By Glenn Sattell
Chronicle correspondent

It’s a young team that second-year coach Jason Van Robays is hoping to mold into a playoff contender.

Conroe's Bookie Sneed, No. 24, goes up for a shot in the recent Texas Invitational Basketball Tournament. Photo by Kirk Sides/For the Chronicle

Five lettermen return but all five starters from last season are gone.

“And we’ve got some new guys coming to help us from football,” said Van Robays about the 2009-10 varsity roster.

The season opener was a turkey, as Conroe fell 93-49 at Klein Collins.

“We ran into an up-tempo team and our guys have still got to learn how hard we’ve got to play and how much we’ve got to hustle,” Van Robays said. “We’re young and we’re going to get better. At the beginning of that game I felt we had a good opportunity. We just made some bad shots. We missed some early layups that I thought really could have given our team a spark. If we go in there and do it like we’re supposed to, go overhand layup instead of that underhand layup and they came right back out. Those early buckets that you miss against an up-tempo team, like piranhas when the blood starts flowing then they’re going to keep after you. And that’s what they should do.

“We want to do some of the same things that they do. We’re not there yet. We’ve got young guys and not a lot of experience. But we’re going to improve throughout the season.”

Tevin Price, a 6-foot, junior guard, is one of the handful of returning lettermen, along with Deandre Ratcliff, 6-5 junior post Max Witherspoon, Willie Tolbert and David Collins.

Just getting game-time experience is a big key in the early part of the season.

Conroe played last weekend in the Texas McDonald’s Invitational in Pasadena.

“We got five games,” Van Robays said. “So that’s good for us.”

The Tigers will also play in the Montgomery Tournament, Dec. 10-12, before hosting the Conroe Christmas Classic, Dec. 28-30.

Van Robays said he is looking forward to hosting another challenging tournament this year.

“Our tournament has 16 teams,” Van Robays said. “We’ve got some real good teams. We’ve got Cy-Woods, who was one of the top teams in the region last year. They won our tournament last year and they’re coming back.”

Klein Oak, Klein, Dekaney, Nimitz, Texas City, Crosby and District 14-5A foe Oak Ridge are among the teams entered.

“We’ve got some good teams coming,” Van Robays said.

All those games are scheduled in preparation for the District 14-5A season, which begins in mid-January.

“The district is going to be tough,” Van Robays said. “College Park got a move-in guard (Evan Cooper) that’s a sophomore. He looks fantastic. To me he looks like a Division-I point guard right now. And then they’ve got big Sam Ryan. And they’ve got some guys coming back. Adam Rowe is a terrific player.

“Then Oak Ridge, they’re going to be stacked. Those guys have been playing together. I know they had high aspirations last year. They’re going to be tough.They’re going to be tough, Lufkin will be tough. New Caney’s got a new coach over there and they’re playing more up-tempo. So the district is going to be interesting.”