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That is why this is NW St's year...a majority of their guys came in as freshman, were rather successful and they've built the program around those main blocks, who are now seniors...

Kats are very junior-loaded this year with a nice mix of home-grown talent and JUCO talent (that are juniors). Lose one senior, Kats should be favored next year as they were in 2003 with a very senior-laden squad...

The assessment is right. If you have the nice mix and have solid leaders, who have been in the program for awhile, you can be successful...

http://www.thecabin.net/stories/031006/spo_0310060022.shtml

.....Basketball scheduling is easier because the Bears and Sugar Bears will play a full Southland Conference 16-game regular-season slate and will be eligible for the regular-season title (but no postseason play until 2009).

The SLC will have divisional play for basketball and UCA will be linked with the Louisiana colleges plus Lamar in the East Division. The UCA teams will play home-and-home games with each team in its division and play the Texas teams in the West Division once (three teams home, three away). It's a similar arrangement to how the Southeastern Conference conducts divisional play.

And there will be a home game every playing date. The way the SLC arranges it, if UCA's women play at Lamar, for instance, the Lamar men will play at UCA the same night.

UCA will play a full Division I basketball schedule but getting home non-conference games will be extremely difficult. The mentality and mindset is the newcomer has to play its dues to the established D-I schools. Thus, most potential opponents want the newcomer to travel until further notice.

But UCA's schedules are all showing a different look for the transition. The women's soccer team, for example, will open its season next year at Philadelphia with games against Bucknell and the University of Pittsburgh. Last season, the Bears opened against Drury, Northeastern State of Oklahoma and John Brown University.