College Notebook: MC basketball’s Gonzalez turns big season into scholarship

The Merced College men’s basketball team’s sophomore class set some lofty goals entering the 2016-17 season.

Disappointed by just a 2-23 showing as freshmen, the group sought to bring Blue Devil basketball back to state relevance. MC realized their objectives, going 17-11 overall, finishing second in the Central Valley Conference and qualifying for the NorCal Regional playoffs for the first time in a decade. The Blue Devils did it in entertaining fashion, averaging 84.3 points per game, good for seventh best in the state.

The turnaround garnered the attention of many, including a handful of four-year coaches from around the state. Jose Gonzalez became the first to cash in that notoriety on Friday morning, signing his letter of intent to continue his career at Pacific Union College.

“I have an assistant coach who played here, so he kind of keeps an eye on the area for me and advises me about guys,” Pacific Union head coach Greg Rahn said. “I spend a lot of time on the junior college website looking at stats and videos and looking for guys to make a trip out to visit. They were making some noise this season and caught our attention.

“After getting a chance to sit down and talk to (Jose), I was impressed by his character and who he is as a person. His shooting ability, size and his ability to rebound, as well, all kind of caught my eye.”

Gonzalez averaged 14.6 point per game in his sophomore campaign. He paced the Blue Devils with 84 3-pointers, shooting 36 percent from beyond the arc and 78 percent at the free-throw line. The 6-foot-5 swing man was good on the defensive end as well, finishing second on the team with 32 steals and third with 139 rebounds.

Joined by his family and a small group of teammates and friends, Gonzalez put pen to paper.

“I’ve been waiting a long time, two years for this,” Gonzalez said. “I still have more work to do, so it’s not really the end of the road yet. I think I’m more of a transition-type player and I think that’s what’s going to help me progress at the next level.

“Hard work is really what I learned (at Merced), just running hard and getting back. That and fighting through it, because that first year was kind of rough.”

Leaving his mark

Connor Hoppe was no stranger to making a run at national records during his high school days at Golden Valley.

That hasn’t changed in his time at Cal. Swimming his usual breaststroke, the junior’s propensity for rising to the moment on the biggest stage continued on Thursday night at the NCAA Championships as Hoppe helped Cal set an American record in the 400-yard medley relay.

The Bears finished second in the race to Texas, but the Longhorns had an international participant in the relay. That allowed the quartet of Hoppe, Ryan Murphy, Mat Josa and Michael Jensen to set the new mark with a time of 3:01.51. Cal held the previous record of 3:01.60 set back in 2015.

On the rise

The Merced College baseball team found itself back in the NorCal top 10 after a 2-1 series victory over Fresno City last week. With two wins over Taft to start this week, the Blue Devils (15-9) have now won nine of their last 11 and sit atop the CVC standings at 7-1.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "College Notebook: MC basketball’s Gonzalez turns big season into scholarship."