COLBY, Kan. – Securing 162 total points and six of 13 first-place votes, the Coffeyville Community College men’s basketball team has been selected to win the KJCCC Division 1 Men’s Basketball predicted order of finish poll, as voted on by the 13 league coaches ahead of the 2025-26 season.  

The Red Ravens are coming off a second-place finish in the 2024-25 KJCCC D1 men’s basketball regular season standings as Coffeyville went 23-9 overall and 18-6 in the KJCCC while advancing to the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament semifinals. Under coach Jay Herkelman, the Red Ravens have won 16 conference titles with their most recent conference crown coming in 2021.

A tie for second in the poll saw both defending KJCCC regular season and NJCAA Region 6 Tournament champion Cowley College and Barton each pick up 142 points in the poll, with the Tigers earning four first-place votes while Barton earned one first-place vote. Both Cowley and Barton advanced to the NJCAA D1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament last year, combining for two wins at the National Tournament after meeting up in the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament Championship game that was won by Cowley. The Tigers went 30-5 overall last year while the Cougars ended the season with a 26-9 overall record.

Rounding out the top five of the preseason poll was Hutchinson in fourth with 123 points and Butler in fifth with 95 points as both teams are expecting to build off of last year’s results with second-year head coaches. The Blue Dragons enter the 2025-26 campaign under second-year head coach Kyle Fisher following last year’s 19-12 record while Butler is led by Eric Nitsche in his second year after going 22-11 last season.   

Earning one of the two remaining first-place votes is sixth-place Dodge City as the Conquistadors earned 92 total points to finish ahead of seventh-place Independence (87 points) while Garden City will look to rebuild under long-time KJCCC coach Tommy DeSalme, who is in his first year with the Broncbusters and was picked eighth (85 points). The lone remaining first-place vote was received by Cloud County, who was picked ninth with 82 total points and is coming off a 14-18 campaign under former DeSalme assistant Kyle Pugh.

Finishing out the poll are Pratt (10th, 70 points), Colby (11th, 38 points), Seward County (12th, 36 points), and Fort Hays Tech Northwest (13th, 29 points) in what is expected to be another deep league filled with talent throughout the 13 teams in the conference.

With teams having begun preseason practices back on October 1, the regular season will officially tip-off on Friday, October 31st as seven games will take place on the opening day of the season. All 13 league teams will have the first two-plus weeks of the regular season to compete in up to six non-conference matchups each before starting a 24-game KJCCC that is slated to begin on Wednesday, November 19th with six matchups between conference schools.  

The final day of the regular season is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4th as postseason play will begin on Saturday, March 7th. Each of the top four teams in the final regular season standings will receive a first-round bye in the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament, while teams that finish fifth through eighth will host teams that finish ninth through 12th in the regular season standings in opening round games. The winners of the four first-round games will move on to face the four teams that received byes on Tuesday, March 10th before seeing action move to a still-to-be-determined KJCCC campus site for the semifinals and finals. The semifinals and finals are scheduled to take place March 13-14, with the NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament taking place inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas March 21-28, 2026.

Preseason interviews with the head coaches of teams picked to finish 1-4 in the poll (Jay Herkelman – Coffeyville, Donnie Jackson – Cowley, Jeremy Coombs – Barton, and Kyle Fisher – Hutchinson) will be released next week in the days leading up to the start of the regular season, with former Barton Community College play-by-play broadcaster Cole Rief conducting the interviews. Be sure to keep an eye on the KJCCC website (www.kjccc.org) and social media pages (Facebook, X) to view each interview as they are released.