NTU men’s basketball ‘stepping out of comfort zone’: Skyhawks opens season with exhibition game Sunday

CROWNPOINT – There’s excitement in the air for the Navajo Technical University men’s basketball team.

The NTU Skyhawks return six players from last year’s inaugural season as that team finished 16-12 overall.

“You’re going to see more athleticism on the court,” NTU returning point guard Brady Ramon said. “It’s going to be exciting and, you know, we have a lot of Native players, and we all know how to play ball.”

Ramon is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and he is one of 14 players that are Native American.

“We’ve done a good job of recruiting Navajo, Comanche, Pueblo, Cherokee, Tohono O’odham and Ak Chin tribes,” said second-year NTU coach Rob Floco, who was tasked in blending in a dozen freshmen with his veteran players.

“The guys are meshing really well and as a staff we’re making sure that we stay connected and that we’re a family,” Floco said. “They understand that we’re going to be as good as the people around us. If we keep that in mind and understand that we’re going to share the ball and we’re going to defend as a team we’re going to be more successful than individuals.”

The team has added some local flavor like Monument Valley graduate Albrandon Byjoe, Gallup alum Quinn Atazhoon, Navajo Prep grad Dontrelle Denetso and Newcomb graduate Lars Yazzie.

Floco also recruited some high school talent from the Albuquerque and Phoenix areas as this year’s squad has more size.

“We’ll have a different kind of tempo than what we had last year,” the NTU coach said. “Our bigs are more physical and athletic than last year, and our practices have been intense so we’re doing great.

“With it being Year Two, we’re way deeper and we’re going to do it by mass committee,” he continued. “We got mass numbers. We got 20 players and 15 of them are going to be traveling, so we got guys fighting for positions every week.”

Navajo Technical opens the season on Sunday with a pair of exhibition games with Hillcrest Prep at Gallup High School. The first game starts at 1 p.m. and the second one at 3 p.m. with a $5 admission. The doors will open at 12:30 p.m.

“They’re bringing in two teams,” Floco said of the Gilbert, Arizona prep academy. “They have a postgrad and prep program. The prep program has literally six Division I players. I was looking at their lineup and they have four guys that are 6-9 and above and five 6-6 guards.

“It’ll be a very good challenging game for us early on,” he added. “We haven’t scrimmaged anybody yet and they’ve already got about seven games under their belt so it should be interesting.”

Floco said he’s good friends with Hillcrest Prep owner Nick Weaver and since he took over the NTU program the two have agreed to play one another each year.

“Last year we beat them by two in a buzzer beater and this year they’re coming to Gallup,” he said.

Atazhoon, who previously played at Arizona’s Pima Community College and Washington’s Yakima Valley College, said he’s excited to play in his former digs at Gallup High.

“I’m hoping that it’ll be packed like when I used to play,” he said. “Back in high school we were one of the top 5 programs in (Class) 4A and we had that place packed, and I do want to play in that environment.”

Atazhoon said he’s looking forward to playing Hillcrest Prep. And like most of his teammates they’re using that game as a litmus test to see what they need to work on.

“Hillcrest Prep is a national program, and they have a lot of guys that get Division I looks and some of their players have gone to the NBA,” Atazhoon said. “They’re well known to play at a high level, so it’s going to be a good marker to see where we’re at.”

“I’m excited about our first game,” Byjoe added. “We got some great guards on our team, and we also got some 6-7 guys on our team so I know that we can compete.”

Floco said the focus for Year Two is to showcase the talent the NTU team has to other areas besides Crownpoint. The team has scheduled games at Chinle, Window Rock and either Newcomb or Shiprock.

“My goal this year was to outreach and make sure we’re able to connect with not just Crownpoint, but also the Navajo Nation,” he said. “We have scheduled a lot of weekend games so they can be able to travel to our games.

“That is why we want to entertain a game in Newcomb, Window Rock and Chinle,” he added. “We know it reaches further than just Crownpoint.”

Following Sunday’s game, the Skyhawks will host Albuquerque Basketball Club Prep (ABC) on Saturday at the NTU campus gym.

On Oct. 26, the NTU men’s and women’s team will entertain Eastern Arizona College in Chinle and on Oct. 28 the men’s team will play Ascending Life College Prep Academy in Window Rock. The second game with Ascending Life will take place in either Shiprock or Newcomb on Oct. 29 as that will conclude the Skyhawks exhibition games.

NTU opens the regular season at University of Southwest in Hobbs on Nov. 2.

“We’re working with all these high school athletic programs,” Floco said while adding that in the future he would like to conduct a youth camp and a coach meeting with some of the local schools they’re playing at.

“It’s a tough feat to do it with just the two of us,” Floco said while looking at his assistant coach Christian Lee. “But we’re getting there. We have the outreach going on and hopefully we can include Ganado and get to some of the local areas so they can get a taste of what college basketball is like.”

The NTU coach said they’re trying to market the program as they have scheduled away games with programs like Northern New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico and Division I program Weber State University.

“We’re literally stepping out of the comfort zone in doing something not only for Crownpoint, but Navajo Technical University and the Navajo Nation,” Floco said. “We want to be a well-rounded group and, you know, our non-Native players are excited about it too. This is something that they have never seen either. When you talk about breaking down barriers, when you talk about how transparent our program is going to be, we’re literally putting ourselves out there.”

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