Estherville, IA — The Iowa Lakes Men's Basketball team debuted at No. 6 in the 2021-22 Preseason National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Men's Basketball Rankings. The Lakers are one of three Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) teams ranked joining #1 DMACC and #3 Kirkwood.
The Lakers are coming off a season in which they finished 3rd at the NJCAA National Tournament with a 21 – 8 overall and 15 – 7 record in the highly competitive ICCAC. The Lakers return 6 players from last year's team including Xzavier Jones (NJCAA First Team All-American, 13.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game), Ryan Hall (ICCAC All Region XI Honorable Mention, 13.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game), Caleb Johnson (ICCAC All Region XI Honorable Mention, 12.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game), Johnathan Oden (5.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game), Joseph Owens (4.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game),and Oz Meiborg (2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game).
Iowa Lakes will open up the regular season by playing at North Dakota College of Science on November 1st at 7:00pm.
Iowa Lakes is coached by Troy Larson who is entering his 15th season as head coach of the Lakers and has an overall record of 300 – 141. Larson has coached the Lakers to two national tournament appearances (2012 – 2013 season, 2020-2021 season), four regional tournament final appearances (2013, 2014, 2016, 2021), and two ICCAC regular season championships (2013, 2016).
Preseason NJCAA Poll: https://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/rankings/DII/index
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.