After the Bothell boys basketball team posted a forgettable 1-14 record in 4A Kingco league play last season, quite a few heads were turned when the team was recently ranked No. 2 in the state heading into the 2011-12 season.

According to longtime head coach Ron Bollinger, however, the hype surrounding his team, and their high preseason ranking, is all legitimate.

“We’re trying to get the boys to focus on the game, letting them know that they’ve got a target on their back,” Bollinger said. “Everybody’s going to be shootin’ for them, and I think we’ve matched that.”

Case in point was Saturday’s 81-70 win against No. 10 Federal Way, a perennial power from the South Puget Sound League (SPSL). In that game, the Cougars poured in 45 points in the first half to build a lead they would never relinquish.

“We didn’t shoot well (against Ballard, 61-53 loss last Friday)… but we beat Federal Way pretty good,” noted the 17th-year Cougar coach. “I think this is going to be a good team, but they need to continue to develop. They can’t rest on what people say about them, they’ve got to go out and prove it. We’re trying to make believers out of everybody.”

Leading the way for Bothell will be superstar point guard Zach LaVine, who can best be described as a complete hoops package.

The 6-2 junior guard, who has already attracted numerous scholarship offers from NCAA Division I schools, can drive to the hoop with the best of them. But, as teams have already seen this year, he can also pull up, stop on a dime and knock down an NBA-length 3-pointer.

“He is bigger, stronger, faster, and better in every phase of the game than he was last year,” Bollinger noted, adding that with the supporting cast the Cougars have, LaVine will feel less pressure to produce on offense. “People said he’s one-dimensional, only scoring; this year he’s rebounding, defense, passing.”

In addition to LaVine, the Cougars round out a trio of guards that may be one of tops in the state. Perrion Callandret, a transfer from O’Dea, is a player Bollinger believes is also a Division I-bound guard, and team also returns Derek Pinder, who has excellent ball-handling skills as well as experience.

Put those three together with sophomore sharpshooter Kellen Webster, 6-5 center Aaron Wilks and versatile returning starter Prince Lacey, and the Cougars clearly have the depth and talent to do great things this year.

“A lot more confidence,” said LaVine on the main difference between this and last year’s squads. “We’ve got a lot of returning players that know what they’re doing.”

As happy as the team was after their convincing win against Federal Way last Saturday, the boys know they have a long row to hoe against a lot of tough teams in the stacked 4A Kingco league just to make it back to the 4A state tournament, a venue the program has not experienced since 1997 – only a couple of years after Bollinger first took over the program.

Bollinger, who graduated from Bothell High in 1979 and once scored 53 points in a varsity basketball game – a record that still stands today – said that his team has the goods, and if they stay focused and unselfish, the results will take care of themselves.

“If they work together, they’re going to be a good team,” he said. “It won’t be a situation like last year where we were behind all the time. We can play ahead with this group.”

Added LaVine on the Cougars’ keys to success, “Just staying focused in practice, keeping everyone involved, going hard. Going out and winning the games we’re supposed to.”

The Cougars (3-1) take on Garfield (3-1) tonight in a highly anticipated home matchup at Bothell High School, tipoff at 8 p.m.