For Kaden Ogles, off-season workouts felt less excruciating than watching game film.
Turnovers. High school-type plays. Poor passes. Criticism. Nobody said adjusting to junior college basketball as a point guard out of high school is easy, especially facing opposing players who are bigger, faster, and likely older.
This was Ogles one year ago. Film didn’t hide the flaws.
“It was me not accepting it,” he said.
Once Ogles learned by seeing, then doing, he became a changed player now in his second season as a starter on Clark College men’s basketball team.
Ogles, out of Newberg, Ore., is the only returnee from Clark’s Northwest Athletic Conference South Region title-winning team last season.
High roster turnover is common at the JC level, and Ogles will be an even bigger piece on a young Penguins team that’s off to a 3-2 start hosting an NWAC crossover tournament this weekend. It’s six games over three days featuring Centralia, Olympic, Spokane and the Penguins starting with pair of games Friday at the O’Connell Sports Complex.
With so many new faces, the Penguins might be inexperienced playing together, but expectations on winning never changes.
“We know what we need to do to win a title,” Ogles said. “I’m expecting a good year. … win league again and keep that tradition going.”
That tradition is currently four region titles in a row, and coach Kevin Johnson credits Ogles as the Penguins’ instrumental piece last season to winning the program’s South Region title with a second-half surge.
It was highlighted by one of Ogles’ best games as a freshman — a triple-double of 17 points, 10 points and a season-high 10 assists in a victory over Southwestern Oregon — as part of winning five of their final six regular-season games.
Yet it was far from a perfect start for the 6-foot-1 guard.
Ogles started all 27 games in 2016-17, but didn’t turn the corner until the second half of the NWAC schedule, Johnson said. That’s when the level of production became more consistent every night. It was more than stats, too.
“He wants to do things the right way,” Johnson said.
Like any coach, Johnson demands a lot from his players, but none more so than the point-guard spot.
For Johnson, a lot of that stems from not only as a long-tenured high school coach, but also learning the craft from college basketball’s biggest coaching names.
Johnson and his wife, Julie, are graduates of the University of Kansas. Johnson has been back a number of times to sit in on Jayhawks’ practices coached by former head coach Roy Williams and now Bill Self.
While Johnson, whose interim tag was removed last spring after the Penguins’ 17-10 season, didn’t recruit Ogles, he said Ogles embraced Johnson’s style and also suits the type of player he wants in his program: a true student-athlete with high character, much like all the other players he has in his inaugural recruiting class on the 2017-18 roster.
And those once-painful film sessions Ogles endured with Johnson last season are a thing of the past because of Ogles’ understanding of what his job is on the floor: everything from learning to gain the most from every possession to better managing late shot-clock situations.
“All that stuff is an eye-opener,” Ogles said, “and it helps you be a better point guard.”
Said Johnson: “He’s been great about that, and really learned how to play. That’s the best thing about him, and he really embraces that.”
Ogles was an all-league high school player, but didn’t realize the commitment and work ethic needed to play beyond high school until he arrived at Clark. That’s when his growth came through watching himself on tape. The things he did as a high-school player he couldn’t get away with anymore.
“It’s not just about the shots,” he said, “but stop making the dumb passes on the back door. That’s what college coaches look for. All the little things.”
The numbers are more noticeable, too. Ogles’ 14 points per game — up from 8.7 last season — is third-best on the team in addition to averaging 5.6 assists in 30 minutes a contest. He hopes after leaving his mark on the program with what he hopes includes a fifth-straight region title, he can remain invested just like the coaches invested time into him to make him the player he’s become.
Thanks in part to those film sessions.
“Overall,” Ogles said, “I’ve grown as a player and a point guard.”
