SENATOBIA – There is a new era beginning for the Northwest Mississippi Community College men's basketball team as they open play this season with a new head coach and almost a completely new roster for the 2025-26 campaign.

The biggest change is the new face running the program as taking the helm is Coach John Redman who brings 11 years of coaching experience with him including spending the past seven years as an assistant coach at Delta State University.

"This is my first season at Northwest and my first as a college head coach, so this team and year will hold a special place in my heart," Redman said. "I am excited for our guys and just watching them go on and do some great things on and off the court this year."

"It is an exciting time to be a Northwest Ranger. Our college is growing, changing, and adapting. Our campus is beautiful and everywhere you look there is something new being built. Our team is just trying to keep up with all the great things happening in the Five-Star City," Redman added.

Redman has the task of flipping a program which only won one conference game last season on the way to a 7-19 record. Northwest is looking for their first winning season since 2021-22 after only picking up eight conference wins and 20 total wins over the past three campaigns.

In order to change that, the team will be looking to bring a brand of basketball that will be up-tempo and team oriented.

"We will play an exciting brand of basketball that will be fun to watch for our fans and fun to play in for our players," Redman said. "It will require all five guys on the court working together defensively and offensively. Our brand will be up-tempo, aggressive, and unselfish.  We want to play team basketball."

The Rangers will only be returning two players from last year's roster. Grant Hutton and LaMarcus Crawford don't have much court time though, only playing 29 games between the two in the 2024 campaign.

They aren't alone though. There are a trio of sophomore transfers coming in with Olive Branch native Zahir Gutierrez making the move closer to home after playing at Pearl River Community College last season along with Florida transfer Dakota Morris who played last season for Barry University, and Tyler Henry joining the team from Delta State University where he was playing under Redman.

Redman says the group of five sophomores has taken the leadership role seriously through the opening weeks of the semester.

"Our older guys have done a great job setting the tone so far. Guys like Zahir Gutierrez, Dakota Morris, Tyler Henry, Grant Hutton, and LaMarcus Crawford have been working extremely hard to show our freshmen what college basketball looks like," Redman said.

That group will be looking boost a program that was -121 in turnovers last season, which countered the 73 points per game and 40 rebounds per game the team was averaging during the season. Cleaning up the mistakes will be key to turning the record in MACCC play around.  

The Rangers will give fans plenty of opportunities to see the new team at home with five home games sandwiched between a pair of road classics in the first month of the season. Most of the teams in that stretch will be opponents that local fans will have some familiarity with beginning with Dyersburg State on November 4^th, who the Rangers have faced each of the last two seasons, coming away with wins both times.

Also included in the list are games on November 10^th with Arkansas State-Newport making the trip to Senatobia and November 15^th when Arkansas State Mid-South will travel to Howard Coliseum for a Saturday afternoon matchup.

That will be the second game against Mid-South for the Rangers who will also face them in the second game of the year when they head to the Greyhound Tip-Off Classic in West Memphis, Arkansas. They open the season against National Park on October 31^st and then face off against Mid-South on November 1^st.

The other classic will see the men heading east to Alabama where they will take on Coastal Alabama-South and Bishop State in Bay Minette on November 20^th and 21^st.

The Rangers will see some of the most difficult tests in their season at home where they will take on the top four finishers in the conference from last season including regular season runner up Itawamba Community College on January 20^th, Northeast Mississippi Community College on January 26^th, Pearl River Community College on February 5^th, and regular season champion Jones College on February 12^th.

You can find more information on the full Northwest schedule and team roster by visiting nwccrangers.com. You can also keep up with the team all season long by following Ranger social media accounts.