Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills basketball team will head into the new season with a number-five national ranking. The Warriors are coming off a 33-4 season and a seventh-place finish at the national tournament last year and return two of the top three scorers from that squad.
The preseason poll, released this week by the National Junior College Athletic Association, has the Warriors trailing only South Plains (Tex.) and Northwest Florida State, the two teams that played for the national title last year, as well as Howard (Tex.) and Chipola (Fla.).
Three teams that are on the Warriors’ regular season schedule are ranked in the preseason poll in either Division I or II. Conference foe Iowa Western CC is rated 20th in the DI poll; College of Southern Idaho, whom Indian Hills defeated in the national tourney in March, is 7th. The Warriors take a trip to Utah and Idaho next month, playing three games in five nights, and they’ll battle Southern Idaho in the final game of the trip on Nov. 24. CSI was 31-5 a year ago.
Kirkwood CC is the lone DII school the Warriors will play this year that is ranked in the preseason. The Eagles, who will provide the opposition for IHCC in the second game of the season in the Blackwell Tire Classic on Nov. 3, are 7th. Indian Hills will travel to Cedar Rapids for a rematch with Kirkwood on Dec. 4.
Indian Hills was rated 9th in the preseason last year and ended the season with the national tourney berth, the 9th in school history. They were ranked in the top ten all season long and made it to the top of the ratings for one week in January after starting the season with 19 consecutive wins.
It’s the sixth time that IHCC has been in the top ten in the preseason rankings since the 2000-01 season.
This year’s home- and season-opener is Nov. 2 against Carl Sandburg (Ill.). The Warriors will play 17 regular-season home games at the Hellyer Center where they were a perfect 20-0 a year ago.
Fans can still purchase season tickets for the 2012-13 campaign. They are $102 each and available in the IHCC Athletic Office in the Hellyer Center.
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