The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Looking to seize on full roster returning
by Stan Cola
The Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team finished the 2025-2026 season with a record of 11-13 and made it through the district tournament before falling in the first round of regionals, all of it without a single senior and starting four juniors and one sophomore.
Given their entire starting lineup and their first subs off the bench are all returning, coach Mike Bacani is getting an early jump on the 2026-2027 season which started with a busy spring of open gyms and then a summer of tournaments and camps. While it’s nothing new for Bacani to get the team into the gym over the summer, this summer has an extra edge given their roster.
“We started preparing for our June camps back in March with three days of practice each week along with two days of conditioning, agility and weight training,” says Bacani. “Hats off to the kids that showed up, we always had at least eight every practice and training session, especially those playing two sports that showed up for practice before or after their other sport.”
The Titans kicked off the summer in the first week of June putting all their spring workouts to the test with as Bacani took eight Titans to the University of Kansas Jayhawk basketball camp June 5-11.
Upon their return, the Titans remained on task as they put in more practice time and then headed to a camp at Western Colorado University with 19 players, the most ever for the Titans, where they played a series of games against familiar and not-so-familiar opponents.
“Both JV and Varsity each played five games in three days,” says Bacani. “Both teams went 4-1. Varsity highlights included a victory over Plateau Valley who went to State last year, as well as Basalt, a 3A team, and Ouray, a team that beat us at home last year. The JV highlights were wins over Salida, two times, a team that beat the JV team last year by 30 points, a gutty win over Basalt and the highlight, the JV tournament victory mid camp.”
After a brief respite, 16 Titans got back on the road bound for Grand Junction to take part in a camp at Colorado Mesa University to face teams the Titans rarely, if ever, get to see during the season. Bacani admits some kids were definitely out of their comfort zone, playing some bigger kids and bigger schools and plenty of self-reliance off the court, it was a new experience for some of the boys. The varsity rose to the occasion finishing the camp 6-3 and winning their tournament.
“The kids competed and played with the heart and determination,” says Bacani. “It was such a great sight to see. You can see the team chemistry is real and with 19 kids participating in camps this month, we have a nice core to build upon for the season.”
According to Bacani, while they will take a break from action, the summer of basketball is far from over for the Titans as he has plans for additional games in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction.
“The boys don’t want to stop playing, they all realize this could be an exciting season for the CB Titans basketball team,” says Bacani. “We couldn’t have done all this without the help of parents. So many helped out with logistics, money, food, time and watching the games.”
