Changes abound in Athens with the arrival of a new coaching staff and the loss of the team's leading scorer and rebounder in perennial All-MAC standout Jerome Williams and 3-point sharpshooter Bubba Walther. In fact, the Bobcats' new coaching regime will be tasked with replacing three of the team's top four point producers from last season.

But considering his reputation as one of the nation's top recruiters while an assistant at Ohio State, new Bobcats head coach John Groce will have plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his recruiting acumen as he assumes the reins of the program following the departure of Tim O'Shea who left after seven seasons.

The immediate task at hand will be in trying to find a replacement for Williams and a lot of that responsibility will likely fall to returning starter, senior forward Jerome Tillman who was second on the squad in scoring and rebounding behind Williams. His development in the post, along with Justin Orr, the team's leading returning 3-point shooter, will be factors to watch in the early stages of the Groce era as the new coach plans to employ an up-tempo aggressive style of play.

"We are going to attack and go after people," said Groce. "But it will be more of an attacking through adaptability -- I am not going to be foolish enough to design a system that does not fit (our) personality and strengths."

Some of those strength areas have likely yet to be fully developed in the early stages of camp as the team will need newcomers to step up in the face of losing so much firepower, particularly on the perimeter. Michael Allen will likely handle the point again but the coaches may look for more scoring punch out of him as well.

With a new coaching staff in place, loyalty is not an issue and newcomers such as freshman guard Stacey Waters as well as redshirt power forward Maurice Pearson and fellow redshirt, 6-foot-11 Zach Nagtzaam, will get some serious consideration for playing time particularly with depth being a likely issue.

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