THE COWBOY WAY

BRADYN HUBBARD

Connors State standout Bradyn Hubbard grew up watching his older bother Brycen play basketball and so when he started playing in second grade, he says he just fell in love with the game.

“I even remember a time when we (Brycen. Bradyn and younger brother Bishop) were out just running drills and it was pouring rain and that didn’t stop us,” said the Cowboy sophomore. 

After playing YMCA and AAU ball and winning two state championships at Tulsa Memorial, Bradyn started looking at college opportunities.

“I knew some guys who had gone to Connors and when I visited, I knew it was a place I could come and really lock in on basketball without a lot of distractions that I might have at a larger school. It was also close to home and to work with big (coach Bill) Muse and junior (assistant coach Bill Muse Jr.) was great because he’s one of the greatest to coach basketball,” said Hubbard.

Exceling in basketball had always come pretty easily to Hubbard, but moving from high school to college ball would require some self-discipline from him.

“My senior year in high school we were 27-1 and we sometimes got a little lazy and coasted but 

when I got here one of the first things coach told me was that I needed to drop some weight if I was going to keep up with the pace of college ball and so I knew right away that college wouldn’t be as easy as high school.”

Last year Hubbard averaged 15.6 points a game which helped him draw an invite to the prestigious JA-48 camp last summer in Houston. It was a two-day event featuring the top 48 junior college players in the nation divided into teams that played in front of college scouts and coaches.

“It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever been to and was probably the most coaches I’ve ever played in front of,” said Hubard.

“He’s the kind of player I always look for,” said the elder Muse. “He checks every box for what makes a great student athlete and a player in the Cowboy Way. He’s a good student, has good work habits and is a complete leader for us. To me he’s a smaller version of (former Arkansas and NBA great) Corliss Williamson who plays physical, knows the game, and score from inside and outside,”

At the semester break, Hubbard was the third leading scorer in the nation averaging 26.4 points a game,  was named an NJCAA Player of the Week during November, and as just one of two returning starters, is demonstrating strong leadership.

“We’ve got a lot of new players this year and so I’ve had to work to help us mesh together and I think we accomplished that in the first semester when we went 13-1,” said Hubbard.

His personal accomplishments this year are already drawing some D-1 offers for the future but Hubbard’s focus is on some unfinished business.

“I was really upset when we got knocked out of the regional tournament in the first round last year so my goal is for us to get back there, win it this year, and go to the national tournament.”