After two years of playing for the Mountain Lions, senior guard Hannes Saar’s time on the men’s basketball team has come to an end.
Saar was awarded the Honorable Mention for the 2024-25 season. Averaging 31.6 minutes, Saar put up double-digit points in 18 games. “I don’t train to get awards. I just want my team to win,” Saar said. “I can’t do it without my teammates.”
The Mountain Lions ended the season with a winning record of 17-12 in the regular season and 11-9 in the RMAC. UCCS was knocked out in the RMAC tournament quarterfinals by Regis, 93-90. “I think it was a good season because we made the playoffs, but we had the potential to win the whole thing,” Saar said.
Saar said the team’s season was hampered by multiple season-ending injuries. “I think around six. All of our bigs [big players] got hurt. If you consider the injuries, then it was a pretty good season.”
With season ending injuries comes uncomfortable training according to Saar. “You can’t practice that well. You don’t have many guys. You can’t go as hard as you usually can,” he said.
However, the injuries didn’t disrupt Saar’s gameplay. “When you have one or two injuries, it doesn’t affect you all that much. Maybe in game you have to change your position, but that’s my biggest strength, that I can play different positions.”
UCCS was the third stop for Saar, who is originally from Estonia. He started his undergraduate in Florida, then moved to Kansas, but his last two years of his undergraduate were at UCCS. “I chose UCCS because we have good academics here and I like the coaching staff,” Saar said.
After graduation, Saar said he is looking to continue playing basketball professionally overseas. “The goal is to go to Germany or Spain,” he said.
Saar will graduate with his bachelor’s in business administration in May.
Guard #4 Hannes Saar during a Feb. 27 game. Archive photo by Lillian Davis.