The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Home opener Tuesday, December 3 at 7 p.m.
By Than Acuff
Crested Butte Titans new boys’ basketball head coach Mike Bacani is no stranger to the program. In addition to his work as an assistant coach of the high school boys’ program, he spent three years coaching middle school basketball. That effort is paying off in spades now as he has 28 players out this year, 19 of whom are freshmen and sophomores.
“We laid the foundation that gave them the confidence to come out for high school basketball and a love of the game,” says Bacani.
Speaking of foundation, Bacani’s assistant coaching crew is steeped in the Titans foundation. Rob Holleran has been an assistant coach for the past several years and was a part of the Titans team that made it to the state finals in 2008. Ethan Bacani, Mike’s son, has also been in the coaching mix with the girls’ team the last couple of years before moving to the boys’ program this season. Ethan was a part of a Titans’ team that flirted with the Great Eight in 2020 and then went on to play some college basketball before returning to Crested Butte.
“I’m very lucky to have two coaches who were a part of the two most successful programs,” says Mike. “They add credibility to the program.”
The season officially started on Monday, November 18 but players put in plenty of work in the off-season as Mike had the underclassmen playing in tournaments last spring and over the summer and then senior Adin Kurak and sophomore John Mitchell led the charge on open gym sessions with 10 to 12 players showing up on a regular basis throughout the summer and fall.
“We have a core group of 10 or 12 players that know what we’re doing and the freshmen and sophomores I had for spring and summer tournaments so they can step in a little quicker,” says Mike. “I’d say we’re a good two to three weeks ahead.”
That said, the team is young with senior captains Kurak, Eli Hulm and Luke Jennings and a fourth senior Bridger Flores back on the team and only two starters returning from last year’s team and Mike is looking at seven upperclassmen to open the season in the varsity rotation while some of the younger players catch up to varsity play.
“I have no doubt that by the end of January and into February we’ll see some underclassmen up there,” says Mike. “It’s really just a case of the speed, size and physicality of varsity and getting used to that.”
The Thanksgiving break comes at an inopportune time as workouts were well underway only to slow things down with the school break. Nevertheless, the team has three workouts planned during the break and then get back to regular workouts on Monday, December 2 to prepare for a massive challenge in their first week of games.
They open the season with a home game against the Salida Spartans on Tuesday, December 3 at 7 p.m. The Spartans fell in the quarterfinals of the 3A state tournament last year and have a returning seven-foot-tall player who is being recruited by Division I collegiate programs. They follow that up with another home game on Friday, December 6 at 7 p.m. against perennial 2A powerhouse Sanford. The following weekend they head to Grand Junction for games against Soroco and Vail Christian.
“It’s a gauntlet,” says Mike. “We’ll know who we are early.”
