Dr_Boilermaker

Season Record 4-5-1

Seattle Redhawks +13.5

Seattle's three-year run as an independent is over, starting a new era of Redhawks basketball. This will be their first season in the Western Athletic Conference, and coach Cameron Dollar already has gotten a head start.

In late August, Seattle left for a two-week basketball tour of China. The Redhawks visited Beijing, Fuxin, Qianjiang and Heze. They played five games, winning just once, but earning experience Dollar thinks will pay off down the road.

These offseason trips go a long way, especially when playing high level talent.  Seattle opened up 87 points against Montana state in a never in doubt ATS winner. They had 19 assists and 51 rebounds in that match.  I will be looking at this team early and often this season.  This is their first road game and travel from the west edge of the world can be tough.  We'll see if we quickly see a sharp road/home dichotomy with this team or just a nice early season ATS gem regardless of venue.

Kampe is looking forward to a team that, despite the loss of the nation's leading scorer Reggie Hamilton, should be improved.

Kampe isn't worried about replacing Hamilton's 26 points per game, but I would be.

"A lot of things are circumstantial in this game," Kampe said. "The year before, Reggie averaged 18 on a great team. Now, he's on a team with all those freshmen. He needed to score for us. He was a very efficient scorer. He had the ball in his hands all the time. As a coach that's not something you really want. Now, we've got everybody back but him."

Kampe's current team will have an experience edge on last season, when he used three freshmen and two sophomores extensively.

Kampe's may have four starters returning, but the guy he wants to talk about first is a newcomer. Providence transfer Duke Mondy (7.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.2 apg, 2.1 spg, in 2010-11), a 6-4 junior, was a top defender for the Friars who led the Big East in steals his sophomore season. He takes over for Hamilton at point guard.

"He's got a chance to be the best played I've ever coached," Kampe said. "We're going to replace that great scorer with more of a playmaker, a defender, distributor, facilitator at guard."

Mondy prepared himself well for his return to the court.

"A tremendous summer," Kampe said. "I am really excited about him. I expect him to average 15, 16 points a game."

Mondy is capable. He reached double figures six times in his final season at Providence and scored a career-high 19 against Georgetown.

Kampe isn't sure if his team will be able to average 80 points per game. But 6-5 junior guard Travis Bader (15.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg) provides a nice start.

"My guess is he's going to be the guy this year who gets us the 22," Kampe said.

Put the sell sign up as the Summit is SDSt's to lose.