Some years Husson College men’s basketball coach Bruce MacGregor worries about his team having enough rebounding strength. Some years he worries about his team having enough shooters.

This year? MacGregor said his major concern is “finding enough playing time for all these guys” as his 24th squad prepares for its Nov. 9 opener with Atlantic Union in Bangor.

With depth piled on depth, a mixture of young talent and established veterans of the NAIA District 5 hoop wars, size, shooters, ballhandlers, defenders, MacGregor and the Braves are expecting to improve on last year’s 22-9 season which ended with a 64-63 loss to UM-Machias in the district playoffs.

“We have a lot of people back,” said MacGregor Monday, noting the return of four starters and nine of the top 10 scorers from last season. “We had a fairly successful season with a disastrous ending. That pain is still in the minds of our veterans. They’re a year older and wiser. They’ve seen what it takes to be successful.”

This year, for the first time, Husson will be shooting for the NAIA Division II National Tournament to be held in Stevensville, Texas, at Tarleton College March 12-17. This is the first year the NAIA has gone to a two-division format. Twenty teams will participate in the Div. II tournament. Husson is ranked 20th in the preseason Div. II poll.

The four returning starters who will try to get the Braves to Texas are All-District sophomore guard Raymond Alley, senior point guard Scott Nance, junior small forward Scott Brown, and senior center Brian Burrell.

Alley, the 5-foot-9 bomber from Vinalhaven, averaged 22.5 points and was second on the team with 108 assists a year ago. Although he’s currently sidelined with a sore Achilles tendon, MacGregor expects him to be ready for the start of the season.

Nance, at 5-10 a team co-captain from Trenton, N.J., will shduties with another veteran, 6-3 junior co-captain Bobby Campbell of Calais, who returns to the guard rotation after a year’s absence to nurse an injured back. Nance averaged 6.5 points and led the team with 128 assists last year. He needs 35 assists to become Husson’s all-time leader. Campbell averaged 15 points two seasons ago.

Up front, Brown, a 6-3 native of Oberlin, Ohio, brings 14.2 points-per-game back to the lineup from both inside and beyond the three-point arc. Burrell, a 6-8 native of Washington, D.C., is the team’s top returning rebounder (6.5 rpg) and is a defensive intimidator who also averaged 9.5 points from the paint.

To this nucleus Husson adds a veteran supporting cast that includes versatile 6-5 junior forward Jeff Shakoor (9.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg) of Fairfield, N.J., 6-4 sophomore swingman Rich Mazurek (8.7 ppg) of Rockland, 5-11 sophomore guard Gerad Good (4.2 ppg) of Shelbyville, Ind., 6-1 sophomore guard Dwayne Knowlton (2.8 ppg) of Rockland, and 5-10 sophomore guard Victor Garay (1.5 ppg) of the Bronx, N.Y.

What has MacGregor excited is a recruiting class that includes 6-7 junior college transfer Zeljko (Jake) Dragutinovic, a native of Yugoslavia who will add rebounding strength and inside scoring at center; 6-4 sophomore forward Corey Smith, an inside-outside scorer out of Cheshire (Conn.) Academy; and former Hermon High all-state guard Shawn Thayer, a 5-11 freshman guard who has bounced back well from recent knee surgery.

Other recruits expected to contribute are 6-4 freshman forward Brent Willoughby of Shelbyville, Ind., and 6-1 freshman guard Tom Lynch out of Bangor High.

Casey Costigan of Old Town, who initially signed a letter of intent with Husson, chose instead to play at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

Husson will play a pair of Green and White scrimmages this week. The Braves will be at Vinalhaven High Friday night and at Rockland High Saturday night.