It won't just be the Northern 4A high school winter sports season that the Douglas and Hug boys' basketball teams kick off Saturday evening.
The two teams will also serve as the "opening act" for the NBA D-League Reno Bighorns' franchise debut at the Reno Events Center.
Douglas will tip off against Hug at 4:15 p.m. and the Bighorns will take on the Bakersfield Jam at 7 p.m.
Hug returns a strong core of players from its regional playoff squad last season, including Duke Williams, Courtney Gardner and Tre Johnson.
Douglas comes in trying to replace four starters. The Tigers' only returning starter, James McLaughlin, will miss the first part of the season while he continues to recover from a broken leg suffered during football season.
That leaves junior CJ Marcotte (3.3 points per game last year), Parker Robertson (2.0 ppg) and Tim Rudnick (1.9 ppg) as the top returners heading into Saturday's game.
Nick Hales and Tyler Hoelzen are the team's only other returners from last year's state tournament squad, although Austin Neddenriep, Michael Whalin and Luis Pina-Duarte were called up from junior varsity for the playoffs.
An in-depth season preview for the team will be in Wednesday's R-C. Results of Saturday's game will be posted online at www.recordcourier.com.
