The 2014-15 UC Clermont Cougars will run out a relatively young team, but expect immediate and impactful contributions from their freshmen standouts.

The 2014-15 UC Clermont Cougars will run out a relatively young team, but expect immediate and impactful contributions from their freshmen standouts.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

A young UC Clermont men’s basketball team will take the floor this week to begin a regular season that head coach Greg Himes hopes can result in achieving some lofty goals.

“Our biggest goal every year is to win the USCAA National Championship,” Himes said. “We’ve had a lot of success in our program — all of our programs at UC Clermont have — and we want to win every game.”

This year, Himes said, winning every game will be a tall task as he and his athletic director, Brian Sullivan, have put together a difficult schedule that includes some usual suspects from the United States Athletic Association (USCAA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), but also some National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and II schools.

“We have another great schedule. We’re playing two NCAA Division I teams — Northern Kentucky University and Eastern Kentucky University,” Himes said. “I’m pretty sure this is the first time in the history of UC Clermont athletics that we’re playing Division I teams.”

Himes said his young group, which is made up of two juniors, a sophomore and nine freshmen, will have a chance to compete with some of the best players in the nation.

“In the Division I games, we want to compete,” Himes explained. “(Those games) give our kids an opportunity. They all wanted to play Division I basketball and now they get to play against Division I teams.”

Headlining the Cougars lineup this year are some familiar names and faces from around Clermont County and the Southwest Ohio district.

“We’re looking for a big year out of Tommy Hacker and Terry Sparks as freshmen,” Himes said. “Phil Cook should have a big season, also.”

Hacker, an Amelia alum, along with Curt Wesp of Glen Este are the homegrown talent that UC Clermont will run out along with the likes of Sparks (Mariemont), Cook (Lakota West), Kenneth McCoy (Taft) and Mikhale Buck (SCPA).

The Cougars played in the Cincinnati Christian University Classic over the Nov. 8 weekend, getting some early season reps before beginning their regular season slate on Nov. 11 against Ivy Tech.

Despite dropping games to the host Eagles and Indiana University – East, Coach Himes said he was encouraged by his team’s play.

“We looked really good in our last exhibition game against Transylvania and played two really good halves last weekend,” he said. “We didn’t put a full game together, but in each game, we played a good half against top-level NAIA Division II teams.”

Himes said the key to the first month of the season is to see steady improvement each day, which should ease the team into the meat of the schedule in December.

Following the regular season opener Tuesday, the Cougars travel to the Bevo Francis Invitational Tournament hosted by the University of Rio Grande on Friday, Nov. 14 and 15 before traveling to Richmond, Ky. to face off with EKU in the Cougars first taste of NCAA DI on Nov. 22.

Clermont will return home to host Rio Grande on Nov. 25 and then travel to Pikeville over the weekend to face one of the top NAIA schools in the country.

For more information on the UC Clermont men’s basketball program, log on to ucclermont.edu/athletics/mensbasketball.