In a conference jam-packed with youth, inexperience and uncertainty this season, Hartford’s players are like your grandpappy who walked to school uphill both ways.

That is, they’re old.

Head coach John Gallagher returns all five of his starters and six seniors in 2014-15. The Hawks didn’t finish last season with the flashiest record: They were a 17-win team who earned the three seed into the conference tournament. But they showed significant improvement as the season wore on, and that bodes well for the future.

“I like our experience, I like our toughness, I like that we’ve been through it, so we think we have a chance to be good,” Gallagher said.

Fueling that confidence is Mark Nwakamma. The 6-foot-6 senior forward made the America East All-Conference First Team last year, leading his team in points (15.3 per game) and rebounds (5.8 per game). Unsurprisingly, he was also named to the preseason All-Conference team this year.

Given that talent, Gallagher’s plan is essentially to filter the ball through the low-post player, who, according to him, has his hands on the ball 71 percent of the time.

But Nwakamma gets into foul trouble. He’s double-teamed a lot, and he turns over the ball a lot (3.1 per game). When Nwakamma is in, he shoots potently — averaging a 52.8 percent clip through the season — and drives into the paint. But when he’s out, Hartford is a team that relies heavily on threes — ranking 34th in the nation with 8.0 treys per game last season.

That consistent issue was problematic for Gallagher last year. This season?

“I think now [Nwakamma] can be really aggressive because we’re really deep,” the fifth-year head coach said. “We’re not really concerned with his foul trouble. When we have 10 bodies we can play, he’s got to go defend. He’s got to be the best defender he can be and not worry about not fouling. He just has to worry about being a great defender.”

One of the major contributors to that depth is Yolonzo Moore II. Allegedly fully healthy for the first time in a while, Gallagher expects the senior point guard to see a much higher production than what he averaged last year — 9.8 points, 2.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.

“We could have redshirted him last year … but we didn’t even think about it,” Gallagher said. “But looking back on it, we should have. Because [with Moore at] 100 percent, he’s a different player. He gets way more explosion, he’s getting away and dunking on people, his athleticism is just off the charts.”

The Hawks saw Moore in action in the five games they played against top teams in Australia over the summer. Through that stretch, Moore averaged 15.4 points per contest and matched Nwakamma’s game-high 22 points in one match. He looked good.

But when the Hawks do have to rely on their volume shooting, senior guards Corban Wroe and Wes Cole are the team’s most dependable 3-point shooters. While Wroe hit 43.4 percent of his treys on 29-of-67 shooting, Cole — the team’s most prolific beyond-the-arc producer — finished at a 42.9 clip, nailing 78 of 182 through the season.

As far as having a presence in the paint goes, Gallagher plans to rely on new blood for production. John Carroll, a 6-foot-8 versatile big with a crafty midrange, was able to prove himself under the lights during the team’s trip to Australia. He sat out the first two games, but in the third, he came up big, impressing Gallagher.

“[Carroll] has great athleticism,” Gallagher said. “But most important is his mentality. He competes at an extremely high level and he can really score.”

One of the areas Gallagher has stressed in the off-season are turnovers. In that category, the Hawks ranked 298th in the nation last season, committing an average of 13.9 per game. But against teams in Australia, Moore’s returned health allowed him to take better care of the ball, and the team committed just 10 turnovers per game as a result.

Gallagher’s plan has not been to change his style. It rather focuses on the development of his players. And with a senior cast as experienced as Hartford’s, that should be sufficient.

“Our big thing is, let’s not take care of the ball; let’s be great with the ball,” Gallagher said. “That changes your mindset. So we really try to focus on that. Early on here, it’s looked good.”