Cabrera’s move shouldn’t be a surprise

What will transpire around the dome, where Tallahassee Community College basketball teams play home games, is going to be a little surreal for a few weeks. Maybe a month or longer.

See, there won’t be many players left to celebrate what the men’s basketball team has achieved by reaching the semifinals of the NJCAA championship tournament.

At last count, only about five players are likely to return. The man who coached them for the last two seasons will be gone, too.

Rick Cabrera’s new gig began with a Thursday press conference where he was officially introduced as the next head coach of the Northwestern State University men’s program.

This move to the Division I program shouldn’t be surprising. Cabrera’s TCC resume was impressive enough for the mid-major athletic administrators to make their move.

He was named Panhandle Conference Coach of the Year for a second season after taking the Eagles to a No. 7 national ranking. Just like the players before them, the sophomores will be moving on to four-year programs.

Going to Northwestern State takes Cabrera back to the level he’d coached at Arkansas State before coming to TCC. That was part of the 13 years he spent as an assistant at a few other Division I programs.

He has a roadmap for the Demons already.

“We are going to have to reload,” Cabrera said. “We are going to have to bring in some good players at every position.”

He figures that list might include a handful of the players that he took to the juco national tournament.

No one saw the move coming. Word only began circulating after the Eagles won their first game in the NJCAA tournament last week. 

It was a shocker. Sort of like the way the Eagles knocked off their first two opponents, rallying in the second half. 

Every man on the roster played like a hero, even Addison Patterson when he returned from a three-game suspension. And, Malachi Davis, who set a school record with 48 points against Salt Lake Community College, was a one-man wrecking crew.

 That will be remembered right along with the way they ended the season at 31-6, following a 94-89 loss to eventual national champion John Logan.

It was masterful what Cabrera did in his two years at TCC. Back-to-back 20-plus wins.

All season his modesty was undeniable. It was more of the same on Monday as he met his players for the last time.

“These guys have made an unbelievable impression on me,” Cabrera said. “They’ve made me a better coach, made me a better person. A better everything.”

The Northwestern hire makes Cabrera the Demons’ 13th coach. He replaces Corey Gipson who left the Demons after one season to take the head coaching job at Austin Peay. 

At 47, Cabrera has time to prove he could be really great. NSU Athletic Director Kevin Bostian is hoping that Cabrera does great things during his time at the school in Natchitoches, La.

“I’m not asking him to be here 10, 25 years,” Bostian said during a televised interview. “But I am asking him to put some boots on the ground and bring our program some stability that we desperately need.”

Cabrera might actually do that sooner than later. He is taking his assistants Hayden Harkins and Chad Bailey with him. 

What he hopes to achieve has been a dream, Cabrera said, since growing up watching his father and former NBA player Hugo Cabrera coach. 

“I saw the impact that my dad had on people’s lives and I said this is what I want to do,” said Cabrera, who played a little pro ball in the Dominican Republic. “When the professional days were over, I knew that I was going to coach college basketball.”