Bay's Johnson Named Michigan's Top JUCO Coach

ESCANABA---Bay College men's basketball coach Matt Johnson has been named the Michigan Junior College Coach of the Year by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, after the Norse had its best season in school history this winter.

The Norse posted a 26-6 record, winning all 15 games in thir first season in the Michigan Community College Athletic Assication to claim the North Conference Championship with a perfect record.

Bay advanced to the MCCAA championship game before losing to third-ranked Detroit Henry Ford in the championship game, and the Norse advananced to the regional championship game before falling to 18th-ranked Mott Community College on their home floor.

Bay's other four losses all came to powerhouse teams, including national champion Milwaukee Area Technical College, Region 13 champion Dakota County (Minn.) Technical College, and two down-to-the-wire losses to Palm Beach State (Fla.) College, which avaeraged 89.7 points per game and lost its Region Eight championship game by three points.

"It's obviously nice to get any award, I suppose, but it's really nothing I did," Johnson said. "The guys won this award. If they don't win us basketball games, we're not having this conversation. It was an awful lot of fun. We had a great group of guys. They work hard. Hopefully, it's something we can build on and take us to that next level. I'm looking forward to getting back in the gym with these returners and a group of new guys, shortly."

That will happen next month, when the Norse players come to campus for a summer camp and they head to Port Huron to play in a tournament. Then, in September, the team will be reunited on campus for the start of the school year before the season starts in late October.

Johnson is the only coach in Norse basketball's modern history, having started thr program from scratch six years ago. He has complied a 112-60 record since the program started.