The Pike County Bulldogs’ basketball team has not been working for a long time for the 2008-09 season, but head coach Doug Holland believes his team is ready to get started.

“It has been a good couple of weeks for us,” Holland said. “We are behind and we have a lot of things to iron out as a team, but we are coming together as a team.”

The Bulldogs don’t have much time to get ready, as their first game is tonight at 8 p.m. in the CenturyTel Classic in Ozark. They will take on whoever won the game between Carroll and Geneva last night.

“You really don’t know how your team will respond when you start off with a tournament,” Holland said. “But the thing you tell them is to stay focused on the floor. If they can stay focused on the floor they will be all right. We have players that have played before and we will rely on them for guidance out there.”

Holland said coming together as a team will come with time.

“We are in the process of gelling as a team, but our guys are eager to get out on the court and start playing,” Holland said. “We are very excited for the season to start.”

The Bulldogs return two starters from last year’s squad in Tevin Andrews and Quay Bailey. Gerald Mathis is also a returning player who saw a lot of time on the floor for defensive purposes. Andrews should be the key to the offense for the Bulldogs, according to Holland.

But the other four guys on the court with him will be just as important.

“We will count on Tevin and Quay to do most of our scoring, but we will have to count on all five of our guys on the floor to make stops on defense and make things happen on offense,” Holland said.

Holland said he hopes the stands are not empty when the Bulldogs take to the gym.

“We hope we can get the community to get behind our basketball team and we hope to do some great things this year on the basketball court,” he said.

The Bulldogs open the season this week in the CenturyTel Classic and have their first home game Dec. 2 against Elba.