There's no offseason in college basketball.

Just ask North Idaho College men's basketball coach Corey Symons.

Whether it be helping some of his players land scholarships to continue their careers after graduation, or filling their spots heading into his second year as coach, it's a never-ending process.

AMONG THOSE looking to move will be sophomore point guard Austin Pope, who transferred from Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif.

Pope verbaled to play at Hawaii two weeks ago, but then re-opened his commitment early last week after Benjy Taylor, who served as interim coach during the 2014-15 season, was not retained.

"Austin was getting recruited really hard by Benjy," Symons said. "He had a good year and had them one game from the tournament, so everyone was under the impression that he was going to get the job."

Hawaii finished the season 22-13.

But he didn't, and that job went to Eran Ganot, the former Saint Mary's assistant.

"He's got a lot of people interested in him though," Symons said of Pope. "Utah, Utah State and the new staff at Hawaii wants him to stick with them. We're going back to the drawing board."

Guard Jamaal Robateau signed with Division I Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C., during the early signing period in November.

Forward Jordon King will visit Sam Houston State and center Fuquan Niles is drawing interest from Illinois State.

"Everyone else is in the recruiting stage and in that process," Symons said.

The Division I signing period begins today.

THE PROGRAM also received a bit of national attention in the last month with videos of King and point guard Lucas Antunez performing a variety of alley-oop dunks, with two featured on SportsCenter.

"I've gotten a lot of Twitter and Facebook notifications," Symons said. "They just started messing around in the gym one day and then it turned into a big deal. We really had a great group of guys that all got along. They enjoyed hanging out with each other, and that's where it came about. All of the guys started messing around and doing some crazy things like that. We've seen that all year long and it was a big part of our success."

NIC finished 24-8 in Symons' first season as head coach, falling to the College of Southern Idaho in the Region 18 tournament championship game - and one game short of a bid to the NJCAA tournament.

"We played well down the stretch," said Symons, whose team won nine of its final 12 games. "It was tough losing in the championship game, but gave ourselves a chance to be successful. I'm proud of the guys. I've learned a lot over the last year. I'm ready to get going for next year and get recruiting again."

The title game loss came at the expense of Jared Phay, who advanced to nationals for the first time in his first year at CSI after coaching at NIC for 10 years. CSI lost its opener at nationals, and was eliminated.

"We watched part of that game in our office," Symons said. "They had a tough loss down there, but it was a pretty tight tournament the entire way. Almost all of the games was really close."

AS FAR as the 2015-16 season, Symons will have a new assistant coach as George Swanson - who served as a volunteer coach last year - has now joined the staff full-time.

"I really love having him around," Symons said. "He can relate to our players. He used to be the coach at Grays Harbor and has been around and knows what it takes to win. He's got a lot of recruiting connections."

Jeff Johnson, who was another assistant, will also return.

As far as who will be on the roster next year, Symons expects forward Kyle Guice - who is drawing Division I interest - to return after starting 17 of 31 games this season. The former Lake City High standout could leave after his freshman season.

"He'll probably be back," Symons said. "There's still a chance he might leave, but I'd guess he'd be back right now."

Antunez and guard Djuan Piper are also expected back for their sophomore seasons at guard. Piper was suspended for NIC's final eight games last season for violation of team rules. Symons has already signed forward Tony Naccarato of Coeur d'Alene High and point guard Keegan Hansen of Bonneville High in Idaho Falls.

"Keegan's a kid that's talented enough to help us win in the SWAC and NWAC," Symons said. "He didn't get selected for the All-Star Game (at NIC in March) because he'd moved, but he'll be able to help us in some fashion right away. We're recruiting at a national level right now. We're trying to get kids from all over the country and get to Hutch (Hutchinson, Kan., for the NJCAA men's tournament in March). And have a couple of kids that are going to be able to help us in both."

Hansen played at Capital High in Boise as a junior in 2013, winning the state 5A championship, before transferring to Bonneville.

NIC will move from the NJCAA to the Northwest Athletic Conference in all sports starting with the 2016-17 season.

Scott Turner, who graduated from Lake City High in 2011, will transfer from Boise State to join the Cardinals next year.

"He's a pretty good player," Symons said. "It's all starting to come together. We've got four to five scholarships we've got to find. We've got a couple of guys we think are good pieces, but we need to find a few more."

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.