Rochester College almost shocked the world Sunday night on the men's basketball court.
Head coach Klint Pleasant and the Warriors were on top of Kent State in exhibition action in Ohio by seven points with three minutes left, before losing 77-71 in an extremely hard-fought game.
The Warriors held their final lead of the night with 90 seconds remaining.
Pleasant's troops showed they are not your average NAIA cupcake for D1 schools like Kent State to beat up on en route to opening its regular season schedule.
Watch out NAIA, here comes TEAM PLEASANT ready to make some serious noise in their first year in the conference.
Sunday's impressive effort was led by a pair of former local high school stars in seniors Dramell Hogan (Walled Lake Western) and Drew Maynard (Lake Orion).
Hogan headlined the Warriors stat sheet scoring 23 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Maynard, a high-profile transfer who started his college career at D1 Oakland University, scored 20 points, hauled down 8 points and threw down a couple rim-rattling slam dunks.
A big reason why Rochester College is so competitive and such a well-respected and well-run program is Coach Pleasant, a genuine D1-level sideline general carrying on the family tradition on the Warriors' bench – Garth Pleasant, Klint's dad, is the Godfather of the RC hoops world, holding the clipboard in his hands for four decades and building RC into a small-college power.
KP was on the bench at Kent State when the Golden Flashes made back-to-back runs into the NCAA Sweet 16. In 2002 he was an assistant on a Golden Flashes team that advanced all the way into the Elite 8.
He's the straw that stirs the drink and players should and do flock to play for him.
The Pleasant name IS Rochester College basketball.
And Rochester College basketball is about WINNING and showing the heart and character of a champion the way they did on Sunday evening.
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