Albury and Greene Lead Chipola to #1 Ranking

Deyton Albury, Paul Green and Chipola College are now the no.1 ranked men’s basketball programme in NJCAA Division I.

Chipola remains undefeated (18-0) took the top spot in the latest edition of the NJCAA Div I rankings.

Chipola improved one spot from the pre-holiday break rankings and has amassed a total of 348 points and all 12 first place votes.

Southern Idaho (16-0) is ranked #2 with 332 points, Odessa (13-1) is ranked #3 with 323 points, Salt Lake (14-1) move down three spot to #4 and Indian Hills round out the top five (15-1).

On the season, Albury, a 6’3” sophomore guard, is averaging 12 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 38.5 % percent from three point range.

Greene, a 6’7” wing, is averaging 9.2 points and a team leading 6.8 rebounds per game with four double doubles.

After a two week break over the holidays, Chipola began the new calendar year with a new spot atop the rankings.

They returned to the court with a pair of wins at the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau at Gulf Coast State College. They defeated State College 81-74 on December 30 then closed out the final day of 2022 with a 117-39 win over North Florida Prep on December 31.

Chipola’s first matchup as the top overall team in the country – the defending National Champions, Northwest Florida, in both team’s first Panhandle Conference game of the season.

Greene’s top game of the season was a season high 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench in a 70-69 win over Florida Southwestern at the Florida JuCo shootout on December 11.

“Paul has been exceptional,” Head Coach Donnie Tyndall said, “He’s a guy that deflects balls, he gets steals, he tips the ball in, he rotates over and gets the charge, all the gritty little winning plays and that’s been great to have from him.”

In his second year with the program, Albury is one of the team’s leading scorers, rebounders, and assist men.

He was recently ranked #57 in the first JucoRecruiting.com Top 100 Player Rankings for the 2023 JUCO class. 

Assistant Coach Jaren Harris said Albury has been the catalyst of the program’s early success.

“We’ve got a bunch of tough guys in our locker room but I think every one of our guys will say he’s the toughest guy in our locker room,” Harris said, “From his dedication to his willingness to be a great teammate, from his selflessness – he does everything on the floor for us. He’s a defender, he’s a rebounder, he’s a scorer, he’s a distributor, and he brings it every day on the practice floor too so I think Deyton has definitely been one of our guys that has stepped up for us.”

Chipola has advanced to back-to-back trips to the NJCAA Final Four berths but has yet to capture the coveted national title.

“I said this when I got the job, the goal is to hang a big banner, and that’s a national championship,” Tyndall said. “We haven’t done that yet, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. But I feel like this team has a chance and if we can get everybody healthy to make a run at this thing again this season.”

Comments