On Hartford’s depth chart, there’s a glaring empty rectangle that needs to be filled. The Hawks’ former star guard senior Pancake Thomas was granted release to transfer in August to Western Kentucky. With the release, Hartford lost its team leader in points, rebounds and assists per game.

Replacing Thomas’ offensive production will be tricky. He arrived at Hartford just two years ago as a transfer from New Mexico, but was forced to sit out a year due to NCAA transfer regulations. In his only season as a Hawk, Thomas propelled his team to the America East (AE) Semifinals, despite the fact that it held the seventh seed heading into the conference tournament.

The Hawks didn’t finish where they had hoped at the end of last season. After a strong showing in the AE Quarterfinals against Albany, the Hawks fell to Stony Brook in the semifinals. They finished conference play with a 4-12 record.

This year, Hartford was picked to finish eighth in the AE preseason coaches’ poll. Despite the loss of Thomas, the Hawks are looking to build off last season’s playoff upset with a young team built around a core of sophomores and juniors. Hartford’s goal is simple: to make it to the top of the conference.

“To compete for an America East Championship and to get better every day,” said Hartford head coach John Gallagher.

The Hawks finished last season toward the bottom of the conference in both offensive and defensive production, ranking sixth- and seventh-best, respectively. Hartford averaged 70.8 points per game to their opponents’ 78.4.

In Gallagher’s seventh season, Hartford will have to improve its scoring offense and rebounding. Defense, however, was not a problem for the Hawks last year.

“We have a lot of different scorers,” Gallagher said. “We just have to focus of defending and rebounding and let the scoring come.”

While Hartford’s roster is young, it has a solid nucleus around which it can build. Seven of the Hawks’ 12 players are sophomores, two of whom are redshirt sophomores.

“All the sophomores will be in the rotation; it should make for some fun growth as a team,” Gallagher said.

Growth will be a large part of this season for Hartford, as the Hawks will look to build chemistry moving forward. This chemistry will need to be employed in Hartford’s season opener against Vermont, the preseason favorite to take the conference.

“I think the focus this year is on defense and rebounding, because we have a lot of different scorers,” Gallagher said. “We just have to focus on defense and rebounding and let the scoring come.”

Gallagher says Jalen Ross, the redshirt senior guard who transferred from Eastern Michigan last season, will be a key contributor for Hartford this season. Ross played in all 33 of Hartford’s games last season, averaging 10.2 points per game with a 40.9 field goal percentage.

“Offensively he is just very, very talented,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher is also excited by the prospect of junior center Hassan Attia. Like Ross, Attia is also a transfer student. At Colby Community College in 2015-16, he started 28 games and recorded 60 blocks and 253 rebounds.

“Attia is a real force in the paint; he can really rebound and block shots,” Gallagher said. “I’m looking for a lot out of [Ross and Attia].”