THOMASVILLE — A 4-1 start is a promising beginning for the Thomasville boys basketball team. What really encourages head coach Ben Tillman is that reinforcements are on the way after this week.

“We’re getting a lot of playing time with a lot of younger kids. I think they’re actually growing a lot,” Tillman said. “Hopefully after next week, we’ll get the football players back healthy after they win the state title and we roll.”.

The Bulldogs football team plays for the state championship on Friday. Several players will be eligible to return to the basketball squad once the football team’s season has concluded. These include Jeray Randall, Ty Anderson, Avon Laing and Dillion Brown. The Bulldogs will also return three or four freshmen, Tillman said.

While multiple players have been out of action during the first couple of weeks to the season, it has allowed others to step up and receive valuable playing time they may not have seen otherwise.

“It definitely helps us out in that area, knowing that you can develop these kids and then potentially next year they can be so much more better,” Tillman said.

Following Saturday’s 63-30 win over Thomas County Central, the Bulldogs do not return to the hardwood until tonight against Bainbridge. Then after a second tilt with Central next week, the Bulldogs will enter the tournament portion of their regular season schedule, including Thomasville’s Holiday Hoopfest after Christmas.

“I think (the tournaments are) great. It gives us an opportunity to hopefully see some people that you probably normally wouldn’t see in our regular season and also gives us extra time to see how we would do in a tournament,” Tillman said. “The region tournament is back-to-back games. The same thing here with these Christmas tournaments. It gives us an opportunity to see if we’re capable of handling those tournament-style atmospheres.”