RCTC Men’s Basketball talks upcoming trip to Anoka-Ramsey Classic

Through nine games, RCTC Men’s Basketball has been as good as one can expect.

The Yellowjackets shoot the ball, share the ball and defend the ball well. As the team closes in on Christmas break, Head Coach Brian LaPlante’s club will get another opportunity to continue its upward trajectory. The team will hit the Twin Cities this weekend for the Anoka-Ramsey Classic against Joliet Junior College and Bismarck State College.

With the Yellowjackets practicing at the Rochester Regional Sports Center, Coach LaPlante wants to improve his team’s three-point shooting percentage (about 30 percent). It’s an area he’s focusing on as transition offense off defense can only get a team so far despite RCTC averaging 75 points a contest.

“We’re going to play two really good basketball teams,” Coach LaPlante noted. “Joliet is out of Illinois, they have a losing record but they’ve played ten scholarship JUCOs. That tells you they are going to be one of the better teams we play. They were at the national tournament a year ago. That’s a very good program. And Bismarck State, a Division I Junior College. We always go up there because we’re going to see two really good teams before break.”

“That’s what we want to be,” Yellowjackets guard Andre Crockett added. “We want to be competing for a national tournament and these two teams… Competing against them will help us get there.”

The Yellowjackets’ matchup against Joliet will take place Friday at 3 PM and their match against Bismarck State will take place Sunday at noon.