DANVILLE (WCIA) — As one of the lone Danville natives on the DACC men’s basketball team, Martez Rhodes has taken on the job of showing his teammates around.

“It was a little bit showing them where Walmart was, any other good food spots there was in Danville,” Rhodes said. “Showing them that. Probably Gross Burger, probably Gross Burger. That’s probably the best one they like.”

The Jaguars roster spans eight different states, from big cities like Sacramento to Louisville to Cleveland. But Danville Area Community College head coach DaJuan Gouard and staff have one big recruiting pitch in their favor to get them to Danville.

“One of the huge things is we host the National Tournament,” Gouard said. “There’s no better stage to be on in junior college basketball than hosting the National Tournament. Now the problem is we gotta get there.”

And for the first time in five years, DACC did get there with a big rivalry win over Parkland to take the District 24 championship. Now they get to defend home court as the tourney returns to the Mary Miller Gym for the 30th straight year.

“I always told myself, ‘I want to play in a National Tournament,'” Rhodes said. “Even if it’s Division-I, Division-III, I’m here playing in JUCO playing in a National Tournament in Danville. That’s amazing, I wouldn’t want to travel. I want to stay here, on my home floor, in front of my home crowd, and bring the ‘ship here.”

“It’s homecourt advantage, it’s really nice,” DACC sophomore forward Stephen Atkinson said. “There was a bunch of people at the Parkland game when we were in Champaign. There’s going to be a heck of a lot of people here.”

DACC is the No. 4 seed in the NJCAA D-II National Tournament and will face Johnson City Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Danville.

The DACC women are also in the NJCAA D-II National Tournament, with the 12th-seeded Jaguars set to face No. 5 Harcum Wednesday at 12 p.m. in Port Huron, Michigan.