GAME NOTES: The Brown Bears have plenty of returning experience heading into the 2014-15 season, which begins on Friday night at home against the Saint Peter's Peacocks.

The Bears return four of five starters from last season when they went 15-14 in the second year under head coach Mike Martin. Brown went 7-7 in the Ivy League, and earned a trip to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, where they lost to Holy Cross in the first round. It marked the first time Brown ended above .500 since winning 19 games in 2007-08.

Even though, they return 80 percent of their starting lineup, the Bears will be without Sean McGonagill (17.4 ppg, 3.8 apg, 93 3-pointers), who graduated. Brown's biggest strength now is in the frontcourt, with Rafael Maia (9.5 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and Cedric Kuakumensah (9.0 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 3.2 bpg) making up the league's most imposing forward duo. Leland King (9.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Steven Spieth (8.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and Tavon Blackmon (7.4 ppg, 3.5 apg) give the squad solid depth even without McGonagill. Maia led the Ivy League in rebounding in each of the last two years. Blackmon, who enters his sophomore year after starting 27 of 28 games as a first-year player, doled out 3.5 assists per game to rank fifth in the Ivy. They also boast the Ivy's Defensive Player of the Year for two straight years in Kuakumensah, who set a league record for single-season blocked shots in 2013-14 with 93. His 159 blocks entering this season are four shy of Matt Mullery's (2006-10) school record.

Saint Peter's comes into the season off a 14-17 campaign, the eighth under head coach John Dunne. They also return four of five starters from last season.

Seniors Marvin Dominique and Desi Washington will be the focus at the offensive end yet again after they stepped up and produced 16.6 and 13.5 ppg, respectively last season. The former shot a solid 47.5 percent from the floor, the team hitting a mere 40.7 percent after being dragged down by Washington with his 37.7 percent accuracy. More good news for the Peacocks has guard Trevis Wyche returning as well, but what would you expect from someone who was just a freshman last season? Wyche accounted for 8.3 ppg and was tops in the passing department with close to four assists per outing. But as good as Wyche was at distributing the ball, he fell back with a mere 24.5 percent shooting beyond the arc as the team was a dismal 31.6 percent accurate from long distance over the course of 31 games.

This is the sixth straight season the Peacocks are on the road to start. Under Dunne, the Peacocks are 2-6 in season openers. Saint Peter's was the only team in the MAAC to hold foes to less than 70.0 ppg (65.9 ppg) last season, and the focus for Dunne remains on defense, although the team has plenty of depth. Jamel Fields, Elias Desport, Kris Rolle and Chazz Patterson are also back as returning players for the Peacocks, who should win a tightly-contested season opener.