Cinderella would have been proud of the Connors State Cowboys in 2024. They went
from a team with no returning players and no identity to a team that played for the
NJCAA championship with tragedy and drama along the way. “It was just a remarkable,
remarkable season,” in the words of head coach Bill Muse. The Hall of Fame coach had
to structure a totally new team last year that searched for its identity in the first
semester. But the unexpected death of Muse’s wife Connie during the holiday break
was a tragedy that seemed to mold the team together. “After Connie passed, these
guys just bonded together,” recalled Muse. “I’ve had teams that were more talented, but
I’ve never had a team with better chemistry than those guys.”
The Cowboys went on to win the regular season conference title, the Region 2
championship and moved on to the national tournament where they went all the way to
the finals including an improbable buzzer-beater by DJ Dormu against the top ranked
team in the country. Moving on to the new season, the Cowboys lose two of the
sparkplugs of last season in Dormu and big man Edwin Daniels. But they do return six
players from that team and start far ahead of where they were at this time last year.
“The big job for us will be replacing DJ at point guard. His play in the last 10 games was
really a difference maker for us.” said Muse (803-265) who starts his 34 th year as the
Cowboy head coach. “Jermiah Johnson (6-2) will be one of the guys we’ll be looking at
to do that. He’s back bigger and stronger and he just makes winning plays when you
need them.” Also back is the leading scorer from last year in Kevin Stubblefield Jr. (6-5)
along with Aric Walls (6-3), Dashaun Spence (6-6) who has recovered from an ankle
injury that kept him out most of the second semester last year, Tito Ramos (6-2) from
Okay, and Ace Clemons (6-8) who redshirted last year. New to the Cowboy roster this
year will be CJ Lee (6-2), a redshirt sophomore from Maryland who Muse hopes will be
a serious candidate at point guard, Marcus Britt Jr. (6-3) from Forest City, Arkansas
whose dad played at Arkansas, Dashawn Ransome (6-6) from Oklahoma City Douglas
who can play multiple positions, and Peter Da Cruz (6-9) from the New Jersey prep
leagues who Muse is really high on. The Cowboys, who were ranked fifth in the nation
in pre-season polls, will also add former Muskogee Rougher and Cowboy Xavier Brown
as a student assistant coach.
