The 2018-2019 Iowa Lakes Men's Basketball team is led by Head Coach, Troy Larson with returning Assistant Coach Jason McKinney and Graduate Assistant Coach David Kong.
Larson begins his 12th season as the Head Coach of the Lakers with an overall record of 231 wins and 117 losses for a 66% winning percentage and averaging 21 wins per season.
The 2018-2019 Iowa Lakes Men's Basketball team looks to a promising year with an NJCAA preseason ranking of #20 in the country. The team is expected to compete in both the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Championships and the Region XI championships later this year, as they have done in the past several years.
"We have been fortunate the last six years to consistently have teams that compete for ICCAC and Region XI championships. With five returning sophomores, our returners want to keep us at that level of competition and advance our team to the national tournament," stated Larson.
Iowa Lakes has won two ICCAC regular season championship twice during the 2013 and 2016 seasons, finished second twice in the 2014 and 2018 seasons and 3rd during the 2017season The Lakers have appeared in three regional championship games during the 2013, 2014, and 2016 seasons while advancing to the national tournament in 2013.
This season we look to returning starters Solomon Clayton of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Jacob Rau of Waukee, Iowa to produce another strong season. Clayton, who was awarded honorable mentioned all-conference averaged 10.8 points per game, shooting 57% from the field, while Rau shot 55.1% from the field, contributing 10 points per game.
We also have the following stand-out returners, Alan Kikwaki of Brussels, Belgium and Lamontae Lewis of Racine, Wisconsin. Both Kikwaki and Lamontae who were redshirt freshman last year. Also, we look forward to the return of Ryan Girardi of Adelaide, South Australia who gave good minutes last season.
This year's team has many newcomers that are looking to make an impact on the success of the Laker team. They include: Equan Arends – Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Malcolm Clayton – Fort Dodge, Iowa, Xavier Dixon – Grand Prairie, Texas, Trevor Friesner – Estherville, Iowa, Boston Grimes – Johnston, Iowa, Kevin Jennings – Grand Prairie, Texas, Brandun Robinson – Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jack Sorenson – Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Sebastian Zehnder – Greely, Colorado.
When asked about this year's freshman class, Coach Larson said, "We like our freshman group – mainly comprised of guards. They are figuring out how to be college basketball players."
The Lakers need to be ready as the ICCAC Championships as they continue to be the premier division 2 men's basketball conference in the country with national champions coming from the league in two of the last three years.
Regarding this year's season, Coach Larson stated, "As always we play a very competitive schedule with seven NJCAA Division 1 opponents in the preseason. We do this to get us ready for conference play. Playing in NJCAA Division I tournaments at Northeast Nebraska, Indian Hills, and Marshalltown provides competition that shows us what we need to improve on. We have done this over the past six years and believe it helps us improve".
The 2018-2019 Iowa Lakes Men's Basketball team opens their season on November 1st when they host Northwestern JV at 7:30pm.
PHOTO: Photo of Solomon Clayton attached.
MEDIA: For more information, please contact Head Men's Basketball Coach Troy Larson at (712) 362-7915 or the Iowa Lakes sports information office at (712) 362-7928.