The Spring Hill College men's basketball team will enter a new world this season when it moves into NCAA Division II and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), but second-year head coach Aaron Niven is confident that his team is ready for the transition. "Our opponents this year will basically be blank slates for us," he says. "Outside of watching film we really won't know much about them until we play them, but then they won't know much about us either."

Niven is excited to launch the Badger 2014-2015 season after a long offseason. "This year we recruited to our system," he said. "We believe in the system that we use and we just have to guard better and stay true to what we are." Niven admits that his team will be young this season, but he stresses that his team is ready for the challenge. "No matter how you look at it, we are a young team," he says. "But we have some very talented young players. We will match up well with any small college program, so we just have to keep improving every day."

The Badger offense will begin at the point guard position where juniors Jarrett Calhoun of Linden, N.J., and Ben Redman of Spanish Fort, Ala., will trade time with freshman James Clarke of Winnetka, Ill. "I hate to get into the discussion over who will be our point guard," says Niven. "Because they are all playing well and we'll just have to see who emerges."

The other guards on the squad are a good mix of shooters and ball-handlers with senior Robert Drummond of Fairhope, Ala., bringing four years of knowledge to the table while juniors Wesley Pietri from Mobile's St. Paul's Episcopal School and Jackson Fos of Abita Springs, La., each carrying proven experience.  Newcomers junior DeVaughn Hardrick from Selma, Ala., freshman Jack Morrissey of Evanston, Ill., and freshman Matevz Rojc from Slovenia are earning their stripes in practice and will be valuable commodities for the Badgers once the year gets underway.

Forwards are crucial pieces in the offense that Niven prefers to run and the Badger head coach is pleased with the early effort of his post players. "In our offense, we screen, move the ball, screen, move the ball and then screen some more," he says. "So our forwards have to be physically tough while at the same time smart in recognizing their spacing." Frederick Gatson of Riverdale, Ga., returned to Spring Hill as a graduate student for his final year of eligibility this year and will be an important leader on and off the court. Sophomore Christopher Hamilton of Pensacola, Fla., and freshman Reginald Harbin of Blount High School in Mobile will be asked to step into the fray early as will freshman Walter Massey, Jr. of Eight Mile, Ala.

Sophomores Dejan Stefanovic of Serbia and Sam Hutcheson of Hoover, Ala., shared time at the center position last season and look to do the same this year, but with more experience and strength. "One of the things we believe will pay off as this season progresses is our new strength and conditioning program designed by Coach Justin Goonan," says Niven. "Assistant coach Brian Murphy has been implementing the program and the players like what we do with weigh training. Making them bigger and stronger is important with so many young men on the team and they are working hard at obtaining that goal."

Niven looks forward to seeing his players hit the floor this year. "Every coach is excited to see his first real recruiting class take to the court because that's when you find out what you really have," he says. "We have a team that is made up of older guys that have been through our system and six talented new guys that have to learn the system. When you add those two things together you end up with a team most people will enjoy watching play the game. We are not a tall team, but we are also not a short team. You can expect us to guard and rebound and in the end we will be a pretty good team. We just have to get better every day."

The Badgers will open their inaugural NCAA Division II campaign on Friday versus the Hawks of Shorter University in Rome, Ga., at 8 p.m. (Eastern) in the Winthrop-King Centre.