With only three players returning from last year’s squad, you would think second-year UWG men’s basketball coach Michael Cooney may be a bit taken back by the first week of official practice.

After all, with seven fresh faces on the scene, there are plenty of question marks about these Wolves.

That said, Cooney is rather optimistic about the talent he’s brought in for the 2008-09 season, as are the fellow coaches in the Gulf South Conference, apparently, as they tabbed UWG second in the preseason poll behind North Alabama in the GSC East.

“I would say for the first week, I think in a lot of ways, they’re ahead of the game,” Cooney said of the newcomers. “After six days, I am very pleased with attitude, very pleased with effort, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m pretty dang pleased with their execution.”

Cooney put the squad through a more aggressive preseason-conditioning regime to get some of the newer guys up to speed, including early-morning practices beginning at 6:15 three days a week.

“We’ve been practicing hard, and we’ve been up,” Cooney said. “We’ve been going in the morning, and we’re battling and trying to move this team along quicker than normal because we’ve got such a brutal schedule in November.”

Counting three exhibition contests, the Wolves will play 10 games in November, including seven during a 14-day stretch to open the season, which begins Nov. 15 when North Georgia comes to the HPE Building.

“It is not a schedule for the weak,” Cooney said. “We have seven new players, and it’s a lot. It’s a lot to swallow, but we feel like we’re going to be a very, very competitive GSC team. And so, you know, it’s one of those schedules that you’re going to look at it and it’s really tough. But it’s one of those schedules that if you do well, you’ll really be rewarded for it.”

Seniors Adam Stanger and Doug Daniels, along with sophomore Deion Sims, are the lone returnees from last season’s 16-12 ball club, as UWG lost its top three scorers in Terrence Hundley (16.8 ppg), Paul Harper (13.3 ppg) and Henrick Foster (12.2 ppg).

Still, Cooney is highly confident in his newcomers, five of which are transfers.

Leading the way is senior power forward Chris Miller-Williams, a Division I transfer from South Carolina State.

Miller-Williams, standing at 6-foot-5-inches and 280 pounds, finally gives West Georgia the true post presence it has missed in recent years, possessing good hands and feet, which Cooney said enable him to be a great passing threat from the post.

“We think he’s going to be a menace,” Cooney said. “He really gives us that threat in the post that we haven’t had for a few years.”

Another highly-sought-after newcomer is junior forward John Pringle from New Jersey. Along with being a solid slasher and rebounder, Cooney said he can knock down the three as well.

“He was one of the most-recruited junior-college guys in the country,” Cooney said. “He’s an energy guy, but a pretty good shooter. He can score for you, and he’s a guy that plays with tremendous effort.”

Sophomore guard Chris Colvin is another Division I transfer from Southeast Louisiana, while wing Jeremy Smith out of Citrus College in California brings a reputation as a shut-down defender on the wing, standing an agile and versatile 6-7.

Senior center Jesse Oglesby comes in from Lithonia and is a space-filler — standing at 6-10 — with the ability to run the floor well and swat away shots in the paint.

The two incoming freshmen are point guard Ismael John out of Riverdale, and Gavin Field, a sharp-shooting wing from Australia.

Cooney said all 10 players on the roster will see plenty of playing time this season and none of the newcomers are what you would label as “projects.”

The Wolves will be without the services of Stanger early on in the season, as the senior point guard suffered a broken finger on his right hand — he’s a lefty — and is expected to be cleared in two to three weeks.

And while it is early, Cooney has a good feeling about this group, saying he is hopeful it can drastically improve on last year’s shooting numbers.

UWG hit at just a 31-percent clip from beyond the arc, 45 percent from the field and 61 percent from the charity stripe as a team last season, numbers Cooney said must improve.

“Those are numbers that are not going to have you playing in March,” Cooney said. “We think that we’ve addressed that. We think that we can put a team on the floor at the end of the game that’s going to make free throws, and we think we’re going to be a better three-point shooting team. So we’re optimistic.”

And as the new meshes with the old, Cooney is hopeful by the time GSC play rolls around and the Wolves open their new home facility —— The Coliseum — West Georgia will be a team to reckon with for 40 minutes each and every night.

“If we stay healthy and we improve as we’re going to do, I think we’re going to be a very, very tough opponent,” Cooney said. “It’s a very, very tough grind that we’re going to start off with, and if we can weather that and be a team going home at Christmas feeling good about ourselves, then I think that January and February are going to bode well for this team.”