With more depth, St. Bede boys basketball looks for constant pressure defensively

St. Bede boys basketball coach Brian Hanson will have options this season.

“We have depth,” said Hanson, who is 64-149 entering his eighth season. “We’ll be able to mix and match lineups.

“Being able to mix lineups will allow us to play maybe a bigger lineup and pound it in, but also go small and run into some early offense.”

The Bruins return seniors Mason Ross, Halden Hueneburg, Phil Gray, Kaden Nauman, Kaden Newman and Jake Migliorini.

“Our returning seniors bring a lot of floor experience and have seen the differences on the varsity floor,” Hanson said. “That should help us immensely throughout the grind of a basketball season.”

St. Bede also welcomes a strong group of juniors in Carson Riva, Gino Ferrari, Jose De La Torre and Gus Burr.

“We’re looking for our juniors to collectively bring a competitiveness to not only games, but practices too,” Hanson said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been this deep.”

Ross and Newman are the Bruins’ top returning scorers from last year’s team that went 11-21 overall and 4-4 in the Tri-County Conference.

Ross averaged nine points per game last season, and Newman contributed 6.6 points and 2.2 assists per contest.

“We are looking to play fast, but our main focus will be valuing the basketball,” Hanson said.

Defensively, the Bruins will look to be more aggressive.

“We will be able to apply much more pressure than we have,” Hanson said. “We will have a mixture of defenses. Some man, some zone, but our depth will allow us to constantly pressure.”

Hanson said the Bruins’ goal is to win postseason hardware.

“We would love to cut nets and really jell as a team,” Hanson said. “It’s been a fun start to the season. Practices are competitive, and we’ll see where it takes us.”