When the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Men's Basketball National Championship opens Tuesday in Hutchinson, Kan., there probably won't be two more improbable participants than Jay Herkelman and Devin Smith, both of Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

Coffeyville, 33-1 and the No. 2 ranked JUCO in the country, is the representative of Kansas' Jayhawk Conference. The Red Ravens open the tournament with a game against Walters State Community College from Morristown, Tenn.

Herkelman and Smith have both traveled different paths to reach the Big Dance of junior college basketball.

Make that three improbably participants when you consider the Coffeyville team, which hadn't made it beyond the District VI (Kansas region) playoffs for 17 years.

Herkelman is the head coach of the Red Ravens, in his seventh year at the helm.

Smith is his top player, a true freshman, who was an academic full-qualifier (2.8 gpa/910 SATs) out of high school (William Penn H.S./New Castle, Del.). Smith, who followed his older brother Steve to Coffeyville, was the best player in Delaware last year, named the State high school player of the year. He was putting up big numbers, leading his high school to the state title, only to discover that being crowned the state's best player, didn't mean he would be heavily recruited.

Despite being a full-qualifier, and having a strong senior season (he averaged 29 ppg), the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Smith found that he only had one school offering him a scholarship, the University of Baltimore-Maryland County. Smith, who had also checked out prep school as a possibility, wanted other options.

At this time last year, Devin's older brother Steve, who was also Delaware state player of the year in his senior campaign at Penn, had been redshirting his second year at Coffeyville. He had committed to the University of Idaho in the fall of 2001 and decided to sit out the season, giving him three years of playing eligibility at the Division I level. But Idaho head coach Dave Farrar was fired after last season and Smith decided to go back to Coffeyville for a third year and reopen his recruiting. Steve had signed a national letter-of-intent with Idaho and unfortunately, Farrar's firing wasn't grounds to release him from the letter. If Steve wanted to transfer to another four-year school, he'd have to sit out another year (and lose a year of eligibility).

That wouldn't do, so Steve decided to go back to Coffeyville for another year and play for Herkelman. And come July, when his younger brother Devin hadn't received any other college offers, Steve approached coach Herkelman and asked if they had a scholarship for Devin.

"I couldn't believe it that Devin hadn't received anything," said Herkelman. "We knew he was a good player, from talking with others who had seen him and just from updates from Steve on how well he played last season. But he was a qualifier and state player of the year, you'd expect that he'd have some good offers. It was July when Steve told me that Devin was interested."

"Coach Herkelman told me that I'd get exposure if I played in the Jayhawk Conference," said Devin Smith. "Since Steve was already here, coach talked to me about it, and I decided to come. I 've worked hard and my teammates have given me good shots. I've taken advantage of it and schools have noticed."

They've done more than notice. Illinois, Iowa, La Salle and UNLV have already offered scholarships for next season. Kansas has sent each of their top assistant coaches, Neil Dougherty and Joe Holladay, out on separate occasions to evaluate him; Jayhawk head coach Roy Williams may make the trek to Hutchinson, if his current schedule permits. New Mexico has been interested and recently, the Coffeyville staff has fielded phone calls about Smith from Maryland and Florida, respectively.

Devin Smith averaged 19 points per game this season, while shooting 46 percent from behind the 3-point stripe (Smith is also shooting 90 percent from the charity stripe). He was recently named both the Freshman of the Year and the Most Valuable Player in the Jayhawk Conference, two honors his older brother Steve received in his freshman year at Coffeyville.

"Devin had a really good freshman year," said Herkelman. "The first semester, he had games where he really showed that he could really score. We played in the Mineral Area (Missouri) tournament early in the season and in one game, he had our first 12 points of the game and wound up with 26.

"We saw his talent in practice, but he's shown the ability to perform equally well in games. He's learned where he can get his shots. He's got a really good feel for the game," Herkelman continued. "His senior year in high school, he played mainly inside. He's made a very good adjustment to playing on the perimeter; Devin started to figure out where to get his shots in our offense. And when we got into conference play, his game really took off.

"I've had Reggie Evans (Iowa) and Roy Boone (started for Wisconsin in the Final Four and had 18 points against Michigan State)," Herkelman said. "Early in the season, I told people that he was better as a freshman than Roy Boone was as a sophomore. Devin has good size for a 2-guard, a great looking stroke and long arms to shoot it over people. He's a pure shooter, but he can also score off the dribble."

Coffeyville assistant coach B.J. Hill compares Smith to a NBA star, "He's kind of a Reggie Miller type, Devin has a big time stroke. He can put it on the floor well, but he's not tremendously strong off the dribble going to the bucket. His best asset is that he's got great body control and soft shooting touch.

"I'm really happy with the way things have worked out," said Smith. "I'm still open, but I'm very happy with the level of school that is recruiting me right now. I'm going to go where I can get the most playing time, I'd like to come in and be an impact player right away. Find a program where I can come in and fit in the most.

"I'm excited to get there and anxious to play at Hutch," continued Smith. "Coaches recognize what they need and more schools will get in contact with you, having seen you play in Hutchinson. I'm still wide open."

September, 2001
While millions of Americans experienced a whole new world with the tragic terrorism of Sept. 11, Herkelman's life had suffered a major change less than a week earlier. It was Thursday, Sept. 6, and Herkelman was relaxing late that afternoon at a local golf course. He was part of an informally arranged foursome, playing the first nine holes together.

Herkelman watched as a member of his foursome, a casual acquaintance, teed off on a par-3 hole. The ball was shanked and the golfer responding immediately with anger, whipped the club away with disgust. The 7-iron was flung with force, and it traveled immediately behind the golfer, striking Herkelman, who was standing 15-feet away, with force. The club head of the 7-iron struck Herkelman in the head, making full impact with his right eye, knocking him to the ground, dazed and in pain.

"The pain was awful," remembered Herkelman. "I remember thinking right away that I might never see again with that eye.

"My wife said that it was a pretty ugly scene," said Herkelman. "The bleeding, the swelling and the pain was bad.

Three bones were broken in eye area. Herkelman's right eye and the immediate surrounding area, were damaged severely. He spent the night in a hospital in nearby Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The next day, he was transported to specialists in Oklahoma City, where, on Friday night, they tried to save the eye. But it was badly damaged, beyond repair. After the doctors were able to get the swelling down, there was less pain.

"When you're injured like that, your good eye will react to something in your field of vision and the muscles in your bad eye will try to react in a simultaneous fashion, which causes a great deal of pain," explained Herkelman. "After trying to fix the eye, they then worked to get the swelling down, and it was less painful. And when they sewed the eye shut that night, restricting the movements of the damaged muscles in that area, there was hardly any pain. I was released from the hospital on Friday night.

"It could have been worse," said Herkelman. "If the club had hit me somewhere else, I could have been dead."

"After the first 48 hours, I realized that the damage had been done and that I needed to go on," said Herkelman. "I could still see and needed to go on with my life."

Released from the hospital on Saturday, the heavily bandaged Herkelman spent the next couple of days resting. A team meeting was then scheduled for the following Tuesday afternoon, when Herkelman would personally update his team. Team members had been alerted to his injury within an hour after the incident.

That Tuesday was Sept. 11.

"Yeah, that was a pretty crazy day," Herkelman related. "I was looking at my television, watching the terrorism unfold, wondering what the heck was going on. The crashes took place after 8 a.m. here in Oklahoma, so the players were all in school already. I met with the guys later that afternoon in the gym.

"It was really nice, each one came up to me individually and told me everything was gonna be all right. They tried to reassure me. We were scheduled to start conditioning that week and they all told me that they were gonna work hard. I told them that by October 1, the first official day of practice, I'd be back. I told them that I would be back to lead them through the season.

"The next day, I had my eye removed."

And he was there on October 1, the first day of practice.

"Initially, I wondered how it would affect my coaching," he said. "A lot of strange thoughts go through your head. But that first time I went into the gym to meet with the team, it was very different.

"What's amazing is how the brain takes over," Herkelman said. "Depth perception is still a factor, something that troubles me at times. With vision in only one eye, I've learned that when things are to my right, I have to turn my head more. As time goes by, I don't have to think about it much any more."

"We were shocked when it happened, with the swelling and all," said Devin Smith. "But now we don't even pay any attention to it, it's like everything is normal and coach makes jokes about it sometimes and that makes everyone more comfortable."

Herkelman received a prosthetic eye a little over two months later on Nov. 19.

The season
"At the beginning of the season, the odds of us going 33-1 would have to be pretty slim," said Herkelman, discussing the chances of season. "I thought we would have a good team, I really did.

"But at that time, we had Steve (Smith) and Leroy Dawson (6-foot sophomore point guard) coming back, both all-conference players," explained Herkelman. "And Bird Antoine (5-10 sophomore point guard) started every game for us last year. It was a good nucleus for us, plus with the freshmen coming in… I thought we could be pretty good.

"Just before the season, we had to dismiss Leroy from the team (Dawson has since transferred to Howard Community College in Texas, where he'll play next season), but I still felt we could be pretty good. By that time I had seen the freshman guards, so I felt pretty good.

"In our first 12 games, 7 of the games were against teams that were ranked nationally and we beat them all," he continued. "At the Christmas break, we were feeling pretty good. Our only loss was in our seventh game of the year, in November at Northeastern Oklahoma. We lost 89-86 and we missed a buzzer-beater for the tie.

"This group is as good a group, as a whole, since I've been here," Herkelman said proudly. "They're focused. They listen. They haven't gotten big heads as we've climbed the national rankings. They're keeping it all in perspective."

Devin's older brother Steve returned to play combo forward for the Red Ravens. He's averaging 15 points and 7 boards. He's an inside presence for Herkelman. And he's being recruited by schools such as Iona, Illinois State, Texas A&M and Southwest Missouri. Combo forward Marvin Black has also started for Coffeyville. An athletic 6-6 player with skills, Black was recently named second team all-conference. The Cleveland native (John Hay H.S.) is being recruited by Wyoming, New Mexico and East Carolina.

Sophomore Griffin Walker starts at the opposite wing from Devin Smith. He's a 6-3 local product (Field Kindley H.S./Coffeyville, Kan.), who's been an exception role player for the Red Ravens. He's very athletic, unselfish and plays whatever role the team needs. He often guards the opposition's best player, has been their leading scorer on occasion and he makes hustle plays. Walker is being recruited by Southern Utah, Wagner and New Hampshire.

Starting point guard Antoine has also been effective, penetrating and dishing to the other Red Ravens. The New Orleans native (Kennedy H.S.) has been offered by Indiana State, with Duquesne and New Orleans also in pursuit.

All of these Coffeyville starters, including the highly recruited freshman Smith (who averaged over 25 ppg in the 4-game regional tournament), should see their recruiting explode with the exposure to college coaches that comes with playing in the national championships at Hutch.

What are the odds?
It's been a pretty improbable year for Herkelman, Smith and the Red Ravens. All the unique incidents and accomplishments are enough to make any oddsmaker go belly-up. Consider the following:

Coffeyville makes their first trip in 17 years to Hutchinson for the national championships. They hadn't won the region championship since 1979. What are the odds of that?

The Red Ravens go 33-1, and go undefeated in the tough Jayhawk Conference. Again, pretty slim odds of that ever happening.

If the coach at Idaho doesn't get fired, Steve Smith would be attending the Big West School in Moscow, Idaho right now. And if Steve Smith didn't return to Coffeyville, what are the odds that an unrecruited Devin Smith would have played for Herkelman this season?

The head coach gets beaned upside the head by a golf club, loses vision in one of his eyes, and returns to lead the team on the first day of practice, less than a month after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, some steep odds there.

But then again, what are the odds of any coach getting hit by a flying 7-iron, losing one of your eyes and surviving to lead your team to a championship?

What are the odds of someone (Devin Smith), who had only one low-major school offering him a scholarship in July, now being courted aggressively by likes of Illinois, Iowa, UNLV, Kansas, Maryland and Florida, less than nine months later?

Improbable? Yes. But it did happen.

Given the circumstances, anyone betting against this Coffeyville team, Devin Smith or Jay Herkelman, may want to rethink matters. They've overcome and overachieved more than most will ever accomplish in their lifetimes in just the past year. Compared to what they've been through, winning a double-elimination, 32-team tournament doesn't sound like it's that unlikely.

Coffeyville, Smith and Herkelman have done quite a bit of winning this season, on several different levels.

Doesn't make sense to bet against them now.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.