April 3, 2006

Looking back on the Cowboys season there was a lot of up and downs. A season which saw the Cowboys finish the year with a 14-11 overall record and a 13-9 conference record, which was good enough to tie Sul Ross State for fourth in the final regular season ASC West standings.

That makes two straight years the Cowboys have had a winning season, which is the first of the decade and first since 1998-2000, and a third is expected for next year.

Most of Coach Dylan Howard's troops will be back next year and they will eager to get back into postseason play that was so close to their reach this year. A loss to Concordia-Austin, paired with a win by Sul Ross State, ended the season for the Cowboys in the last weekend of the regular season.

The Cowboys entered the last weekend controlling their own destiny, by winning one of the two final games the Cowboys would clinch the fourth and final spot in the ASC playoffs.

The Cowboys headed to Belton to play the Crusaders of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Cowboys lost that game 86-70, which was the second loss to UMHB this season. This loss put the pressure on Howard's team, as they headed to Austin to face the talented young squad of Concordia.

The game was back and forth with a series or runs from the Tornadoes and the Cowboys. HSU took the lead with 25 seconds remaining on a lay up by sophomore center Mardochee Jean. The bench erupted as it was one of the few leads the Cowboys had all game and it came at the right time.

The lead was short lived though as Valentino Maxwell, a first-team All Region performer, made a jumper from the free throw line with 11 seconds left. With the Cowboys down by one they had time to get a shot off.

A jumper from James Peters was off the mark and then Jean got the offensive rebound but his put back was no good as the time expired. When the buzzer went off, the disappointment began to sit in for the Cowboys players, coaches, and fans.

Although the season ended in disappointment, the men's basketball team had a lot of success stories from the year.

Mardochee Jean had several highlights from the year. He broke the ASC blocked shot record with a total of 99 blocks on the year. Rockland Owens of Sul Ross State had the previous record with 77 blocks back in the 2002-03 season. Jean also destroyed the single-season school record by bettering Jim Nelson's 55 blocks back in 1991.

Jean broke another record this year by having 22 rebounds in a game against Schreiner on Feb. 2. That performance actually broke his own record that he had set earlier in the season when he had 18 rebounds in games against East Texas Baptist and Concordia-Austin. His rebound total of 252 for the year was the fourth highest in the university's non-scholarship era, which dates back to 1991.

Jean finished the year averaging a double-double with a 13.4 scoring average and 10.1 rebounds. Both were career highs as he improved from 6.0, 5.7 freshman year. These numbers impressed the conference as he was named the ASC Defensive Player of the Year, as well as second-team all conference. He also garnered a spot on the D3hoops.com All-Region team as a representative on the third team.

Junior forward Zach Pickelman also had a very productive year. Pickelman led the Cowboys all year in scoring and his 17.6 points per game was good enough for fifth best in the ASC.

His 440 points on the season was good enough to be the fourth best single-season total. The scoring average of 17.6 points also was the fourth best in a season. Pickelman also tied for fourth in free throws made in a year with 108, a record he shares with Calvin Nite from the 2004-05 season.

Not only did Pickelman move into the record books for his season totals, but he also moved into the career charts. He now has 1,110 points in his three-year career which is the third highest total. He is 193 points away from moving into sole possession of second place on the charts. His career total of 414 rebounds is good for fourth place, and Pickelman's 104 3-point field goals made has him ranked sixth.

Pickelman was voted by the league's coaches as a first-teamer in the ASC West Division.

These two individual efforts was not the only reason for the Cowboys' winning record. The Cowboys defended well and Coach Howard stressed defense and hustle out of his players all year.

The defensive effort was highlighted by the third-best field goal percentage defense. For the year, the Cowboys held their opponents to a .399 percentage. There were many games where the Cowboys won by not letting the opponent's best players shoot lights out.

In the midst of a late season six-game winning streak, the Cowboys held five of the opponents under 40 percent shooting and two of those were under 30 percent.

Hardin-Simmons also ranked in the top five in 3-point field goal defense only allowing their opponents to shoot .330 from beyond the arc. They also led the league in blocked shots per game with a whopping 5.36 blocks-per-game.

A season that started out with a trip to the Super Pit in Denton, Texas to play Division I school, North Texas. The Cowboys were outscored by almost 40 points when the final buzzer sounded, but that does not outweigh the experience the Cowboys gained from this road trip.

Knowing that they were not supposed to win the Cowboys fought hard and did not hold their heads down when the game was over. Instead they took the defeat and headed back to Abilene where they beat a tough non-conference opponent in Southwestern. The Cowboys went on to win four out of the next five but then hit a bump in the road.

A trip to Dallas to play another Division I opponent in Southern Methodist was the beginning of a four-game losing streak. The Cowboys played great in the 85-70 loss to the Mustangs of SMU, but then lost three more to cross-town rival McMurry, Louisiana College, and nationally-ranked Mississippi College.

The peaks and valleys of the 2005-2006 season was something that will leave a lasting impression on the players and coaching staff. The Cowboys will be in the thick of things next year and will be in the hunt for the ASC West Crown. Hardin-Simmons program under Coach Howard is on a rise and with a little more consistency next season could be the team to beat.