Cañada back at it

On March 13, Cañada College fell 75-68 in overtime to eventual state champion Saddleback College in the opening round of the CCCAA Final Four. It took a 30-foot three-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining for Saddleback to send the contest into that extra period.

But rather than mope around cursing the basketball gods, the Colts have other plans.

"We took a few days off, re-collected and got back at it," Coach Mike Reynoso explained. "The only way to get over it is to get back out there. That's just who I am." Now the expectations are for Cañada to annually be in the running to win state.

However, the tale that has yet to be told is how a program which finished 5-22 a year earlier vaulted into participating in a state championship playoff alongside three other competitors?

Reynoso knows the hows and whys.

"We had right guys at 5-22. We built a foundation, we competed, playing with toughness and grit. We never gave up on each other and learned to be a tough team playing together. They didn't accept failure. They played the right way, as a team sharing the ball. What we lacked was in terms of the talent aspect."

That evolved with the development of certain talents already on the roster and the additions of others.

"From day one, it was we can do something here if we play together with a collective effort and agreement. We needed to play for each other. If we're successful, guys are going to get recognition. They did a great job of learning our offensive and defensive philosophy of being one unit offensively and defensively. It was a collective effort."

Reynoso cited Rhondell Goodwin as a prime example.

"He was our best player, the [northern California] MVP and he came off the bench. Rhondell didn't whine, he unselfishly did what was best for the team. After five minutes of play, he comes in and we're looking at going up. They're [the opposing team) looking at a dropoff."

Riffing further on Goodwin, Reynoso offered, "he is so versatile with a unique set of skills. He played the 1-5 positions for us. But he wasn't a DI prospect as a freshman. He fought through two ACL injuries and came back very diligently working on his craft." Rohndell averaged 17.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 2014-15, shooting 53%, 37% and 82%.

Yet the season wasn't without it's slips -- "we had some guys with injuries and our confidence turned into cockiness."

There was a 72-70 loss to Skyline in late January. In early-to-mid February, Cañada fell 82-77 to Las Positas, 68-67 versus Chabot and 80-77 against CCSF in consecutive losses.

The Colts dug deeper, righted themselves, and four successive wins soon followed -- against Foothill, Diablo Valley, San Jose City and Marin -- until the matchup with Saddleback. "I'm really proud of how we came back," Reynoso noted.

Getting and maintaining buy-in are critical and landing "the right guys, high character guys, is a big part of it. You have to preach who you are, what you believe in and show that. Kids see through a lot and can tell if its the basis of who you are and what you believe."

"We pride ourselves at playing defense like it's done at the DI level and teach how to read defenses coming off screens [offensively] and how to take a good shot," Reynoso said. The feedback received thus far is "we don't have to teach your guys because they're not just athletes."  

So has making the Final Four generated a boost in program interest?

"There are definitely more calls from people who want to play for us. We want guys from winning program who play the right way. But we don't sell the Final Four -- we sell relationships. The interest in our four sophomores sells itself. We're sending them off to play at the next level and get their education paid for, emphasizing choosing a good academic institution and a program that keeps skill development going. We don't make promises -- it's listen to our philosophy, do what we ask you to do on the court and in the classroom and you'll be successful."

The Cañada basketball credo might best be summed up as "represent yourself well, your family well and your team well."