THE GOOD NEWS
The Hilltoppers return some talented young players, including sophomore forward Jeremy Evans, freshman forward D.J. Magley, sophomore guard A.J. Slaughter and freshman wing Steffphon Pettigew.

THE BAD NEWS
The Hilltoppers lose five seniors, including three backcourt starters in Courtney Lee, Tyrone Brazelton and Ty Rogers. And they lost their coach, Darrin Horn, who left for South Carolina.

KEY RETURNEES
Guards Orlando Mendez-Valdez and sophomore A.J. Slaughter, wing Steffphon Pettigew and forwards Jeremy Evans and D.J. Magley.

ROSTER REPORT

--The Hilltoppers aren't just losing three starting senior guards. Lee was the 2008 Sun Belt player of the year, Brazelton was a tough point guard who played outstanding basketball in the NCAA Tournament and Rogers was a solid defender who hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer in the first-round NCAA Tournament win over Drake.

--The Hilltoppers saw plenty of positive signs from Slaughter, Evans and Magley over the final month of the season, giving rise to hopes that all three are ready to take on bigger roles in 2008-09. Slaughter will get more shots now that Lee and Brazelton are gone, while Evans and Magley simply need to become more consistent and productive. Magley, in particular, needs to learn how to be aggressive without getting into foul trouble.

--The Hilltoppers still have high hopes for 6-10, 230-pound sophomore A'Darius Pegues. Still, Pegues hasn't played since his junior year in high school because he suffered a knee injury as a senior, missed the 2006-07 season as an academic non-qualifier and suffered another knee injury before the 2007-08 season.

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