It’s very easy to say the 2023-2024 Plano East boys basketball team was different.

After all, the program navigated 6A boys basketball in Texas with a 40-0 record, but what makes this team special is how they brought their school the first UIL state championship in history, breaking a decades long rumored “curse” that had plagued the school since it broke off from Plano Senior High in the mid-1980s and became the first program in Class 6A to finish unbeaten.

No, Plano East isn’t filled with high-level Division I recruits who dominated on the summer AAU circuit, instead this team and group of kids stayed together from elementary school on up, playing summer AAU as a team, going through up’s and down’s together, learning together and it all aligned for a memorable season that culminated in a 53-41 win over Round Rock Stony Point Saturday inside the Alamodome. Yes folks, this Plano East team is absolutely different.

No player exemplifies that “different” attitude more than 6-foot-3 senior guard Narit Chotikavanic who is a good enough player to start on pretty much every team in the state of Texas, but he comes off the bench, generally guards players bigger than him and generally does all the little things that enable teams to win. On Saturday, Chotikavanic spent much of his time guarding and harassing Round Rock Stony Point 6-foot-8 forward Josiah Mosely, who is signed to Villanova. And although Chotikavanic’s final stat line won’t blow you away, (seven points, five rebounds), his impact on his team simply can’t be measured.

“Coach (Wester) calls me a finisher, I close a lot of games out, so that’s OK that I don’t start,” said Chotikavanic. “Coach Wester says we are family and when you are in a family you sacrifice for your brothers and for something bigger than yourself. I wouldn’t want to play for anyone but these guys and these coaches, 40-0 is really special and I’m so happy we were able to bring a title home.”

There may be teams with bigger names, there may be teams with more high-flying athletes that will win titles in the future at the UIL state championships, but going forward when you hear the term “greater than the sum of their parts,” the first thing that comes to mind is the 2023-2024 UIL 6A boys basketball state champions, the Plano East Panthers.