By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The first several weeks of basketball practice are an evaluation period in many ways. Coach Bob Huggins and his staff have to figure out what the University of Cincinnati players can do, then decide the best way for this team to win.

Press? Zone? Lots of 3s? Throw the ball inside?

One of Huggins' strengths over the years has been adapting to his personnel.

With six first-year players and a seventh - Eugene Land - who hasn't played in three years, it has been tough to get a handle on who can do what.

"Still working on that," Huggins said Wednesday. "It's so hard. I honestly don't know what they can do."

Senior Leonard Stokes is the only returning starter. He, sophomore Jason Maxiell and junior Field Williams have the most playing experience.

It's reminiscent of two years ago, when Steve Logan and Kenny Satterfield were the only players with much experience.

But that team had two NBA-caliber point guards and some size (6-foot-11 centers Donald Little and B.J. Grove). This team may have more shooters, but it is smaller (nobody on the roster is taller than 6-8) and may be less experienced.

"We're always evaluating," associate head coach Dan Peters said. "I think that's something that's constantly ongoing throughout the course of the season. If you look at our team last year, what we ended up running toward the end of the season is not what we started with."

Last year's team started out trying to get open shots by screening the opposition and coming off picks. By the end of the season, the Bearcats were penetrating and passing to open players.

That happened because UC had several capable ball handlers who saw the floor well and made good decisions, and a point guard (Logan) who drew a lot of double-teams.

Two years ago, Satterfield was the primary scoring option when the season started, but it was Logan by the end of the year. The Bearcats also became a better defensive team toward the end of that season.

"Right now what we're trying to do is establish maybe a pecking order," Peters said. "We've never told the guys who should shoot and who should not shoot. We kind of let them work it out within the group.

"I can't tell you what offense or defense we're going to run. I can tell you it's going to have to be a team that shares the ball, that helps each other and that's hard working. If we don't do those three things, it'll be a long year."

E-mail mperry@enquirer.com