Roster turnover puts the Savannah boys basketball team into a rebuilding year.
The Bulldogs graduated all but one starter from last season’s team. The lone returner, Aiden Totani, suffered a knee injury during football season and has missed the entire basketball schedule so far.
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As a sophomore last season, Totani led the team in scoring and rebounding and was named to the All-Conference team. Without Totani, Savannah turned its attention to freshman Rhett Gibson.
“We’ve been relying on Red a lot,” coach Matt Murdaugh said. “Reed is a very good player.”
The Bulldogs’ roster this season is filled with youth. The team has one senior, five juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen.
The Bulldogs are off to a 5-8 start as of Friday morning as players learn new roles and schemes.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Murdaugh said. “We’ve done some really good things, we’ve made some big strides, we still have a long way to go, but we’ve been pointed in the right direction.”
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Savannah will face Pittsburgh in the first round of the Pitt 8 Tournament. The Bulldogs and Panthers have met twice this season, with the series split between the teams.
Savannah won the first game 46-43 to win the consolation title of the December Liberty Ford Shootout. On January 13, Pittsburgh won 55-41 at home.
Murdaugh said his team will face challenges, but he believes they can succeed.
“When we started playing, it was zero-for-zero,” Murdaugh said. “We have a job in front of us and we have to play hard if we want to go into the next round as winners. We’re going to play hard and do the little things.”
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Savannah is one of two schools in the Pitt 8 Conference with a football team. The grid schedule means the basketball season starts later than other teams in the league.
A late start to the season means the Bulldogs are still trying to find their feet. The Pitt 8 tournament will allow the young Savannah team to gain valuable competition experience.
“We have to use every game to get better,” Murdaugh said. “The ultimate goal is to always win, but if we go into a game and don’t feel like we’ve accomplished some small feat of improvement, then it’s all for nothing.
“So our main goal is, we have to take advantage of every game and every day and find our weaknesses and we have to work on those as the playoffs begin,” Murdaugh said.
Savanna and Pittsburgh play Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Southeast Expo Center.