Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan. Ursuline’s Jaylen Gunther (1) puts up a floater in traffic during a home defeat against Canfield last season.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Ursuline boys basketball team came into last season with sky-high expectations after reaching the state final four at the end of the 2023-24 season.

The Irish went 15-5 during the regular season, but their overconfidence got the best of them in the playoffs, according to head coach Keith Gunther, as they fell to Gates Mills Hawken in the district semifinal.

“I felt like we thought we were going to walk into that game and win and get right back to state like we were the year before, because we figured the team that won that game would be the team that would get back to the final four,” Gunther said. “That was the case. Hawken was the team to get there. So you live and you learn sometimes that you take things for granted. And I think our kids took that game for granted.”

Ending the season in that fashion gave the team motivation heading into the offseason, motivation that Ursuline is hoping will carry into this season, as the Irish return both of their leading scorers, as well as several key role players.

“What you do realize is that those opportunities are few and far between,” Gunther said. “With the guys we got returning that were part of the state team, that were part of last year’s team, I think they took a lot from that.”

However, Ursuline’s season is set to begin at the same time that several members of the school’s administration and athletic department are facing multiple lawsuits that include allegations of hazing, assault, bullying, discrimination and other misconduct.

The football team was at the center of the initial lawsuits that were filed in September, and the school canceled the remainder of its football season as a result.

“We have to have this attitude right now that we can only control what we can control, and that’s the big thing for us,” Gunther said. “When we’re here in this environment, we have to do what we can to stay focused, to stay positive and keep pushing forward.

“I got a lot of love for this institution, and there’s not one person on this earth that can take that away from me. I know the hearts of our administration, I know the heart of our AD and I know the hearts of a lot of people who work in the school. We’re just focused on keeping a positive attitude. … We understand we’re going through a tough process, and we just gotta weather the storm. We gotta stick together and just keep loving each other, loving our school, be a positive image and be the light of our school. That’s what it’s about.”

The Irish return last season’s leading scorers in juniors Jaylen Gunther and Noah Bell, both of whom were key parts of the final four team as freshmen and have received college offers

Jaylen Gunther proved to be one of the most dynamic and prolific scoring guards in the region, averaging 22.3 points per game, while Bell was a force inside and outside the post after averaging 16.2 points and nine rebounds per game.

Around those two are an experienced supporting cast that includes seniors Nick Markulin, Alex Simon and Eddie Barnes.

“I feel good about the direction we’re headed,” Keith Gunther said. “We have a long way to go. But when you have really talented potential D-I guys, it makes a world of difference. You got two guys that are definitely going to be college players, and then you put some good role guys around them and bring in some young energy, you gotta expect good things.”

Keith Gunther knows that opposing teams will key defensively on Jaylen Gunther and Bell, so he hopes that duo can help get the other guys more involved, which will help make their teammates better.

That includes three or four young players that are new to the varsity level that Keith Gunther thinks can be “difference-makers” for the Irish.

“If they can come along with what we have, then we figure by tournament time, if they’re playing like sophomores/juniors, then we’ll have a chance to make some noise in the tournament,” Keith Gunther said. “The one thing we talked about, we’re going to play like a pack. … We want to play together. We want to play as a group, but we want to be able to dominate the schedule where we feel like it’s a big-dog team. We feel like if we play like a pack, we’re going to have a pretty good year.”

The Irish open their season on Dec. 5 at Canton Central Catholic.