But the Patriots plan to block out all that chatter and do the things that they’ve always done to win games.

Luke Gray begins his second season at the helm for Westwood after finishing 9-6 in his debut season. Westwood has tried to not entertain any of the outside voices about expectations, but it certainly can be a luxury to be part of that conversation.

“They hear that noise and we talk about it at practice, but we’re going to try and take it one game at a time because basketball’s a tricky sport,” Gray said. “It’s a game where you have to make shots, and some days we’re going to show up and some days we’re not.

“I think with our athleticism, we’ll lean on that and try to put ourselves in positions to compete in every game.”

Westwood's Zach Carlson, front, lunges and knocks the ball out of the hands of Negaunee's Gerald Johnson in the third quarter of their high school boys basketball game played March 19 at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

After a shortened season with less reps, what the Patriots have working for them is experience. The Patriots are a senior-laden squad with six of 11 players in their last year of high school basketball.

That starts with Zach Carlson and Zach Beckman, who within the last month led the Westwood football team to its first-ever MHSAA district championship. But they can also play some basketball — Carlson was on the All-U.P. Dream Team a year ago in hoops, while Beckman made the Divisions 1-3 First Team.

It’s easy for Gray to talk about them, but he likes the makeup of his team from top to bottom.

“Those two players (Carlson and Beckman) are the names that everyone talks about and rightfully so, they lead us very well,” Gray said. “But we’re going to lean on all of our seniors heavily this year to lead our team.

“We also have a mix of talented underclassmen, (juniors) Jerzee Karki, Bryce Markham, Nickolas Salzwedel, Jacob Bazinette all got varsity experience last year and played well in big games for us.

“And we’re going to mix in a sophomore, Talan Peterson, who’s really athletic and learning quick. He’ll complement those guys as well.”

With experience that maybe other teams don’t have, the Patriots can be less one-dimensional this season, Gray said.

“We have that great senior class, so we’re going to try to all use them in different ways, and I think they developed their skill set where they’ll be able to do a lot for us this year,” their coach said. “Marcus Boase, I think, is going to have a breakout year for us this year. Luke Olsen’s looked really good, Garrett Sundberg’s looked really good and Ethan Nelson’s going to play a bigger role for us this year than he was asked to do last year.”