| 03-04 Season
Schedule | Roster
| Stats | Gallery | Signings
All-KCAC & NAIA Honors | Weekly
KCAC Honors
 The 2003-2004 basketball season for the McPherson College men was highlighted by several milestones. The Bulldogs’ 20-10 win-loss record marked the first season since 1993-1994 the men had posted a 20-win season. That marked only the third 20 win season in school history and fell short of the tying the school record for wins in a season set in 1958-1959 by one win.
Senior forward Kenny Romero established new school career marks for both individual scoring and rebounding in his final season of eligibility. Romero displaced Johnson Coachman ’95 at the top of the rebounding list during the Dogs’ 89-87 overtime win at crosstown rival Central Christian College on November 25. Then, on January 22, Romero took over Coachman’s spot at the top of the career scoring chart late in McPherson’s 72-62 KCAC win over Southwestern College. Romero would finish the season with exactly 2,000 points and 920 records.
A third milestone occurred on January 19th as the Bulldogs defeated Central Christian College for a second time (68-65) as the victory gave McPherson head coach Roger Trimmell his 300th career win as a collegiate head coach. The Bulldogs’ 20 wins in 2004 marked the second 20-win season in Trimmell’s 22 years at the McPherson helm, equaling the 20 wins posted by his 1993-1994 squad. The Dogs’ tie for third in the KCAC regular season race marked the eighth time a Trimmell coached team had finished in the KCAC’s top three.
With the first seven games all played away from the friendly confines of the McPherson College Sport Center, the Bulldogs opened the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 3-2 record, then went on a six-game winning streak that propelled the Dogs into the NAIA’s top 25. That six-game win streak included Sport Center wins over KCAC pre-season favorites Bethel and Sterling. Ranked 19th in the NAIA’s Division II, the slop by the Bulldogs’ in the KCAC came in their final game before the Christmas break as Friends handed McPherson its first home loss of the season. Standing 3-1 in the KCAC and 9-3 overall, the Dogs’ headed into the break third in the conference race.
McPherson opened 2004 with a 62-53 non-conference, homecourt win over NCAA D-III University of Dallas, a team that would later gain a berth in the D-III national postseason tournament. The month of January saw McPherson win all four home games, but drop four of five road games. Standing 7-5 in the conference heading in to February, the Bulldogs split back-to-back overtime games, defeating Friends in Wichita before falling to Tabor in the Sport Center. With its back to the wall entering the final two weeks of the regular season, McPherson won three of its final four regular season contests, including a 63-59 road win over Southwestern to secure a homecourt game in the quarterfinals of the KCAC postseason tournament.
Five days after defeating Southwestern in Winfield to close out the regular season with an 11-7 KCAC record, the Bulldogs hosted the Moundbuilders in the Sport Center and came away with a 79-69 win, notching their 20th win of the season. Two days later McPherson traveled to Sterling to meet the KCAC’s regular season runnerup Warriors, a team that had defeated the Bulldogs 86-77 in Sterling on the final day of January. This time the result was the same as Sterling won 73-61 to end the Bulldogs’ season and their hopes for a school first national playoff berth.
Individually, Romero was a unanimous All-KCAC first team pick after leading McPherson and the conference with a 20.8 points per game scoring average and was second in KCAC rebounding with a Bulldog leading 8.6 boards per game. Juniors Roy McDonald and Brian Hooks would average 12.5 and 12.7 points per game, and were both honorable mention All-KCAC picks. Freshman Jordan Carter was named to the KCAC All-Freshmen team.
While replacing Romero’s 2,000 points and 920 rebounds will be difficult, the Bulldogs’ will return 1,000-point career scorer McDonald (1049 points) and Hooks, who will enter the 2004-2005 season with 929 points, along with starters Cody Rierson (7.9) and Lee Gustafson (5.2 points, 4.9 rebounds). Top reserves returning will be Jordan Carter (6.2 points) and Tim Cox (4.4), along with Art Soto, Jamar Turner, Austin Klumpe, Brandon Pitts, and Justyn Shaw.
|
