The Hampton-Dumont-CAL boys basketball team is gearing up for the new season with several players battling for varsity positions.
With only one returning starter and no other regular rotation players back from last year, it’ll be nearly an entirely different look. Head Coach Brian Niesen on what he’s looking for among the personnel to decide who will start.
“Who can run the defense how we want, that’s going to be a big thing,” Niesen says. “We’re hoping defense can lead to offense or defense can lead to some easy runouts for us in transition. That’s going to be a big key for us. So we’re going to need some guys who can knock down some perimeter shots too. So a combination of all of it, and the tricky part with deciding who gets that spot is some guys are better shooters, other guys are better defenders, other guys take care of it better. So just trying to figure out who gives us the best chance to win and be competitive on game night.”
Niesen says numerous players will cycle into the lineup, especially early in the season.
“My first two years, we haven’t played a ton of guys. I mean, like my first year it was seven or eight guys. Most varsity nights last year, some nights it was just six. I think this year, with guys being so close, I think we’ve got to try more kids in the varsity game and just see who performs in those situations. Because you want kids to play well and practice well, but who can play well when the lights are on and you got a lot of people there and it’s more fun, but also more pressure. So I mean honestly, I could see us trying 10, 11, 12 kids in that Nevada game and just kind of see who belongs and see who earns more minutes.”
Junior forward/center Brady Harr is the lone returning starter. He was third on last year’s team with 7.8 points per game and had the second-most rebounds at 8.1 per game.
The Bulldogs will open Tuesday, December 3 at Nevada on 104.9 KLMJ.
