The race in boys’ basketball in District 30-5A is beginning to heat up. Everybody is chasing undefeated Ray, including the Miller Bucs.
Miller coach Maurice Bastian and Co. have been playing some great basketball this season. The Bucs (16-8) are 5-1 in district play. Their only loss came to Ray last week.
An interesting note about the Bucs: They didn’t really begin to jell until football season ended because their entire team is made up of football players.
Coach Bastian has been coaching at Miller for 12 years and has had some really good teams. But could this year’s team be the best of all of them?
“This could be my best team, athlete per athlete compared to previous years,” Bastian said. “However, this is the first year where my entire team has played football so we have had to make some adjustments. But this is my most athletic and (has) better basketball skills team compared to previous teams.”
The Bucs’ quick start is no surprise to JD Reid.
“We are pretty stacked this year,” Reid said. “We’re feeling pretty confident about this season. Last week was a tough loss, we are just looking to bounce back from that loss. We are extremely talented. We have some really good seniors this year and we are looking to make a playoff run.”
The Bucs’ willingness to share the ball and get many members involved on offense is one of their biggest strengths, according to Anthony Sanders.
“We share the ball a lot and run a lot of plays and execute our plays,” Sanders said. “Coach Bastian does a lot of great things with us in practice and that’s where it starts and we go really hard.”
Miller travels to Veterans Memorial Tuesday night to meet the Eagles in the Bucs’ next game.
