By Jim Richards
After years of handing the pressures at the NCAA Division I level and after a year of coaching at the junior college level, new SMCC men’s basketball coach Andy Jensen is more than happy to be a part of the ACCAC.
“This was the best run and the smartest league,” said Jensen, 34, who was named Dan Nichols’ successor this past offseason after SMCC Athletic Director Chris Haines plucked Jensen out of Powell, Wyoming, where he has been head coach at Northwest Community College.
Jensen became familiar with the ACCAC during his six-year tenure as assistant coach at Weber State from 2001-06. It was there he was assigned the conference as part of his recruiting area.
“We didn’t end up getting a lot of the players we went after, but this is where I was sent,” he said.
Jensen admits that he’s heard other coaches say that the ACCAC isn’t as strong as other juco conferences across the nation, but he’ll have none of that.
“When they go somewhere else, they’re going to find out how good they have it here,” he said. “ From the scheduling to the officiating. It makes sense financially.
“Where I’m from, you could end up with three guys off the street to officiate a game. Most juco is very rogue. They don’t have the resources like the NCAA.”
With Nichols accepting the head coaching job at Grand Canyon University after guiding the Cougars to consecutive ACCAC-II titles, including last season’s Region I Div.II title that culminated in two wins at nationals and a seventh-place finish, Jensen will have big shoes to fill.
The entire starting lineup and a good portion of the bench is gone and Jensen will have to try to make it go with only a few returning players. Forward Chris Rizzo is the only returner that received significant playing time last season.
But thanks in part to Nichols’ success, Jensen’s phone has run off the hook this offseason.
“I’m getting two or three calls per day from kids that want to play,” he said. “The obstacle will be the culture change. Dan was very successful. I’ve been successful in the past but I’m sure we’re two different guys.
“These new kids are not used to college basketball and the time commitments and such. I like my team. I like the players that I have.”
And he prefers the junior college game.
“You actually have to work,” he said. “All of a sudden you’re handling everything. You’re washing jerseys and driving the vans.
“I feel that the tradeoff is that I get to coach my players. At DI, 95 percent of your job is all the other garbage. Coaching is just a very small percentage.”
And then there’s the ACCAC.
“This league is better than the Big Sky (Conference),” he said.
Basketball practices are just around the corner, beginning Oct. 1.