The Indian basketball team, ranked 14th in the state by Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and Tex Preps Magazine, will take its 2-1 record to the Levelland tournament this weekend.
“The Levelland tournament is going to be important,” Coach Paul Page said. “It will be important to see the things we need to work on and to get better. I expect a good tournament.”
Post junior Hunter Weishuhn has high hopes for the tournament.
“I think we can win the tournament,” Weishuhn said. “We have been playing great so far.”
Guard junior Isaac Rangel thinks the team’s drive will take them far in the tournament.
“I think that we are going to win all of it,” Rangel said. “I think we can because we go hard.”
With half the team only back for one game after football, the team’s practice sessions are long and intense. Added to that is the absence of senior Tanner Moore who is out for the season after a football injury to his knee required surgery. Senior post Rance Layton sat out Nov. 29’s game with Lubbock High with a thumb injury, while junior guard Jacob Burtch is still recovering from the football season.
“We are going to need everyone healthy and focused for the tournament,” senior post Erick Acosta said. “We’ll need that in order to do well.”
The 77-69 win over Lubbock High was the first game the full team played together.
“Having all the players together went really well,” Rangel said. “We still have a lot of things to work on though.”
According to Page, the win shows promise.
“I think we played a lot off of instinct against Lubbock High,” Page said. “That is good to do early in the season.”
The Indians return six non-injured payers.
“An advantage we have is the returning veterans,” Acosta said. “A disadvantage would be that we’re still learning and finding ourselves.”
The experience is one of the team’s strong points.
“I think an advantage we have is that we are very experienced,” Rangel said. “A weakness for us is staying locked in the entire game.”
Weishuhn said speed and height should be a bonus.
“Our strength is that we are one of the quickest and tallest teams,” Weishuhn said. “Our disadvantage is we are deep on the bench, meaning not a lot of players on the bench.”
Page hopes to see most of his players healthy soon.
“One disadvantage we have is health.” Page said. “We have to get healthy and catch up as far as being behind other teams.”