The Riverland Community College men’s basketball team may have graduate two go-to scorers from last year’s squad, but the Blue Devils are hoping three key sophomores can keep the program on the upswing this season.

RCC can no longer look to Jace Klinkner, who averaged 20.6 points per game last season, or Robert Parker, who averaged 18.4 points per game last season, but RCC head coach Derek Hahn does have confidence in key returnees DeAndre Raggs, Kwantez Simmons and DeAndre Smith, who all showed the capabilities of being leaders last season.

“Those three guys were kind of the heart and soul of our team last year because they could score and they had games where they had 20 points, but they also had games where they had two or four points and they would rebound the ball extremely well,” Hahn said. “All three of them are very athletic.”

Smith, who is from Inver Grove Heights, said that last year he learned to focus on playing defense and rebounding and those are areas he expects to focus on again this season. The Blue Devils are coming off a 19-win season and they’ve advanced to three of the last three Regional Tournaments, which has left Smith and his teammates very motivated.

“We’re in here every day, during practice, before practice and after practice,” Smith said. “We’re very passionate about it and we lead by example. Even off the court, we get guys in study hall so everybody can be eligible at the end of semester so we can have all of our guys.”

The Blue Devils have a lot options this year and the team can go 10 or 12 players deep. Simmons, who is from Milwaukee, Wis., said that he’s ready to step up as a leader for the younger players.

“Our roles will be changed this year,” Simmons said. “We’ve got to be the ones to step up and lead the freshmen to become better.”

Raggs, who is from Minneapolis, was a one-man wrecking crew on defense for the Blue Devils last season as he averaged 2.6 steals per game, while hassling perimeter players. He may have more opportunities on offense this year, but he’s not going to give up on playing hard on defense.

“My defense is still going to be there, because when I bring 100 percent on defense, that makes everyone else want to play harder,” Raggs said. “Defense is actually pretty fun.”

RCC has shown some promise this fall as it competed against Iowa Central, Ellsworth, Central Lakes and Dakota County Tech in scrimmages and held its own.

“We hadn’t had success against those teams in the past and we had very good productive scrimmages against them,” Hahn said. “We’ve got a lot of talented freshman that we can feel can step in. The biggest thing we’re looking for right now is a closer. Jace Klinkner was our guy the last two years where we put the ball in his hands and let him do things and Rob Parker was another guy who helped us turn the corner. Now we’ve got to develop those new guys.”

While many roles are still up for grabs heading into the season, RCC may get some solid production from Austin grad Nyagoa Obany. Southland grad Jared Landherr is also in the mix.