The Wabash College basketball team is ready to take the floor to begin the 2016-17 season tonight against the Blackburn College Beavers.
 
Heading into his third season as head coach of the Little Giants basketball team, Wabash head basketball coach Kyle Brumett sought a certain type of player for the Little Giants.
 
"We wanted to stick with recruiting guys who saw basketball just as important as my staff and I, Brumett said. "When you look at the teams at Wabash who are seeing national success had a core group of guys, usually older guys, who were taking themselves very seriously as athletes as well as students. Those were the types of guys we continued to recruit."
 
With the loss of two of last season's leading scorers, the Little Giants are faced with a void in the scoring department.
 
"I feel like we can collectively fill the scoring losses on the roster with a good core of returners and some talented freshmen," said sophomore Duncan Roy, who averaged 6.9 points per game in his rookie season.
 
That core will include junior forward Zach Patton (2.4 ppg in 11 appearances), senior guard CJ McMann (4.2 ppg), sophomore guard Ronald Ryan (1.5 ppg), sophomore post Logan White (2.6 ppg), and Roy. Each played various roles in the offense last season. Sophomore Ben Stachowski, a 9.8 point-per-game scorer last season, will miss the opening portion of the season due to off-season surgery.
 
"After graduating three seniors last year, the core of our team is really sophomores," Brumett said. "This freshman class, based on who we graduated, was recruited to fill some of the talent holes that were left by that graduating class. Some guys are going to have to take on larger roles than we anticipated, but guys are doing a great job with that task."
 
White also touched on the youth of the Little Giants, "We are a very young team with only one senior who will not join us until football is over, and one junior. Being young is a challenge, but we believe we have a lot of talent on our team."
 
The major difficulty facing the Little Giants from last season was the inability to cash in from the free throw line. Wabash went 333-546 from the free throw line last season, with a team average of 61 percent while making an average of 12.8 free throws per game. Little Giant opponents, on the other hand, went 342-496 from the free throw line for a mark of 69-percent and an average 13.2 free throws per game.
 
The free throw challenges the Little Giants faced last season is a point of emphasis for the Wabash coaching staff.
 
"We are making a big deal about free throws," Brumett said. "Doing something in practice is far different than doing something with the lights on and everyone watching. It's my job to make sure we're doing things on a daily basis that ensure our guys have the utmost confidence when they step up to the free throw line. It's definitely an emphasis, and I talked about it with the team at the beginning of the season."
 
The major strength that has continued throughout the Brumett era at Wabash College has been rebounding. The Little Giants averaged 41.5 rebounds per game with a plus 6.5 rebounding margin.
 
"It takes a certain amount of competitiveness and tenacity to be a good rebounding team and I believe we have that," Brumett said.
 
Evan Frank will be the biggest key to maintaining the tradition of rebounding for Wabash College. The 6-8 sophomore center averaged 7.5 rebounds in 26 games last season while chipping in with 7.4 points a contest.
 
Wabash hosts 12 of its 26 games at home including nine North Coast Athletic Conference matchups. The Little Giants were picked to finish sixth in the NCAC standings in the conference preseason coaches' poll.

Wabash's continued ability to out-rebound its opponents this season, while fine-tuning their free throw woes, could prove to be a deadly combination for Little Giant opponents.