The Dallas College North Lake men’s basketball team won this year’s national championship, which is the fifth in program history as it became the first NJCAA school at any of the three levels with five titles.
“You can’t have five without four,” North Lake second-year coach Josh Mills said.
This is the first championship with Mills as head coach. He served as an assistant coach on the team that won the 2022 championship under longtime coach Tim McGraw. The Blazers also won titles in 2006, 2008 and 2017 under McGraw.
“Coach McGraw taught me how to win here, and I followed his blueprint,” Mills said. “Credit to Coach McGraw for the foundation he laid for us to just continue it. Hopefully this isn’t our last.”
The No. 1-ranked Blazers (29-4) won 23 straight games to end the season, including a 74-61 victory over New York-based Herkimer College to win the championship on Saturday. They went 15-0 against NJCAA Division III opponents this season. North Lake went 8-4 against NJCAA Division I and II opponents.
“Really proud of this group of guys,” Mills said. “It’s been a really fun season. We accomplished things that aren’t really supposed to happen … beating those eight scholarship schools. Going undefeated in conference is a true testament to how tough they are. This is one of the toughest teams that I’ve ever been able to be on.
“I want to win, and I want guys that want to be here that want to win, and we definitely had that. I’m really happy that these guys got to experience winning a national championship.”
