Chipola working towards a trip to Kansas and a shot at a national championship

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Donnie Tyndall and his Chipola mens basketball team are gearing up for yet another trip to Hutchinson, Kansas and the NJCAA Division One National Tournament. The last time the Indians were on the court was this past Friday, the Indians losing in the state semifinals against Northwest Florida in a game that was one possession pretty much the entire game. The Raiders winning that one 61-55. Chipola earned an at large bid and the nine seed in the 24 team tourney based on a 28-4 record, and the fact they shared the conference title with Northwest and Tally. Along with some big wins outside league play. “Georgia Highlands we beat, who won their regular season title.” Coach Tyndall told me via a Zoom call Monday. “We beat them twice. We beat Coastal Alabama North, they won the Alabama state title regular season. We beat Monroe who is a tournaments team out of New York. So we had some other quality wins. Florida Southwest was another nice win for us on our résumé. So I think all in all, all things considered number nine seed not bad. We would have liked to have been in the top eight because then you only have to play four as opposed to five to win it all. But hey we’re just glad to be in it and we get to keep playing.”

After some time off and then two days in the weight room, the team got back on the floor, says the coach. ”We’ll ramp up and have two or three really good practices, hard physical practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll leave Thursday afternoon to catch a flight out to Kansas, and settle in Thursday night. We’ll have a practice on Friday and Saturday. Sunday will be pretty light, more of like a walk-through type setting. And then we play an early noon game on Monday against Cape Fear Junior College out of North Carolina. We’ve got the week planned out, now we’ve got to go do it man.”

The Indians have been national runnerup three times, in 1974, 2007 and 2021, but have yet to win it all.

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