There's going to be plenty of familiarity for the Douglas boys' basketball team as the Tigers open their 2010-11 campaign this week.
The first seven players in the team's rotation from last season's 16-10 squad return, as do six of its seven leading scorers and its top eight rebounders.
With the newly re-formatted Northern 4A, where teams have six crossover games that count toward playoff seeding along with 10 in-league contests, Douglas will need every bit of that experience.
The Tigers kicked things off against Reed Tuesday night (after The R-C's press deadline. Results are available at www.recordcourier.com) in a matchup that will count toward league standings. Matchups later this month against North Valleys and Wooster will also count.
In a preseason where no school has risen to the top as a clear-cut favorite, those early-season matchups could play a big role across the board later in the year.
Douglas has two first-team all-region selections at its disposal to start the year with leading scorer Austin Neddenriep (8.7 ppg, 11 3-pointers) and point guard Chris Downs (4.7 ppg, 22 3-pointers) entering his third season starting at the position.
Six-foot, 6-inch senior Jorey Scott (7.8 ppg, 80 rebounds) is one of the top returning post players in the region while senior forwards Matt Thomas (6.3 ppg, 88 rebounds) and Garrett Getty (6.7 ppg, 19 rebounds) round out a completely-intact returning starting line-up.
But the identity Douglas established last season was centered on anything but the starters alone.
Coach Corey Thacker, returning for his fourth season with a 46-39 record at Tigers' helm, ran an aggressive full-court pressure defense to go with an offense based on slash-penetration and ball-distribution through the post.
As a result, the Tigers routinely cycled through its entire bench, often within the first quarter alone, and no player on the roster finished the season averaging more than nine points or less than two points per game.
Still, the team averaged 61 points per game.
Other returning lettermen are senior Theo Denson (3.8 ppg, 20 rebounds), sophomore Hunter Myers (6.3 ppg, 44 rebounds), senior Kameron Van Winkle (2.1 ppg, 28 rebounds) and junior Nick Maestretti (2.3 ppg).
Coming up from a junior varsity squad that went undefeated last year are juniors Connor Hughes, Trevor Shaffer, Jake Tessmann and Matt Wylie.
Around the region, McQueen, Hug, Reno and Spanish Springs appear to be the top playoff contenders in the High Desert League, although Reed and North Valleys will be in the thick of things.
In the Sierra League, Manogue, Galena, Carson will be competing for playoff spots while Wooster and Damonte Ranch each took strides forward last season.
