BASKETBALL PREVIEW: Braves dreaming big under new head coach

As a first-time head coach inheriting a team that lost 12 straight games to end last season and beginning this year without its most dynamic scorer, it would stand to reason that Flathead’s Ross Gustafson would be modest when discussing his squad’s prospects this basketball season.

But that’s not how Gustafson — or his players — is approaching this season or tonight’s regular season opener at home against Bozeman at 6 p.m.

“Our goal is we want to playing Saturday night at the state tournament,” Gustafson, a Braves assistant coach the previous two years, said. The state championship game will be played Saturday, March 12, at 8:30 p.m. in Bozeman.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Gustafson continued. “It’s going to be a lot of work, we’ll have to go through some adversity, but I have nothing but high hopes and I don’t see why we can’t compete with anyone in the state.”

Gustafson isn’t the only one thinking big.

“I think that we’re definitely a contender for the state title,” senior guard Kye Auclaire said. “I think we can come out and surprise some people and our team can show everyone what we’ve got and that we’re a completely different program than everyone else thinks we are.”

The Braves face a daunting road to even qualify for the state tournament, something the program has not done since the 2011-12 season. When Flathead takes the floor tonight, they’ll be without four of their top five scorers from a year ago, including sophomore phenom Tyler Johnson.

Johnson averaged 7.2 points per game as a freshman and figures to be the Braves’ number one offensive option when he returns, but he will begin the year on the bench while he recovers from a serious ankle sprain suffered before the start of practice.

“We’re just being cautious at this point in the year,” Gustafson said of Johnson’s injury.

“I know he’s dying to get back but we said ‘let’s make sure you’re 100 percent’ because it’s a long season and we want to be at our best in March. If it was March right now, maybe he’d be out playing.”

Even when Johnson returns, the Braves’ offense will run through their one returning starter from a year ago, point guard Matt Marshall. The senior averaged 11.3 points and 3.6 assists per game last year, shooting 42.3 percent from three-point range.

“(Marshall)’s the cornerstone of our team right now,” Gustafson said. “I have a lot of confidence in him, I know he has a lot of confidence in himself and I know that his teammates have a lot of confidence in him, too.”

Listed at 5-foot-10 and thin, Marshall hardly has the look of a budding superstar, but Gustafson believes the best is still to come.

“He’s just tough,” Gustafson said. “He looks pretty scrawny out there but he’s tough. He’ll battle you, he’s deceivingly quick, he can shoot the ball well, he has a great floater and a great sense of punching a gap.

“I’m real fortunate that in my first year I’ve got a guy like Matt Marshall at point guard.”

Marshall anchors a backcourt that will undoubtedly be the Braves’ strength. Flathead’s tallest player is just 6-4, however the Braves believe that what they lack in pure size they make up for in other ways.

“I think we have an advantage over a lot of teams with a lot of athletic players, a lot of speed and a lot of good shooting guards,” Auclaire said. “We’ll get it in to our posts and kick out for some shots, but our posts are very athletic so I think they can surprise some people and finish a lot of shots.”

“Our posts might not be the tallest but they’re pretty dang athletic,” Gustafson said. “Micah Bucy is a big-time athlete, Bridger (Johnson)’s an athlete. All of our posts can move really well.”

Fresh off quarterbacking the Braves’ football team, Johnson expects to see a bigger role this winter on the court. The 6-3 junior averaged 3.2 points and 1.6 rebounds a year ago.

Bucy, another junior, is 6-4 but has only 12 games of varsity experience. Wyatt Smith, a 6-4 senior, will also see time in the post.

In the backcourt and on the wings, Marshall, Auclaire and Johnson will be joined by C.J. Dugan, Seth Adolph and Wyatt Potter to give the Braves depth and the ability to play the kind of fast-paced, maximum-effort game that can overcome some of the team’s physical deficiencies.

“We get up and down the court a lot faster than other teams,” Auclaire said. “I know that whatever team we play we’ll always put out more energy than they do and we’ll always work harder than they will.”

The Braves will get an early chance to measure themselves against a Bozeman team that finished fourth in the state a year ago. The Hawks throttled Flathead 76-35 last December in Bozeman.