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Ogden • Even with almost the entire squad back for another go, a little room exists for conjecture regarding the Weber State Wildcats' men's basketball team.
Weber State won the Big Sky championship last spring and lost only one player to graduation.
But that one player was Joel Bolomboy a second-round pick of the Utah Jazz, the Big Sky Player of the Year, and the all-time leading rebounder for the conference.
"That one guy was really big for us," Weber State senior Jeremy Senglin said Friday at media day for the Wildcats.
"But we feel really confident this year. We've got a lot of new guys coming in that will help us out a lot," said Senglin, who joined Bolomboy on the Big Sky all-conference first team.
Senglin last year led coach Randy Rahe's team in scoring, at a 17.9 ppg clip, and was selected as the Big Sky tournament MVP. He'll be joined in the backcourt by the likes of fellow senior Richaud Gittens and returning starter Ryan Richardson.
The 'Cats, who will begin practicing on Sunday, also have swing players like Juwan Williams and Dusty Baker who can be effective in the front and backcourt.
It's the area around the basket where Bolomboy will be missed.
Sophomore Zach Braxton started for Weber alongside Bolomboy and he'll likely see much more of senior Kyndal Hill nearby in the paint for 2016-17. Hill averaged 8.2 points coming off the bench last year and was the Big Sky pick for reserve of the year.
"We've got Jordan Dallas, he's coming off the redshirt year and has been working really hard. Kyndal and Zach, they're just going to step up," Senglin said of the Wildcats' big-man situation.
Weber State will begin its regular season slate on Nov. 11 at home against Antelope Valley.
While Rahe, the coaching staff and the players will be looking for improvement, Weber's basketball members are also remembering the recent past as a model for success.
"Last year was a good example of how we want to look at ourselves this year," Senglin said.