Triton coach Brian Burns already making presence known by reaching national championship in first year

Triton basketball has arrived as a major player in junior college basketball.

The River Grove junior college made the jump from Division II to Division I following the 2017-18 season, and no one could have forecasted the level the program would reach in the five seasons since.

First-year head coach Brian Burns went on a memorable and groundbreaking run this season, capped off by a national championship appearance last weekend. The Trojans fell to top-seed Barton County in the NJCAA final.

After finishing the season 34-3 and coming up just short of a national title, the program has arrived as a legitimate national power at the highest level of junior college basketball.

Former coach Steve Christiansen, who now heads the NCAA Division III Aurora University program, put Triton on the map during his 17 years as head coach. Under Christiansen, the Trojans averaged 26 wins from 2005-2021, highlighted by a string of four straight 30-plus win seasons from 2016-2019 and a national championship in 2018.

However, that all came as a Division II junior college program. The foundation, though, was in place for the program to take the next significant step.

The immediate success at the Division I level, which included a semifinal appearance two years ago under coach John Clancy, now an assistant at Western Illinois, has taken the program to another stratosphere.

“To be a national semifinalist in two of the last three years, and to reach a championship game this year, puts us on par with just about anybody,” Burns said of the meteoric rise among the biggest and best programs in junior college. “We are knocking on the door of becoming a Blue Blood ourselves in junior college.”

The drive for every major junior college program in the country is to make it to “Hutch,” the site of the NJCAA Division I men’s basketball championships. The top 32 teams in the country qualify and play for a national title in the final week of the season in Hutchinson, Kansas. Burns has now been a part of two teams that have reached Hutch — one as an assistant and one as a head coach.

Burns started with the Trojans since they became a Division I program. He worked for three years under Christensen and two under Clancy. Burns was able to figure out the junior college landscape as the Trojans made that initial impact.

“Brian was able to see what it all looked like,” Christiansen said of Burns’ time as an assistant coach with Triton playing at the Division I level. “He began to know the lay of the land, just what it would take.”

Burns says, “reaching Hutch was kicking the door down for the program.”

The Trojans played an exciting brand of basketball, leading the country in total points scored — they scored 90-plus points in 16 different games — and were second in the country in three-pointers made.

The style of play and high-level success should be attractive for prospects, especially those from around Illinois.

“We want to be able to build a wall around Illinois,” Burns said of recruiting the state. “We want to give our top Illinois kids that option. They don’t have to go to Iowa or Kansas, Texas or Florida to find the best junior college programs. They can play and do it right here and have success at the highest level.”

Burns points to former Zion-Benton star Amar Augillard as the ideal example. The big-bodied 6-5 wing who is a shot-making extraordinaire, transferred to Triton after spending a year at Georgia Southern. He promptly lit the junior college world on fire, averaging 22.7 points and making a whopping 122 three-pointers on the season. The college programs are coming in droves — from mid-majors to high-majors.

“I think Amar has shown you can do it all here,” Burns said. “You can win at a high level, be an All-American and be recruited as a high-major prospect and be right there for national player of the year.”

Augillard is just one of several future Division I players on the Triton roster. Augillard and guards Dior Conners, Dylan Williams and AJ Dixon are all sophomores who will be signing with Division I programs this spring.

“That’s where we want to be as a program — winning, playing for championships and producing high-level players,” Burns said.