One worry Charlotte 49ers basketball players won’t have this season: Being lonely

Maybe the best thing about Charlotte 49ers basketball practices this season is that they don’t seem so lonely.

The 49ers’ bench last season, Ron Sanchez’s first as head coach, often looked like a scene from the movie “Hoosiers.” Injuries and transfers cut the roster to eight players for stretches of the year.

But there were 15 players on hand Wednesday when the 49ers opened practice for the 2019-20 season, and Sanchez was happy about it.

“One of our biggest challenges last year was not having enough bodies,” said Sanchez, a former Virginia assistant whose first Charlotte team compiled an 8-21 record.

“It makes a difference, with more players here. Having them go against each other in practice makes them work harder. It leads to improvement.”

It helps when the new faces are talented.

Joining the returnees were 6-foot-8 sophomore guard Luka Vasic, who missed last season with a knee injury; Tyler Bertram, a 6-3 guard who redshirted last year; and Oklahoma transfer Jordan Shepherd, a 6-4 guard. All three are expected to add scoring punch to a team that depended heavily last season on now-graduated Jon Davis.

And there are freshmen such as 6-7 guard Caleb Stone-Carrawell, a Concord Cox Mill graduate and son of former Duke standout Chris Carrawell; 6-7 guard Brice Williams, a Hopewell High product whose late father, Henry, is the 49ers’ all-time leading career scorer; and 6-10 center Anzac Rissetto of New Zealand.

Much has been made of the talent infusion in the 49ers’ program, but Sanchez was quick Wednesday to point out the lack of experience on the team’s roster.

Six players are freshmen and four more are sophomores.

“I hate to say this,” Sanchez said, “but we’re probably starting in a similar position as last year. We have a lot of new faces. We’ll be doing a lot of teaching.”

Sanchez uses a similar system that he learned while working with coach Tony Bennett at defending NCAA champion Virginia. That system stresses solid defense and care for the ball while on offense.

“Taking care of the ball is something that is not valued in some high school systems,” Sanchez said. “So we have worked on that since the players arrived. We will work on that a lot during our practices.”

The youth and influx of new faces means players such as Cooper Robb, a 6-1 sophomore guard, are thrust into the position of leadership.

“Yeah, we’re young, but coach told us that he wants us to be leaders with the new players,” said Robb, who averaged 6.8 points last season but came on strong late. “It’s our job to show how to do things the right way.”

Health report: Unlike last season, when the 49ers opened practice with players already on the injury list, it’s a clean slate this year. Vasic, recovering from surgery on a torn ACL, has the go-ahead to resume playing.

Just basketball, thank you: Robb was an all-state football defensive back at Scott County High in Kentucky but laughed when asked Wednesday if he considered playing two sports in college. “Some people suggested that,” he said. “But I’m good here (basketball), thank you.”

He also was a baseball standout, playing infield and batting third.

Six weeks away: Practice for the 49ers opened six weeks before their first game. Charlotte opens Nov. 6 at James Madison, then comes home for games Nov. 12 (Davidson) and Nov. 17 (Wake Forest). The 49ers don’t play in a regular-season tournament this year and have an 11-day break at Christmas, not playing between Dec. 22 and Jan. 2. Last year, Charlotte played in a Christmas tournament in Hawaii.