With almost a third of their roster new to the Huskies program, it’s definitely a fresh look for the University of Saskatchewan men’s basketball team.

Newcomers Chan De Ciman, Shawn Lathan, Jauquin Bennett-Boire, Davis Humbert and Devin Wittow will look to aid the Dogs in their quest for a third-straight Canadian Interuniversity Sport Final 8 appearance. After back-to-back fifth place finishes at nationals, the Huskies are looking to take the next step.

With a plethora of new faces, the handful of veterans will be leaned on to weather the early season storm, as the newcomers look to find their rhythm in the CIS. Evan Ostertag, Trevor Severinski and Jonathan Karwacki will all be seniors and leaders of this team.

With a great mixture of size, athleticism, speed and talent, it will be a very interesting year for head coach Barry Rawlyk and his squad. But what they have in talent, they lack in CIS experience.

“We are a work in progress,” Rawlyk said. “We can still be successful, we just have to find different ways to be successful… We have the talent to be successful in the Canada West, but how much of that will be mitigated by lack of experience,” Rawlyk said. “If we can balance that, we can be pretty successful.”

The losses far outweigh the gains for the upcoming year, as injuries have begun to pile up for the Dogs. After badly hurting his ankle late last season, forward Shane Osayande is still undergoing rehab and won’t be available until after the Christmas break.

To make matters worse in the frontcourt, fifth-year Matt Forbes broke his foot in a preseason game and will miss the entire 2015–16 season. Add on the graduation of studs Ben Baker, Dadrian Collins and Andrew Henry, and it isn’t exactly the way Rawlyk imagined his roster would be looking at this point in the year.

“It is a good life lesson for all of us,” he said. “We all have this plan in life of how it is all supposed to work out, and it rarely does.”

As Rawlyk and the squad are busily looking for ways to fill the holes, they have stumbled out of the gate and find themselves with a 1–3 record early on in the season. It is a long season however, and as the roster gets more accustomed to the league and gels with one another, the outlook has to be a positive one for any Huskies fan.

Moving forward, Evan Ostertag will have to be the top dog for the Huskies. He is the only player currently on the roster who finished in the top eight in team scoring last season, with 9.5 points per game. Aside from Ostertag, the Huskies will need Alex Unruh, Severinski and Karwacki to step up and have increased roles compared to the last couple seasons.

Lathan could end up being a huge contributor to the Dogs, as he is the latest California recruit to join the Huskies program. After being named to the All-State team the past two years with Southwestern College, the 6-4, 200 pound guard will take some time to adjust to the Canadian game. Top recruit De Ciman is starting this year in the point guard position, and it could be the start of a promising CIS career with the Huskies.

Although the roster isn’t shaping up exactly how the Huskies planned, they have the pieces in place to be competitive in the tough CanWest conference. With a handful of savvy veterans and plenty of youthful energy, the team could very well turn things around after the Christmas break and find their stride heading into the post-season.

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Photo: Supplied / APShutter.com – UVic Vikes