Men's College Basketball: Former CLC recruit finally lands with Raiders

MCAC State/Region 13 tournament

At Anoka-Ramsey CC

Quarterfinals: No. 2 Northern Division CLC vs. No. 3 Southern Division Minnesota West 2 p.m. Friday

CLC/Minnesota West loser vs. Rochester/Rainy River loser in consolation semifinals 11 a.m. Saturday

CLC/Minnesota West winner vs. Rochester/Rainy River winner in championship semifinals 3 p.m. Saturday

Sunday's games: Fifth place 11 a.m., third place 1 p.m., championship 3 p.m.

It took an extra four years, but Jim Russell finally has an athlete he coveted on his bench and Mark Hoge is following his dream of a basketball career.

As head coach of the highly successful Central Lakes College Raiders, who play in the MCAC state/Region 13 tournament this weekend in Anoka, Russell tried hard to recruit the 2010 Crosby-Ironton High School graduate. Instead, Hoge chose to attend North Dakota's University of Jamestown where he was a two-time All-American.

This year, he joined Russell and the Raider staff as an intern coach.

Hoge always dreamed of being able to continue his career as a professional player, possibly in Europe, but now the prospect of coaching has caught his interest as well.

"I came into to talk to coach Russell about any professional basketball tryouts that he might know of, or scouts that might help advance my career," said Hoge. "He talked about if I didn't go anywhere, would I be one of his assistant coaches? I had a couple of tryouts and then decided I would be a volunteer assistant coach.

"When I found out that I had to finish my internship, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. Once I'm done with this and get my hours turned in, I'll have my

bachelor's degree (in mass communications)."

Russell said, "I recruited Mark hard out of high school, really hard. He's a phenomenal player so when I found out he was around, internship or not, I said 'I want you to coach.' The kid knows basketball and he's played at a great level. He competes and I want these guys (Raiders) to learn and to listen. This is what it's about.

"I mean what a great catch Mark is, All-American and everything. I wish I had him as a player when he came out of high school, but I'll take him now."

In high school, Hoge played on C-I teams that finished second in the Class 2A state tournament his sophomore and senior years. He averaged 18 points a game his junior and senior years as a starter.

At Jamestown, he was the first player off the bench his first two years and then started as a junior and senior averaging 18 points both years. As a junior, he scored a career-high 36 points while hitting nine of 11 shots from three-point range against South Dakota State University.

Last year as a senior, he led the Jimmies in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals. He shot 45.8 percent from the field (41.2 percent from beyond the arc) and 80.7 percent from the charity stripe.

Until a year ago, Hoge was thinking more about his future as player than

as a coach.

"My senior year of college I had numerous people come up to me and ask me if I was going to go into coaching because they felt I had a natural skill set to lead a team, and that really put that thought in my head," he said. "When Russell offered me the assistant coaching job, I thought why not, and see if I like it.

"The more I come to practice, the more I want to stay and continue coaching. So, it either might be that I stay as an assistant coach or take it somewhere else to try coaching myself.

"Schools are always looking for coaches. Coaches tend to leave, so there's always a chance of jobs opening up. Until then, I don't mind assistant coaching with Russell and getting more experience and learning more aspects of the game.

"I like being an assistant coach, especially under (Russell). In practice, he tries to get everything out of the players that he can.

"I will also say that going from the player's standpoint to the coaching standpoint is a completely different aspect of viewing the game. It's different from being on the court and having to run the drills during the game versus being on the side making sure everyone is where they're supposed to be. It's a different view of the game and I really like it a lot."

Russell said if Hoge stays on for a while as an assistant that is fine by him. Russell believes in utilizing young assistant coaches and is quick to give them credit.

"It's not about me," Russell said, "but it's about these young guys on the bench that come in every day and work with the players. They're just out of college, they've experienced it and (the team) listens to them. They've played college ball for four years and have great understanding of the game."

While whatever tomorrow may bring may be a little uncertain for Hoge, he's

pretty confident it will involve basketball.

"Basketball is my life," he said. "It has been since I was born and it still is today. Everything I do is about basketball. Being an assistant coach allows me to come in and shoot whenever I want to and lift and work out so I'm using this opportunity to stay in shape in case I do get a call to continue playing basketball.

"But if the future is coaching, I'm good with that too."