File photo by Ari Selvey Nicollet’s A.J. Kramer (22) and Toby Oscarson (34) help up teammate Carson Kettner after Kettner made a layup through a foul during a Valley Division boys basketball game against Martin County West on Jan 22 at Nicollet High School.

NICOLLET — In 2024, the Nicollet boys basketball team finished the season with an 0-25 record after going 2-25 the year before.

The next year, Chris Hulke came back to the program after a four-year absence. Hulke coached for six years from the 2014-15 season to the 2019-20 season before taking a break to watch his older son, Riley, play college basketball and his younger son, Keegan, play at the JV level at Nicollet. Coach Hulke returned to coach Nicollet for the 2024-2025 season and began the work to rebuild the program.

“Myself and some of the assistant coaches have had these kids since the second, third grade,” coach Hulke said. “Just getting back to the basics with team basketball, I think that was the biggest thing. Sharing the ball, playing as a team. Those were the things that my earlier teams had always done well. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. Just get everyone involved, everyone touches it, everyone can score … Just fundamentals.

“Practices — I think that’s the biggest change when we came in. We have really high-level, kind of new-age, college practices. In terms of the drills, a lot of competition, one-one-one, three-on-three, five-on-five. I used to do drills on air and three-man weave back when I first started, because I didn’t know much better. But just really getting into decision making and how to play as a team the right way. They really adjusted well.”

Hulke said the team quickly responded to the changes that he and the rest of the coaching staff were implementing.

“They wanted to be coached, they wanted to be pushed,” coach Hulke said. “They knew it was in there, and so it was just a matter of bringing that out. Sometimes you have to have a hard conversation to break some bad habits that were picked up along the way. The kids were great about it. The understood it was coming from a place of love and not a, ‘We’re mad at you,’ kind of thing. Those were the big things.”

That first season, the Raiders went 14-14, an enormous improvement for the team.

“Last year was kind of a shock,” coach Hulke said. “We really didn’t know what to expect. We knew we had talented players and kids that wanted to compete. They really improved as individuals last year but more so as a team. We graduated a bunch of seniors from a year before, and we had no seniors last year, so everyone was in a new role, new minutes, just different aspects. And we held them accountable. They won some great games last year, and you can kind of see the improvement.”

This year, Nicollet sits at a 17-4 record and have clinched a share of the Valley Division title with Madelia and will play in the Tomahawk-Valley Conference championship game.

“We had a really great summer,” coach Hulke said. “Last year was fun, nobody expected us to win. Every win kind of felt like the super bowl in a way, but we had 14 of them. We had a seven-game winning streak in there. This year we just raised the standard, and a win isn’t going to be enough. We have to play our basketball and we have to compete against the best of the best.

“That’s been the exciting part, watching the teamwork grow. We just have some unbelievable players too that have grown and reached their potential, or at least close to their potential. That’s the biggest reason. Coaching has a little bit to do with it, but when you have good players and you have a bunch of them — they all are good at different things and they excel and share the ball and play as a team, and they know what the other players are good at too. I think that’s been the biggest thing, is pure player development. I’m sure some of it’s practice and some of it is coaching, but a lot of is the kids have become really good basketball players.”

Nicollet has four players averaging double-digit points this season, led by Carson Kettner with 18 points per game, along with nine rebounds and four assists. Henry Kennedy sits at 15 points per game with nine rebounds and six assists, while Abe Madson and Henry Oscarson both average 12 points per game. Finally, Keegan Hulke averages 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. As a team, the Raiders average 79 points per game on 52% effective field goal percentage while allowing 61 points per game.

Coach Hulke said the team works best when all the team’s scorers can all get touches during a game.

“Sharing the ball is the biggest one,” he said. “We have Carson in the middle, and he’s become a really, really elite defender. He covers up mistakes on other areas of the court. Then Henry Kennedy, for a point guard, he’s our leading rebounder. Our five guys who are on the court at all times, they play had and they play the right way. Good things are bound to happen when they do that. But our rebounding is way better this year, our interior defense is way better. Those are two big keys.

“We haven’t shot it great from 3, but in terms of our 2-point field goal percentage, we are really good at attacking the rim. We have some post-ups, a lot of driving to the rim, and when you share the ball, you’re going to get some pretty easy looks from 2, that’s for sure.”

Nicollet’s depth has also been a strength of the team, with the Raiders frequently playing 10 players each game. The program is seeing higher numbers of participants now that Nicollet has returned to its winning ways.

“We have 27 kids now nine through 12, with a couple eighth-graders on our c-squad,” coach Hulke said. “The numbers are as big as they’ve been in my eight years with the program. I think when you’re winning games and you’re doing it the right way and you’re having fun, that’s contagious. That’s how we approached it when we got the job, is, ‘Let’s get back to Nicollet basketball.’ Nicollet’s had a pretty good history of basketball, and to get back to that … kids have gravitated toward that.”

Nicollet clinched its share of the Valley Division title with a win over Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther on Feb. 5. That win represented an important achievement for a team that hadn’t won a game just two seasons before.

“That is a big deal for us,” coach Hulke said. “When I took over, obviously no wins in the last year, two the year before that, so they were 2-50 when I got in. No one would play us … When you have no wins, no one wants to play you. So it’s good for us, it’s good for our kids who get to experience this, especially our seniors who went through two really tough years, and they’re done after this year. To be able to go out to either Springfield or Wabasso and play an elite, elite team, on the road, it’s just going to be a great atmosphere for our kids that I’m glad they get to experience. We want to play those games, but until you start winning games consistently, it’s tough to get those games on the schedule.”

Coach Hulke said that the kids in the program have been great to work with the past two seasons.

“They’re just great kids,” he said. “They wanted to be put in the correct spots, they wanted to be taught how the game should be played. It’s been a smooth transition. I haven’t had one push back in two years on anything, and our assistant coaches, same thing. They’re ready to push, correct, and it’s all from a place of wanting to be a better basketball player. It’s not criticism, it’s coaching, and they’ve understood that from the get go, and that’s made it really easy on us.”

Nicollet has five games left in the regular season, starting on Thursday with a matchup at New Ulm Cathedral. The Raiders will have a tough time in a strong Section 2A, but the team is ready to prove they belong among the best teams in the section.

“Our section is pretty loaded,” coach Hulke said. “We’re 17-4 and we’re a five seed right now. Part of that is with the QRF and strength of schedule, we’ve had a tough time of getting teams to play us because of our past. It’s going to be exciting. We’ve got to ramp up, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s will be a tough test on Monday. We’ve got a couple other games, then we wrap it up with that Wabasso or Springfield game.

“If we can defend and get some stops, stop the point of attack on the dribble … if we can defend and rebound, I think the offense will be there and then just the biggest thing in those playoff games is can you knock down some shots. It’s such a make or miss type of thing in the sections.”