After Elgin Community College placed second in the nation in NJCAA Division III men’s basketball, guard Desmond Douglas noted a truth about the 2017-18 season.
“We’ve set the bar really high for ourselves, there’s no question about it,” Douglas said.
It will be virtually a different team joining Douglas when ECC plays again in October.
Gone are standouts such as Jordan Anderson, Juwan Stewart, Homer Denson and Connor Boesch. Coach Reed Nosbisch has restored the talent supply with a recruiting class heavy in players from outside the Elgin area.
“We still have kids here making decisions to go other places based on the fact they just don’t want to live at home anymore and want to be out on their own,” Nosbisch said. “Honestly, I was the same way coming out of high school — I wasn’t extremely excited to be going to Elgin Community College to play.
“But ultimately after I did and when I looked back at it after it was done, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
The list of ECC recruits from the Fox Valley area includes West Aurora guard Caleb Siler, former Hampshire players Nathan Gomez and Isaiah Gonzales and former Larkin guard Keyvon Kyles.
Siler is a 6-foot-3 guard who averaged 13.5 points and 6.6 rebounds as a forward for the Blackhawks. He reminds Nosbisch of a guard on last year’s team.
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“He was probably playing out of position at West due to his size,” Nosbisch said. “He has some Jordan Anderson-style leaping ability and if he develops a better perimeter game he can be special.
“He’s well-coached. Brian Johnson at West does a heck of a job.”
Gomez is a 6-6 post and a summer of hard work altered his physique.
“People who saw him in high school will be surprised,” Nosbisch said. “He has really pushed himself.”
In the past two years, players who already had college experience keyed ECC’s success. A.J. Washington, Chris Benjamin and Charles Sanders all were at other colleges before coming to ECC, and this continues in the new recruiting class.
Former North Chicago player Keunte Howard is a sharp-shooting guard who moved to Fresno, Calif., and was a junior college redshirt before returning to Illinois and ECC.
“He just decided at the end of the year it wasn’t the best place for him,” Nosbisch said.
Another is Joshua Roberts, a 6-3 guard from Westinghouse who was a redshirt at Lewis last year.
“He’s probably the top guy or gem of the group,” Nosbisch said. “He was on scholarship at Lewis, which has had success the past few years.
“We don’t have a lot coming back, so he’s one who will have to pick it up. He’s going to be a guy who can do a lot of different things.”
Another newcomer, 2015 Schaumburg grad Johnny Flynn, reminds Nosbisch of Boesch, a 6-6 forward who was more of perimeter player than a post.
“He’s similar to Connor, probably a little better shooter, but I don’t know that he’ll be taking charges the way Connor did,” Nosbisch said.
Like Kyles, Flynn didn’t play basketball last year.
Nosbisch believes last season’s success helped put ECC in the minds of some recruits, even though the Spartans can’t hand out scholarships as a Division III team.
It did something else.
“I tried to tell each one of them what we accomplished puts a big target on our back,” Nosbisch said. “In preseason polls, they don’t look at what you have back. They look at what you did last year and that’s how you get ranked to start the year.
“So I guarantee we’ll be ranked in the top four.”
A potentially talented recruiting class and last year’s holdovers will have much to prove.
Twitter @genechamberlai2