Eagles play through “curveballs”
An odd year of shortened schedules, cancellations and pandemic guidelines brought many complications to this year’s CSC men’s basketball season, but first year head coach Shane Paben and the Eagles endured to move the program forward.
Head Men’s Basketball Coach Shane Paben officially joined the Eagles coaching staff in 2020 after coaching 11 seasons at Bellevue University.
“I’m a strong believer in building a strong foundation,” Paben said. “I’m also a coach that won’t skip process. You can’t learn how to read until you know your ABCs. So, we’re getting there.”
To start of the season, the team faced postponements throughout its 2020 portion of the season, they ended up playing only two games in December.
“We were getting mentally beat up in November with all the different types of games being canceled or postponed. We actually just took a week off because we had some COVID concerns and I said, ‘Just go home for Thanksgiving, guys.’ It was not planned.”
The Eagles returned to their season in the new year, playing six games in January, winning three and losing three.
Halfway through the game against South Dakota School of Mines, Jan. 21, Jacob Jefferson, Eagles lead scorer and rebounder, injured his knee and was unable to return.
“I’ll be the first one to tell you, I was worried if we were going to win a game because he was our only post presence,” Paben said. “The first game back, we come out and we really kicked the snot out of Black Hills State at home and then COVID hits again.”
The team was forced to take three weeks off after their 71-58 win over Black Hills State University, Jan. 26, due to COVID-19 concerns, postponing games from Jan. 30 until Feb. 16.
CSC finished their regular season 5-7, bringing them to the RMAC championship tournament for the first time since 2012. This trip to the postseason marked the seventh RMAC tournament trip in CSC’s basketball history: 1993, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2012.
Due to the uneven schedules created by COVID-19, a rating index was used to determine each team’s strength through all their games, and where teams will be placed within the postseason tournament.
The Eagles tied with South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, winning the tiebreaker, earning them eighth place and pitting them against first seed, Colorado Mesa. A 67-52 loss to the Mavericks, March 2, ended their season.
Teddy Parham, Jr., junior of Los Angeles, received a spot on the All-RMAC honorable mention list.
“Our number one goal is to make Chadron State basketball into something people can be really proud of,” Paben said. “I thought we took positive steps to doing that this year, and we’re going to take even more steps next year, make a big jump next year.”