THE GOOD NEWS
The Mountaineers have really made strides the past few years, and next year should continue that trend. With the starting backcourt of Donald Sims and Kellen Brand returning, there will be leadership. And there is plenty of depth behind the duo to provide some offense off the bench.

THE BAD NEWS
The Mountaineers do lose some strength up front with the departures of Fs Donte Minter and Jeremy Clayton. Some new faces will need to step forward to fill those roles. ASU has done extremely well in the past two years, and there's a fear a dropoff may be looming.

KEY RETURNEES
Gs Donald Sims and Kellen Brand will become the focus for the Mountaineers, compared to this year's experienced frontcourt. Up front, the Mountaineers are going to be looking at 6-10 sophomore Isaac Butts to live up to some of the promise he showed this year as a freshman.

ROSTER REPORT

--F Donte Minter finished his senior year with the top field-goal percentage in the Southern Conference, hitting .647 in conference games in 2007-08.

--G Donald Sims had the second-best free-throw percentage in the Southern Conference in his freshman season, hitting 86.5 percent of his attempts from the charity stripe. Sims was the only freshman among the top 15 free-throw shooters in the league.

--F Jeremy Clayton ranked 28th in the country in blocked shots as a senior, swatting away 2.37 attempts per game.

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