After a disappointing first round exit in the NCAA Tournament for Pat Miller's UW-Whitewater Warhawks Men's Basketball team, there is some uncertainty about this year's team, but by no means that doesn't mean this team can get back into the NCAA Tournament in the 2015-16 season. Last year a disappointing finish as last year's squad was one of the better Warhawks Men's Basketball teams in recent past. But as Pat Miller can put it sometimes he's had teams that were more talented than his National Championship winning teams in 2012 and 2014. Last year that without was an example. Now going into the 2015-2016 season for the Warhawks, there are some questions going into this year. They lost a lot of their talented core players from last year's season including Cody Odegaard, Steve Egan, KJ Evans, Terrance Bradley, Rahjan Muhammad, Ron Patten, Xzavier Moananu, and one of the best guards in program history (and one of the best that the city of Kenosha has ever produced) in Quardell Young. That leads to questions like this: where is the scoring going to come from this year, and who is going to be their leading rebounder and blocker this year. Those questions to me are going to be more likely to be answered by their newcomers. Doesn't mean I don't think guys like Nate Hensel, Drew Bryson, Cole Van Schyndel, Alex Van Gault, Brandon Thompson, and Jerry Ngobi won't leaders on this team. I would really like to see those guys help with those answers. I would love to see Drew Bryson have a year like his brother Eric did during his years with the Warhawks. I think the guards out of the returning group are going to make an impact however. I like what Cole Van Schyndel can do especially with the ability to stretch to the three. He'll be a good back up to Isaac Quinn this season. My gut feeling about this team is that the leading scorer and rebounder come from the newcomers. Senior transfer Isaac Quinn is one of those players and that isn't me being Kenosha biased (he went my high school alma mater in Kenosha Tremper). Quinn brings National Championship experience from his time at Cardinal Stritch. In fact, he played against the Warhawks last year in their matchup with Stritch last year. He has some size and should be a big presence in the front court. Some other transfers in Shaquille Francis, Tyler Edmondson and Justin Kurash will be other pieces in their back court that could see time. You could seem Deiondre Cunningham and Ethan Guske make some impacts in the back court. Cunningham averaged just about 14.9 points at Joliet. Guske saw 37 games of action at the Division 2 Augustana. Another guy who could bring some scoring with him is Trinson White, who started six games at UW-Milwaukee last year. The other thing I like about this roster is the recruits they brought in with Andre Brown, Mitch Pfeifer, Maurquis Turner. Both Andre Brown and Mitch Pfeifer played in the WBCA All-Star game this past summer. Both could be really big parts of this team this year and the future. Especially Andre Brown, who was the Southeast Conference leading scorer last year. To me and when I saw him play last year at Indian Trail, he's a physical kid with good overall talent. He has a decent three point game. He'll definitely be a guy to watch for the Warhawks this year and on forward. The expectations this year, battle for the conference title again with a similar team in Stephens Point. Get the automatic bid or an at-large bid and get into the NCAA Tournament and see where this team goes. I don't know if they can be a Final Four team this year. Augustana, who they'll have a huge game early in the season at home, will be the team to beat in Division 3. But with the team Whitewater has this year getting to the playoffs is certainly in reach.
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