Interested on what folks think will be the teams strengths and weaknesses heading into next season. Defense was certainly an area that could have used improvement (hence, a lot of folks on here would really like to see McDay stay in the starting lineup as a defensive presence), as well as turnovers and, I'd argue, rebounding. Preston basically led the team on all categories, so had an oversized impact on our strengths (and weaknesses).

So, which areas do we expect to be strengths and weaknesses heading into the season? (Note: "heading into the season," was intentionally written, as some weaknesses can be addressed with lineup manipulation as we see the team gel.)

I see a lot of rosy, best case scenarios on BA. There's a lot of talent, but also a few concerns on this team. Here's my take:

Jason Preston was (debatably) one of the top 10 players this program has ever seen. His loss will be felt. When he was playing, literally everything moved through him. His abilities improved the offensive stats of every other player on the team. Dwight does not have the season he had without him. Lots of wide-open 3 point looks for everybody, largely thanks to him.

Jason Carter had a really bad last year, on a so-so team (frankly he was a big part of the reason they were a so-so team). He had pretty average results the year prior to that. It was reported he had a pretty bad injury in '20-'21, so maybe he'll recover to his form of '18-'19. That could happen, especially with the step down in competition. Statistically, however, it's probably more likely he'll settle into a player somewhere between his high and low points. If he ends up having a sub-40% FG%, and a 20% 3P%, he will seriously hurt Ohio's results, not help.

I'm a big fan of both Roderick and McDay and expect both to progress nicely. That doesn't always happen, however. Steps back can and do happen. I don't think that's particularly likely, but it's possible.

Sears has obvious talent. He also has serious work to do on his shot. When he becomes the driver of the offense, that flaw will be more exposed. I also worry (a little) that he may take too may ill-advised drives into a sea of bigs, rather than running the offense to get to a higher percentage shot. Hopefully that doesn't materialize.

In the 4 game stretch Preston missed in Dec/Jan, Ohio was 2-2, including a home loss to BGSU, squeaking by a wretched N Illinois at home, and getting clobbered by Toledo. Of course, the Akron game Preston missed later on was a real pleasure to watch.

For Dwight, he obviously was working through some injuries last year. If he can heal up, it will be quite nice to see him actually be able to jump.

So IMHO it's very possible that this group is a MAC tournament semi-final loss kind of team. Of course, like the rosy best case scenarios, it's also possible that everyone keeps growing, or returns to form, and we have another excellent campaign. Of course, like everyone else, I'm hoping for the latter. I won't be too shocked if it's the former, though. Either way, I'm excited to see this group. I doubt anyone's going to argue they don't have potential.

I doubt I could add much worthwhile about his Xavier defense. I've not heard anything that leads me to believe he was a notable, or subpar defender in general. I have heard an opinion or two that he was slow this past year, but I imagine an ankle injury would be the obvious culprit there. He was a team captain, and has certainly gotten praise for being the proverbial "glue" guy. Of course he was also abandoned in a rest stop bathroom by his bus. I don't want to make that into anything, but the neon flaming symbolism is hard to miss.

I really don't mean to knock Carter as much as I feel like I am, by the way. I have a feeling his time at Xavier has pretty much been defined by injury. If he can get healthy, he could be a very important piece on this team. Of course, he's had a whole lot of injuries in his career. So there may be more to come.

Overall, Ohio's defensive issues are pretty well known, I think. Tightening it up was a big part of their late season run. I'm not sure Sears replacing Preston will really help. Maybe all of the other main players returning does help some, from an experience standpoint.

I would also add that, with this team, Carter isn't going to be expected to carry the team like he was his final season here previously. Look at all the talent around him now. Carter might even be in a 6th man role, depending on how the lineup shakes out. How many teams in the MAC can pull that kind of player off the bench?

Backup PG is my biggest concern. I know Brown can handle the load in an emergency situation, but I like him off the ball more. How fast the new guy, whomever it is, steps up is gonna be key.

Losing an NBA draftee hurts, but I'm genuinely excited to see what Sears does now that he's running the ship. I don't think it's unrealistic to see this team as a true contender for the automatic bid.

It definitely feels like we are extremely experienced, but I'm assuming most teams in the NCAA are going to be in a similar boat since everyone gets an extra year of eligibility this year... A record-number of 5th (or more) year seniors this year across the NCAA...

I'm very excited to see Carter returning. We've got all the pieces to be very, very good.