“I’m not letting them forget the loss to Jones College,” said Jenkins, who enters his 21st season as head coach of the Buccaneers. “I tell my players the same thing every day. When something isn’t going the way it should, I remind them.”
The Buccaneers are loaded with 10 players (eight sophomores, two redshirt freshmen) who remember the sting of a 2021-22 season which saw them finish 28-5, earn their first-ever Region XIV crown, a Region XIV Tournament championship, and a bye in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship before bowing out to Jones, 77-65, in their first game of the tournament.
Eight months later, Blinn is eyeing a return trip to nationals, and to do so, Jenkins is hoping his team uses the lessons it learned from its last trip to the big stage.
“I’ve had two or three losses in my career that have really hurt, and that one is probably the worst,” Jenkins said. “It’s not the fact that we lost, it’s the fact that we didn’t defend and I don’t think we competed very well. I can handle losing, but I just thought we were playing really good basketball leading up to that game and that ended up being the worst game we played all year. You just don’t want that to happen again.”
Blinn opens the season at McLennan Community College at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, and enters play armed with an experienced roster that returns 58.5 points from a season ago.
Jenkins is excited about what a year of offensive growth should look like for the Bucs, but he’s more concerned with what proved to be the Bucs’ biggest weakness last season.
“We had 30 quarters last year where we gave up 20 or more points,” Jenkins said. “Against Jones, we gave up 22 and 26 points in the third and fourth quarter of that loss. We can’t have those breakdowns. We aren’t going to shoot well every single game, so we have to be able to win in different ways.”
Jenkins’ team has heard the message and is taking it to heart.
During their march to the regular season, the Bucs have come to expect practices centered solely around defense and are hoping to bring their defensive game up to speed with their ability to score the ball. Blinn tallied 78.2 points per game last season but allowed 65.3.
(Pictured: Blinn College’s Allana Thompson, 3, soars to the rim against Jones College during the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament last season)
“We know we can score, but we have to defend,” sophomore guard Allana Thompson said. “We believe we’re a good team, but what humbled us was losing at nationals. We lost at nationals because we didn’t play the level of defense needed to win games at that level. That will be the key to being successful this year.”
Tiffany Tullis, a sophomore forward recognized as the Region XIV Newcomer of the Year as well as a first-team all-region selection, said the Buccaneers’ practices have often become defense-centric, with Jenkins’ decision to turn sessions into defensive clinics if he senses his team is lacking in effort.
“If we don’t perform well during the drills, it’s going to be a defensive practice the entire time,” said Tullis, who averaged 11.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game as a freshman. “That’s how serious we are and coach Jenkins is about getting better in that area. Defense comes with effort and energy, and as long as we have that, things will click.”
Nine of Blinn’s 15 players are sophomores this season, including second-year transfer guard Crystal Smith (Tarleton State University). Jenkin’s plans to fuse his experienced scorers with the youthful energy of a talented freshman class to create a competitive rotation on the court.
“We’re ahead of schedule from where we’d typically be at this point just because so many of our players saw significant minutes last year,” Jenkins said. “It’s easier when you have 10 returners because your freshmen basically have to fall in line. If you have 10 freshmen, that can be a really tough year. But because we have so many experienced and talented returners, it’s a situation where if the freshmen don’t play hard and they’re not competing every day, they’re not going to see the floor. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.”
Sophomore guard Hannah Humphrey, an all-region honorable mention last season who returns after registering 11.7 points per contest in 2021-22, already sees the pieces coming together.
“It has been a smooth process,” she said. “The freshmen are adjusting quickly because they know they have to if they want to keep up. I think we have the right group to bring them along, and they’re catching on really quickly – they’re smart players.”
(Pictured: Blinn College’s Hannah Humphrey, 22, shoots against Jones College during the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament last season)
Other sophomores returning for Blinn this season include guards Skylar Barnes, Makayla Patterson, Kaidance Glenn, and Jakoriah Long, as well as forward Amillion Fowler. Redshirt freshmen Tianna Mathis (guard) and Desiree Rogers (forward) also return for their second year.
Forwards Jasmine Green and Jasmyn Jackson, along with guards Amyria Walker and Carolyn Seif, make up Jenkins’ class of true freshmen.
In the Region XIV preseason coaches poll released in mid-October, the Buccaneers were picked to finish second in the nine-team region. Trinity Valley Community College, with which the Buccaneers shared the region crown last season, were voted first. However, Blinn received five first-place votes to the Cardinals’ four. Blinn was also ranked sixth in the NJCAA Division I preseason top-25 poll.
The Bucs will have a November slate full of tests as they play their first six games of the year on the road and eight of nine away from Brenham before December. Blinn hosts its first game at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 21, against Temple College at The Kruse Center. The Bucs open region play with a home tilt against Panola College at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
The tough schedule is something Jenkins said he looks forward to watching his team navigate this season, adding that he expects a difficult matchup every time the Bucs take the court.
“I did not do any favor for my team in terms of scheduling this season … it’s as tough as I’ve ever seen,” Jenkins said. “Our November will be tough, and then the region is always strong. Every Wednesday and every Saturday, if you don’t play well there’s a good chance you’re going to lose. That’s why it’s important that we play hard and play good defense. We’re going to get everyone’s best because it would be a good win for any team to beat Blinn this year.”
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
