The preseason accolades have poured in for the John Carroll men's basketball team. A nationwide poll has the Blue Streaks 18th in the nation, and a league-wide coaches poll has tabbed JCU as preseason favorites in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

And yet, it might be safe to say, no team receiving such praise across the conference and natio nal landscapes has as many questions surrounding it as the John Carroll Blue Streaks.

Mike Moran and his reknowned platoon system has forged a record of 46-12 over the past two seasons -- but half of the platoon graduated and other parts have already been sidelined for the year with injuries. Only four starters among the two rotating units return for the 2010-11 season.

This year's squad will be led by three juniors and a senior who are looking to protect the conference regular season crown from last season. The lone senior on the roster, Maurice Haynes II (8.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg), provides the leadership and ability on the blocks to get key rebounds and limit the opponent's boards.

Juniors Corey Shontz(14.8 ppg), Joe Meyer (8.3 ppg), Mike Hartnett (4.9 ppg) are exceptional ball-handlers as well as three-point field goal and free throw shooters.

At the helm for his 19th season is head coach Mike Moran. Going into the season Moran sees his team in a different role as opposed to last season. 

“We are going from being the predator to being the prey," said Moran. "After winning the conference regular season title, things have changed. We've lost a group of seniors that won three OAC championships and played in the NCAA tournament three times as well. Getting back to that is the benchmark we strive to achieve”. 

A new cadre of players will attempt to move into the vacated spots throughout the platoon. Junior Conor Sweeney and sophomores Kenny Janz, Michael Yurcak, Casey Rouch and Jarod Artman all saw limited time last season but will have the opportunity to work their way in to more playing time this year.

Two of the more interesting additions are a pair of former high school teammates (who were also teammates of Hartnett), Kyle Hubbard and Conor Tilow. Hubbard, a member of a state semifinal team at St. Edward High School in Cleveland, rejoins the team after playing football the last two falls, while Tilow transfers in from Division II Seton Hill.

Moran will do a fair amount of experimenting to see which line-ups mesh the best, but after 19 years at the helm, knows all too well what will ultimately determine his team's success.

"We need to score more points than the other team scores each time we play," said Moran. "I may have been in this game long enough to see a number of changes, but that still hasn't changed. We just need to do everything we can to be physically and mentally prepared to take on the challenge of facing our schedule. Our conference is tough enough, and we have some big-time challenges out of league this year. I just hope we can win that first game, and see how it goes from there."