With the season opener coming up against Drexel on Friday, the Quakers have more options at starting point guard than days left to decide who it will be.
Now that Ibrahim Jaaber is gone, head coach Glen Miller could conceivably see four different players bringing the ball up the Palestra court for the home team.
"The guys that have been playing point guard for us in the preseason are Harrison [Gaines], Darren [Smith], and Aron [Cohen] . Kevin [Egee] has played some for us also," Miller said. "So you could see any of those guys at any time."
Smith and Egee started at times last season, but both fit into the mold of off-guard just as well as point guard. Miller sees Smith as a bigger guard that can shoot and Egee as someone who can play either guard position.
Cohen has some experience, and according to Miller has "organized the team well," but he isn't an ideal man to run the offense.
"I think the only true point guard we have on our team at this point is Harrison," Miller said.
Gaines, a 6-foot freshman, was named the No. 2 point guard prospect in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times. He was out with an ankle sprain during the Red and Blue scrimmage Oct. 30, but has been practicing with the team since.
Winning Eleven. Miller still hasn't decided his starting five for the Drexel game, but it might not matter.
He plans on playing as many guys as he can at the beginning of the season, so the startng lineup is subject to frequent change. The only player Miller has guaranteed will start, on Friday at least, is senior guard Brian Grandieri.
The team has gone through practice nearly every day, has scrimmaged Sacred Heart and Colgate and has watched a lot of film, but nothing separates the contributors and the bench-warmers like game action.
"We're in a situation where we're going to play a lot of guys," Miller said. "Through our successes or failures on the floor, that lineup will eventually shape itself down to a reasonable rotation. Right now there's too much parity on this team to eliminate any couple guys."
For this reason, Miller wishes the season hadn't come upon his young team so quickly.
"I'm looking forward to Friday, but I'd like to be looking forward to Friday two weeks from now," Miller said. "You play games to win, and we do think we have a shot to win, but when we have inexperienced players, the more time you have to prepare the better off you're going to be."
Not for a lack of options. After losing Jaaber's 16 points per game - and his ballhandling skills to boot - and Mark Zoller's 18, the offense will have big shoes to fill and lots of production to replace.
"We're running a lot of the same actions that we ran last year, but as far as where we're going to get our points, that's going to change dramatically," Miller said.
Jaaber and Zoller at times carried last year's 13-1 Ivy League championship squad, but the leadership may not be as concentrated this time around.
"I really think we're going to be a team that hopefully has four or five guys averaging double-figures," Miller added.
"I don't think you're going to see any player on our team up near 18, 20 points per game. We're going to score our points by numbers."
