Havens Wins 200th Game as Thunderducks Coach

DALLAS – Dallas College Richland men's basketball coach Jon Havens won his 200^th game as Thunderducks head coach Wednesday night in a 69-41 victory at Dallas College Eastfield.

In his 11-year Thunderducks' career, Havens has coached Richland to the 2015 National Junior College Athletic Association Division III championship, four national tournament appearances and five Metro Athletic Conference or Dallas Athletic Conference regular season championships. His teams have an overall record of 200-91 since he took over in 2014.

"The older you get at this, you do it more for the kids, but anytime you get something like that, it just kind of makes you feel a little good about what you did," Havens said. "Obviously, you can't do it without great assistant coaches and administrators and players. I wouldn't say relief, but kind of. When you start getting close, and you look at it, you're like, 'I don't want to screw it up. I don't want to go to next year. I want to try to get this knocked out of the way so we can move forward.'"

Moving forward, the 12^th-ranked Thunderducks (15-8, 7-2 DAC) have a big test looming 1 p.m. Saturday when they host No. 16 Dallas College North Lake (12-12, 7-2) in a battle for first place in the league. Richland beat North Lake in the first meeting in Irving before the holidays.

"Since we've come back from Christmas break, we've been kind of inconsistent with how we're playing," Havens said. "I thought we had a really good defensive showing last night. Hopefully we can build upon that, and have a little excitement. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We've got to win. We control our own destiny if we just take care of business.

"As far as the milestone part, I told our guys, 'It's great. I love it. We've got to move forward. Now we're on to North Lake.' I think, with anything, it's just day by day. There's no game more important than the next. We're going to get back, and hopefully be the same team that we were in the first semester, hopefully."

Havens' wife, Lauren, had a prior work commitment, and could not be on hand for the milestone win, but his parents were in attendance to see their son get win 200.  

"I didn't think anybody knew," Havens said. "I definitely didn't tell my parents about it, and they just happened to be at the game, so we just kind of got lucky. It was great to have my dad there, who was a long-time coach and my coaching idol and hero, who I look up to.

"I think it's one of those things where if you do it long enough, and you're surrounded by good players and good coaches, it's just a byproduct of all the hard work of everybody involved. I'm blessed to be in the situation that I'm in to be able to achieve that."