COLBY, Kan. – With the 2024-25 regular season just two weeks away, Barton Community College has been picked to win the 2024-25 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Division 1 Men’s Basketball regular season title following a vote of league coaches.
With the top four teams in the preseason poll separated by just 16 points, the Cougars secured eight of 13 first-place votes and earned a total of 150 points to beat out second-place Hutchinson Community College who earned 147 points along with two first-place votes. Barton is coming off their first National Title in program history in their fifth all-time appearance at the NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament, winning the final 27 games of the season and all four National Tournament games by double-digits. The Blue Dragons, meanwhile, qualified for the NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament for the 24th time in program history, winning two games before bowing out in the NJCAA Quarterfinals to Connors State.
Picked to finish third with 137 total points was Garden City as the Broncbusters received two of the remaining three first-place votes and was picked no worse than sixth in any of the 13 ballots while Cowley earned the final first-place vote to finish with 134 points while being picked fourth. Rounding out the top eight of the preseason poll is Coffeyville (123 points), Dodge City (91 points), Butler (85 points), and Cloud County (78 points) as seven of the eight teams picked in the top eight of the poll finished in the top eight last season to earn a home NJCAA Region 6 Tournament game. Other teams in the preseason order of finish to finish out the poll includes Independence in ninth (68 points), Seward County (60 points), Pratt (50 points), Colby (47 points), and Fort Hays Tech Northwest (13 points).
With teams having begun preseason practices back on October 1, the regular season will officially tip-off on Friday, November 1st as six games will take place on the opening day of the season. All 13 league teams will have the first two-plus weeks of the regular season to compete in up to six non-conference matchups each before starting a 24-game KJCCC that is slated to begin on Wednesday, November 20th with four matchups between conference schools.
The final day of the regular season is scheduled for Wednesday, March 5th as postseason play will begin on Saturday, March 8th. Each of the top four teams in the final regular season standings will receive a first-round bye in the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament while teams that finish fifth through eighth will host teams that finish ninth through 12th in the regular season standings in opening round games. The winners of the four first-round contests will move on to face the four teams that received byes on Tuesday, March 11th before seeing action move to a neutral site for the semifinals and finals. The semifinals and finals are scheduled to take place March 14-15 inside Gross Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Fort Hays State University with the NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament taking place inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas March 23-29, 2025.