There are three things Bruce Weber says he knows about his Illinois basketball team this season: The players will be young, they will listen and they will be tough.
''We have so many guys that just play hard,'' the coach said. ''We've taken more charges than we might have taken all of last year.''
Beyond that? Well, there's a lot Weber doesn't know yet.
He isn't sure yet whether Sam Maniscalco, a grad student who transferred from Bradley will be the leader at point guard his young team needs. Maniscalco spent most of last season on the bench after bone-spur surgery and isn't all the way back yet.
The coach also isn't sure yet who will knock down shots this season. And he doesn't know which Meyers Leonard will line up at center - the maturing sophomore who held his own at the under-19 world championships last summer or the 7-1 kid who was mostly overwhelmed during his freshman season.
By Christmas, he hopes, his team will begin to come together.
''I think we'll make some mistakes as we go,'' he said. ''I just hope the intensity and the relentlessness of the players is the thing that carries us through.''
The list of uncertainties - and there are others, too, like the six freshmen on the roster - was created by the departures of four starters from last year's team - point guard and top scorer Demetri McCamey, top rebounder Mike Davis, starting center Mike Tisdale and hard-working forward Bill Cole. One of the most talented players - forward Jereme Richmond, a McDonald's All-American -- left for the NBA draft, wasn't drafted and is now awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to battery charges.
With those players, Illinois was an uneven 20-14, going 9-9 in the Big Ten but winning an NCAA tournament opener against UNLV before losing a close one against top seed Kansas.
Without them, no one knows what will happen when the season stars Nov. 11 at home against Loyola (Chicago).
In his ninth season at Illinois, Weber might have another uncertainty on his hands - his own future.
After last season - even with the NCAA win - fan unhappiness was strong enough that then-athletic director Ron Guenther was compelled to announce that Weber would keep his job.
Guenther has since retired. New AD Mike Thomas hasn't said anything yet about Weber's status.
But this should also be a down year for the Big Ten. Only a handful of last year's top players will be back, and Weber said he's presented the season as a challenge to his young team.
''I've told our guys this is an opportunity,'' he said. ''We're under the radar - the whole league's under the radar. Do you step up and be the team that surprises everybody?''
If that's going to happen, the most likely candidate for Weber's go-to shooter will be junior Brandon Paul. The 6-4 guard was an occasional starter last season but regularly one of the first players off the bench. And he was an erratic 40 percent shooter - 36 percent from three-point range.
Paul says he wants to be the guy his teammates look to when they need a basket, a job he was comfortable with in high school.
''That's definitely a role that I've taken on,'' he said. ''I think the guys look up to me. When they need a point they'll try to get the ball to me.''
Leonard believes he's ready to take on a role he was recruited for.
''Just be a beast,'' he said. ''Be a big man, run the floor, play defense, rebound. The scoring will come.''
And he says he's come a long way since last season, one which he described as ''a slap in the face.'' Leonard started just once and averaged eight minutes a game, pulling down about one board and sinking one basket, on average, in each of those games..
''I wasn't mature enough,'' he now says.
And then there's Maniscalco. Two seasons ago at Bradley, his last full season, Maniscalco averaged 13 points and better than three assists a game.
At Illinois, he'll be asked to be the voice of experience on the court, and the lead tough guy on a team that Weber thinks is full of them.
''I'm going to do anything I can to help this team be successful,'' Maniscalco said. ''I'm more focused on setting an example for these guys, leading by example with my work ethic.''
But if this team is going anywhere when Big Ten play starts at the end of the year, Weber probably will need one of his freshmen to emerge.
Nnanna Egwu, a 6-11 center/forward from Chicago, might be the most likely, but most of them will get a chance. Unlike recent seasons, Weber says he'll try and play a deep rotation - nine, 10 or more players.
Weber has played rebuilder before. When he took over at Southern Illinois in 1998, he said, he had more slots to fill on his roster than he had returning players, and had to start essentially from scratch.
''We were pretty ugly early and we really had trouble scoring,'' he said. ''If we could get to 50 I was pretty happy.''
But that team slowly improved, using its early games to learn on the job, and, by the conference season, had figured out how to compete. As Weber said again, ''If you get to Christmas ...''
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Follow David Mercer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DavidMercerAP
