County.