The 2017-18 basketball season begins this weekend when the Wabash team travels to St. Louis, Missouri to play in the 34^th Lopata Classic hosted by Washington University – St. Louis.
 
The Little Giants, 11-15 overall last year, will face a tough test to open the season. Wabash opens the Classic Friday night against the host Bears, the ninth-ranked team in the preseason D3hoops.com poll after finishing 21-6 last year. Wabash will face either sixth-ranked Tufts (22-7 in 2016-17) or Webster (14-12 in 2016-17) in the second round on Saturday.
 
The Little Giants have no seniors on its roster this season, but return nine players who saw action last season. Leading the way is 2017 NCAC Newcomer of the Year Colten Garland. The sophomore guard ranked seventh in the conference in scoring at 15.4 points a game. Junior Logan White finished second in the NCAC last season with a 9.5 rebounds-per-game average. He chipped in 9.9 points per game as the second-leading scorer for Wabash.
 
"The scrimmages leading up to the start of the season this weekend have been very up and down," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "We're like most other programs at this point in the season; maybe a little different because of our youth. We have some bumps and bruises that have slowed some of the development of who's going to fit where. So we're still piecing what the rotation's going to look like. But early on it seems like Jack Davidson from Hamilton Southeastern, he's kind of taken the point guard role of this group. He's really made it easier on Colten Garland. Those two guys up to this point have kind of solidified starting spots in the backcourt. Connor Rotterman was a teammate of Davidson's at Southeastern—those were guys we really focused in on in the recruiting process. The three of them will probably garner most of the minutes at the two guard spots.
 
"Our junior class kind of fills some rolls for us. Logan White is our leading rebounder and is an emotional and physical player. We're still trying to help him figure out how his role can grow after a really good sophomore year. Duncan Roy and Ben Stachowski are also junior forwards. The three of those guys have different skill sets but they fit together. They're going to need to take on a little more leadership than they had as sophomores and that's going to be a really important piece of us growing."
 
Harrison Hallstrom started 19 games and averaged 8.7 points and 4.7 rebounds as a freshman. Roy added 19 starts along with 5.8 points and 3.1 rebounds a game during his sophomore season. Stachowski missed the first six games of the season but averaged 7.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in eight starts.
 
"Colten is going to have a bit more of a target on his back as a sophomore than he did as a freshman, so we're going to need some guys to take some of the scoring load off of him when the defense is geared in his direction," Brumett said. "We think Harrison Hallstrom and Alex Eberhard are two guys that can help with that. Both of those guys saw regular time—Harry probably a little more than Alex as freshman—and we're going to need them to continue to grow as players and to eat up minutes and figure out how they can grow as offensive players to take some pressure off of Colten."
 
The addition of eight freshmen, along with sophomore transfers Zach Anderson (Hanover College) and Max Kurkowski (Nova Southeastern), to the returning roster of four sophomores and five juniors provides flexibility in the team's offensive approach to the upcoming season.
 
"I've had success over time kind of being able to morph our style of play into what fits the guys," Brummet said. "I think this group, like last year's, there's so many young pieces that we're trying to figure out what fits them. But for me, personally, I like to play fast, I'd like to play with good tempo and good pace. What I like about that, it should allow you to play a lot of guys.
 
"I think it's good that a number of guys feel like they're going to contribute and they have an idea not just going into the games but going into each practice that there's a role that they're going to fill and they're going to be able to grow into as the team grows into what it's going to become. So for me, playing fast, that's a big part of it: trying to develop depth and use the depth and have the guys know that they're an important part of what you're trying to build as far as creating a successful season, culture, and program."
 
Tipoff of Friday's game versus Washington University – St. Louis is 7 p.m. Central Standard Time. The Little Giants play at either 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. Saturday in the final game of the Classic.