GAME NOTES: The West Virginia Mountaineers and Monmouth Hawks get their season started against one another at WVU Coliseum on Friday.

Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year Juwan Staten will look to get off on the right foot, though an ankle injury may slow the Mountaineers' senior guard in the early going.

The league's top returning scorer, Staten (18.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg) also ranked second in the Big 12 in assists (5.8 apg) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8), and third in field goal percentage (.486). Unfortunately, former teammates Eron Harris (17.2 ppg) transferred to Michigan State, and Terry Henderson (11.7 ppg) moved on to NC State, leaving Staten as the Mountaineers' only double-digit scorer from a year ago.

West Virginia finished 17-16 last season, including 9-9 in league play, and lost to Georgetown in the first round of the NIT. In order to make a return trip to the postseason, the Mountaineers will need 6-foot-9 sophomore Devin Williams (8.4 ppg, 7.2 rpg) to continue grabbing rebounds as he develops his offensive game. The team also welcomes two players who are eligible after sitting out last season in 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman forward Elijah Macon and 6-foot-7 transfer Jonathan Holton. Holton is an intriguing player who averaged 17.5 points and 14.1 rebounds per game and shot 40 percent from 3-point range at Palm Beach State Community College in 2012-13.

The Hawks did not have a great 2013-14 campaign, going 11-21 overall and 5-15 in their first year in MAAC play, but they return 88.9 percent of their scoring and boast only four seniors on the roster, leaving tons of room for improvement.

Deon Jones (15.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg), Andrew Nicholas (14.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg), Josh James (8.4 ppg, 101 assists) and Justin Robinson (7.1 ppg, 83 assists) are all back in the fold. One area that needs more attention moving forward is the unit's efforts at the free throw line. The team took close to 100 fewer free throws than the competition, and only Jones (156-of-202) had more than 64 tries at the charity stripe.

Monmouth is probably a year or two away from contending in the MAAC, so expecting them to challenge a team from a power conference seems unrealistic. Staten, if he is fully healthy, should take control and lead WVU to an easy victory.