Columbia College has battled injuries all season and dealt with the transition of seven newcomers to this year’s squad. Yet the Cougars still managed to remain undefeated in conference play and, if they keep their No. 6 NAIA ranking, will finish the regular season as the highest-ranked Cougar team ever.

"You dream about playing for a team this good," said senior guard Jerrod Thompson, reigning AMC Player of the Week. "You could only hope that the team would be playing this well at this time of the year. We picked a perfect time to go on a winning streak."

The Cougars started out the year winning 12, then lost two of three before conference play. They are currently on a nine-game winning streak.

Columbia College controls its own destiny in the conference race. The Cougars begin a three-game road trip tonight against non-conference foe Park University and close the regular season at Missouri Baptist (17-8, 5-1 AMC), the No. 2 team in the conference.

"We’re now in the driver’s seat in the conference," said Thompson, who leads the Cougars in scoring with 18.8 points per game. "We’ve got some tough conference games coming up. We know they’ll want to take us down since we beat them all earlier in the year."

Thompson has recovered from a foot injury that sidelined him earlier in the year, and center Sam Tatiersky is near 100 percent after suffering a broken foot. Sophomore Aaron Stone has spelled Tatiersky, averaging 9.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in his eight starts at center.

"When you have someone like Sam on the bench it shows just how deep our bench goes," Stone said. "If you don’t perform well out there, there are two or three people to back you up. I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I have national championship in the back of my mind."

Coach Bob Burchard has had to change his starting lineup several times throughout the season. He said it’s hard to tell just how good his team is at this point since the Cougars are still in transition.

"It’s nice to be into February and know you can still get better," Burchard said. "We’ve been through a roller coaster this season, but we were able to ride through the injuries. I like our chances in the postseason. To go into a fight you need a big stick, and we have a big stick."