FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – The St. Thomas Aquinas basketball team is on a mission to prove that winning the state championships last season, their first since 2001, was no fluke.
Led by head coach Julius Sandi, the Raiders enter the season as a preseason top 10 team in the country.
“That’s the part that we got to prove,” said the coach. “I think it’s something that the players that are in the program now are going to have an opportunity to let everybody know, we’re for real.”
This season, the Raiders have four or five starters returning.
“Just knowing we have all that chemistry and we have all that power coming back from last year, it’s just, it’s a great feeling, to be honest,” said guard Drake Sandi.
“I love having a target on my back, or all of us on our back, and that we just have to, like, fight through, and they’re going to come at us harder, so we got to play harder now,” said guard Kellson Sandi.
And much like the Miami Heat, they plan to turn up the tempo with a new fast-paced offensive style.
“It’s at our benefit to play fast, we have to play fast, we have to push the tempo, use that to our advantage, and I just think it’s actually crazy that the Heat is playing that way,” said Julius.
But even with all that firepower, defense remains their foundation.
The Raiders said locking in on defense will be the key to another deep postseason run, and maybe another shot at the state title.
“If you don’t play defense here, you’re not going to play, and that’s the current – that’s not just for high school, for college and wherever you want to go after,” said guard Clarence Westbrook Jr. “You have to play defense if you want to be successful.”
“I’ve always taught them, man, for them to believe that at the end of the day when that offense, that ball is not going through the net, you’ve got to be consistent defensively,” said Julius. “You can never have a day off defensively.”
The Raiders will be back on the basketball court against S.t Andrews, Monday night.
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