McHenry County College's basketball teams have had a rough start to their 2010-11 seasons with men's basketball at 1-7 and women's basketball at 1-6.

On the men's side, coach Jason Robinson has watched his team have trouble going from playing in high school to college and said it's been an uphill battle.

"We're struggling learning the college basketball game. We got a lot of freshmen still making the adjustment and transition from high school to college basketball," Robinson said. "We lost our first home game of the year on a half-court buzzer-beater and when you have a bunch of freshmen, it's been tough for us to bounce back."

There have been some bright spots however for the Scots earlier on like point guard Jermarkus Lovett, who Robinson said has been a treat to watch play.

"Sometimes we spend a little too much time watching him play but he is extremely quick and has been our leader this year," Robinson said. "In transition, he is a blast to watch. He can push the ball, he can shoot it and is comparable to a player we had a few years ago in Jamie Roach. Jermarkus might be a better shooter but very similar games."

One player of local note is former Dundee-Crown standout Charles Kimbrough, who has been playing better of late according to Robinson, scoring 16 points in a loss to Harper College Tuesday night.

Unlike the mens' team, which has only three players from around or near McHenry County, MCC's womens' basketball team features an entire roster of players who played their high school basketball in McHenry County.

The problem so far for the team is the lack of scoring according to coach Pam Mason.

"Even though we have four or five returning players, we are struggling because we aren't playing as a team," Mason said.

"We're trying to find our niche here. It's been difficult both offensively and defensively because we are still struggling with the turnovers and we are averaging only 42, 45 points a game. With that low scoring, we have to work defensively to stop teams from scoring and a lot of teams in our district and conference have been scoring 60 or 70 points a game. It's difficult."

Mason added that she does have one player on the roster that is really making a difference in recent games.

"We have Megan Martinez from Huntley who is in her second year at MCC but her first year playing and when she was at Huntley, she was a really good defender and not much of a scoring threat but she is coming around," Mason said.

"Our last home game against Sandburg, she had 18 points and against Harper, she had 11 points so I'm trying to get her to understand her abilities."

On the schedule: The mens' team will play four games in six days with a game at Joliet Thursday night before a home game with Olive-Harvey on Saturday afternoon and Monday and Tuesday trips to Chicago to play North Park University and Wright College, respectively.

The womens team will play in the Lincoln Classic this weekend before a game at Wright College on Tuesday.