Preview 2006: Five flying high at Northeast

There are a few programs around the country that you just know are going to be strong year in and year out. Northeast, Neb. Community College coach Dan Anderson wants his program to be one of those.

"When you're a good team, people are going to come after you a little bit," Anderson said. "We've worked hard to try to get to this level where we make this one of the programs that you talk about being one of the best in junior college basketball."

A sophomore class that has five Division One prospects certainly has Northeast on the right track.

"I think we have a chance to be pretty good," Anderson said. "We still have to put the work in, people are not just going to bow down to us. In fact, it will probably be the other way around. We're probably going to have targets on our backs, people will come after us."

The group is led by 6-foot-9, 240-pound Iowa commit Cyrus Tate who will be a freshman and then have three years to play for Steve Alford.

"He's real good on the blocks, but he can step out too," Anderson said of Tate. "He's very physical, very good on the boards."

Tate is the only player to commit to a Division One school, but he's not the only one being recruited. Far from it.

Seven-footer Gjio Bain averaged 11 points, eight rebounds and blocked about 200 shots as a freshman. The native of the Bahamas is a rarity in juco hoops, a true big man.

"Probably USC has been in there the hardest," Anderson said. "UNLV is in there, Minnesota has been in there, Wyoming, just talked to Nevada, talked with Idaho, Denver. Nebraska's also showing interest in him, Illinois. Basically, anybody that recruits the jucos is recruiting him. The only reason they aren't is if they just stay away from the junior colleges."

Bain isn't the only player from the Bahamas at Northeast. His high school teammate Jeffery Henfield is getting a lot of looks as well after scoring 21 points a game to lead the team as a freshman.

"Probably Utah is on him the hardest and he's still got some other schools," Anderson said. "From Wyoming to San Jose to schools like that."

Henfield is actually the reason both players are at Northeast. Anderson got a call from a friend to scout Henfield at a tournament in Orlando and noticed Bain at the same time.

"Their high school coach over there kind of liked what we had to offer, came up and checked it all out for his kids," Anderson said. "We've just kind of had a pipeline to the Bahamas ever since."

Balancing things out on the perimeter is going to be C.J. Hampton.

"He's getting a lot of attention because he shoots 46 percent from behind the arc," Anderson said. "He can be pretty good, protect those inside guys. You can't go double with him out there because he'll knock it down."

Hampton is being recruited by St. Bonaventure, Chicago State, Xavier and Northern Illinois to start.

Setting things up for those players will be Limar Wilson, a point guard from Orlando.

"He's very quick, had a really good year last year, but was hurt about half the year," Anderson said. "When he was healthy we won about everything, when we was not, we pretty much split. He is the ultimate point guard. He distributes, he can really shoot it himself, but he looks for other people first."

Anderson mentioned Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Southern Cal as schools showing the most interest in Wilson. The Northeast standouts will have a chance to show their stuff to recruiters all over the country at the end of July. The team will play at the Jerry Mullens event in Tulsa on July 29th through the 31st.

Over the next few months, JucoJunction.com will be doing team previews from coast to coast to get junior college basketball fans set for an exciting 2005-06 season. To talk about this story with other juco hoops fans, check out the JucoJunction Board or our premium forum.