Weber St. basketball: High hopes for season

OGDEN — Weber State's basketball team began practicing for the 2009-10 season on Friday, knowing expectations are sky high.

But with their opener still more than three weeks away — against Utah State on Nov. 13 — the Wildcats aren't thinking about preparing for the Aggies or winning the Big Sky championship. Their goals are much smaller and tougher to measure.

"We're just taking it one day at a time," said Weber State guard Nick Hansen, one of just two seniors on the roster. "We're focusing on getting better every day and coming into practice and making sure our effort is there and focusing on our goal — which is getting better every practice."

Coach Randy Rahe, in his fourth season directing the Wildcats, said this is the time to establish how his team will compete in the Big Sky.

"One thing we want to do early in the season is establish how hard we're going to compete, how we're going to play, all the intangible stuff — togetherness, share the ball," Rahe said. "I'm really pleased with how we're doing it. We're competing hard, and I think we got some pretty tough kids."

Rahe has a balanced mix of both experienced returning players and new faces for the 2009-10 season. The Wildcats feature two seniors in Hansen and center Steve Panos and four returning starters. The starters back, besides Hansen and Panos, are the 2008-09 Big Sky Freshman of the Year Damian Lillard and forward Kyle Bullinger. Also returning are big men Darin Mahoney and Trevor Morris and redshirt forward Matt Washington.

The Wildcats lost six players from last year's team that won the Big Sky regular season championship with a 15-1 conference record. Weber State will have to find new leadership after Kellen McCoy and Daviin Davis graduated. Rahe said he expects seniors Hansen and Panos to take on the role.

"I'm going to look for them," Rahe said. "They're great teammates. Not the most vocal guys out there, but by their example they're showing great leadership. They play so hard on every possession, and they're really great teammates. All they care about is winning, so from that standpoint right there that's showing really good leadership."

The Wildcats, on the strength of their four returning starters and outstanding regular season last year, will likely be picked by the league's coaches and media as the preseason favorite to win the Big Sky. Weber State's Purple/White intra-squad game is Oct. 29 and the team plays exhibition games on Nov. 2 and Nov. 7 before opening the season against the Aggies.

Until then, the Wildcats will build on what helped lead them to a solid season last year until they were ousted from the Big Sky tournament by Montana State.

"We have to stay together as a team, emphasize defense and rebounding and get closer together as a team," Hansen said. "We're all excited to be back in the gym."

e-mail: aaragon@desnews.com