Cherokee Bluff’s early exit from the Class 3A tournament last season was a learning experience.
And like any challenging learning experience, you can either take what you learned and apply it or just quit.
The Bears won Region 8-3A and were the overall No. 2 seed in the tournament. They faced the No. 31-seeded Peach County in the first round at home. The Bears should win, right? That’s what they thought, too. They didn’t. Peach County upset the Bears on their home court, 57-52.
It was an exit that shocked the Bear faithful and turned some heads around the state. A No. 31 seed knocks off a No. 2 seed? Anything is possible in basketball. That result was hard to swallow, but instead of quitting, the Bears are applying everything they learned that February night.
Bluff head coach Josh Travis has used the ending to the 2024-25 season as fuel this offseason and has owned what happened in that loss.
“We’re the number two seed, they’re the 31 seed. We just kind of thought it was going to happen, and it didn’t,” he said. “In the midst of that game, we still could have won, but we didn’t handle adversity in that moment the way I wish they would have. So, we’ve talked a lot about it. Now, it’s what’s going to happen when it’s win-or-go-home. When this goes bad, we can’t dwell on that moment. We have to move on to the next thing.
“But experience really, really helps (overcome adversity). If you’ve gone through it once before, you can lean on it and say, ‘We can handle this moment.’ That’s the biggest thing in overcoming it.”
The Bears come into the season with many of those same players back, but did lose leading scorer Boston Kersh (21.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and the program’s leader in steals and assists, Tyler Underwood (10.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 5.9 apg, 1.7 mpg).
However, they have a deep guard-heavy roster. Cooper Glover, Cole Brooks, Conner Robinson, Andy Quirarte, Tony Rushin, JP Combs, and Alex Blurton all return, and newcomers Jordan Hayes (Flowery Branch), CJ Payne (Gainesville) and Luke Nordholdz (Gainesville) have bolstered an already deep bench.
Glover and Brooks are expected to fill the void left by Underwood. Glover, 6-foot-5, averaged 14-8 ppg, 7.1 rebounds per game, and hit 31% from the 3-point line.
“Cooper has kind of been waiting in the wings,” Travis said. “He has the point-guard mentality and skill set. But we’ve always played multiple point guards, so Cole Brooks will be the other guy who does that. They both have done that in the past, and now they’re going to do it more prominently.”
The Bears will be one of the teams to beat in Region 8-3A, and, of course, with the number of key contributors returning this season, it places the proverbial bullseye on their backs.
“We talk about it in so much as to say we’re not going to talk about it (bullseye),” Travis said. “We define our own standards and measure ourselves against ourselves.”
Travis has set a grueling non-region schedule, which will prepare them for a daunting Region 8-3A slate that includes perennial playoff contenders East Hall and Jefferson. Teams like Buford, Grayson, Valdosta, Lambert, Rabun Gap and North Gwinnett will be giant tests for the Bears.
“You know, there are some really good teams with really good coaches and players in Hall County and our region — in our bubble,” he said. “And we’ve had success in that bubble. But we haven’t had success outside of it. So, we’re looking for different challenges. We want to keep growing, and we need to do better than we did last year.”
It’s no secret the Bears play five guards, so they’ll rely on their speed and quickness to compete at a high level. Those who know a Josh Travis-coached team know the Bears will be uptempo on offense, not afraid to shoot from the perimeter, and play in-your-face defense with a relentless attitude.
The Bears shot 33% from the 3-point line last season and averaged 72.7 points per game. However, Travis knows rebounding will not be easy.
“We have a lot of shooters,” he said. “But we don’t have a lot of size. So, shooting 3s kind of negates some of that size. Trying to get a rebound off a missed floater in paint is going to be really hard for us, but rebounding off a missed three that bounces 10 feet away from the rim is anybody’s game. The scrappy guys that we have now, they’re going to win those battles because that’s who we are… that’s our personality.”
The Bears will have six weeks to tune up for Region 8-3A play. They’ll open against East Hall at home, another team tabbed to compete for the region title.
“It’s going to be a very, very tough region,” he said. “We don’t need to get too far ahead of ourselves. We just have to keep doing all the things that are cliché, and they’re cliché for a reason.”
The Bears open the season on November 15 against Rabun Gap in the Dawson County Showcase. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.
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