1) The team is ready to move on from Jaylin Walker and Jalen Avery

The Flashes offense last year largely ran through Walker’s isolation when he was healthy.

“This year’s team is different,” coach Rob Senderoff said. “We will have to share the basketball. These guys have the ability to move the ball and make plays for each other.”

Walker and Avery were also vocal leaders and the team perspective will extend to replacing them there too.

“This year we have five seniors,” Senderoff said. “So each of them will take greater ownership than they may have had last year. They are all more than capable of helping to lead.”

2) Injuries are a major concern

There had been earlier reports that several players on the team were suffering from injuries. Senderoff confirmed this.

“We are not healthy,” he said. “We have a lot of injuries. I could probably say who has practiced all year more easily than telling you who hasn’t missed some days. But hopefully by the start of the season we will have everybody ready to go.”

3)Bigger bodies add back a key component

Senderoff traditionally uses big men to try and own the boards on offense, but injuries and transfers made that difficult last year.

“This year Danny (Pippen) is back and we’ve added some size. We certainly have more big bodies, so we will probably play more how we did in years past,” he said. “We were one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country two years ago. I see no reason why we shouldn’t be in that category again this year.”

The Flashes start their season at home on Nov. 6 against Hiram.

Contact Owen MacMillan at [email protected].