UMass Lowell is set to enter its third season as a Division I program for the 2015-16 season. Once again, the River Hawks enter the year near the bottom of the America East preseason poll.

In their first season at the top level of college basketball, the River Hawks were projected to finish in last place of the conference. But they exceeded expectations, compiling an 8-8 record in the America East — 10-18 overall — while finishing in fifth place in the conference standings.

Despite the success, Lowell was again picked to finish in ninth place in the AE standings last year. But, again, the River Hawks surpassed their preseason projections, finishing in sixth with a record of 6-10, 12-17 overall.

“We were picked last — dead last — in both of our two seasons and we finished fifth and we finished sixth,” head coach Pat Duquette said. “So, I think we’ve had a lot more success than anybody thought.”

The River Hawks were projected to finish near the bottom of the standings again for the 2015-16 season — the team was picked to finish eighth in the nine-team conference. For the third straight year, Lowell will look to make the preseason poll obsolete by the end of the season.

The River Hawks will be led by star redshirt sophomore guard/forward Jahad Thomas. Thomas took the America East by storm last season as a redshirt freshman. Although he stands at just 6 foot 2 inches tall, Thomas was a monster in the paint. He battled for every rebound and bulldozed his way to the basket on offense, finishing around, over and through taller defenders.

Thomas averaged 14.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season, both tops on Lowell, before suffering an ACL tear on January 31 at Binghamton. He is expected to be in the starting lineup for the River Hawks season opener.

“Jahad [Thomas] has worked really, really hard on his rehab, like he does on everything else,” Duquette said. “He’s in a good spot right now physically and mentally. He’s already practicing and I think he is excited about coming back.”

Helping Thomas with the scoring burden will be sophomore guard Matt Harris. Harris averaged 8.8 points per game last season and is a strong 3-point shooter, knocking down triples at a 37 percent clip last season.

“Matt Harris had a great second half of the season last year,” Duquette said. “We are going to look for important contributions from him this year as well.”

However, UMass Lowell enters the season with large holes to fill at the other three spots in the lineup. The River Hawks lost three of their top five scorers from last season. Former guards Chad Holley (8.9 points per game) and Marco Banegas-Flores (7.4 points per game) graduated while standout freshman guard Lance Crawford (9.7 points per game) transferred to South Alabama.

The River Hawks will need to rely heavily on a combination of their five freshmen and three redshirt freshmen to fill those positions. Who will play in which situations is still being determined by the coaching staff.

“It’s hard to tell what kind of team we are going to be because we have eight freshmen who have never played a minute of college basketball,” Duquette said. “We are still trying to figure out ourselves, what our rotation is going to be and how these guys are going to blend together.”

Although UMass Lowell is still ineligible for postseason play until the 2017-18 season as they make the complete transition to the DI level, Duquette is taking a variety of factors into consideration as he measures the progress of his program in year three.

“We are hoping to take that next step,” Duquette said. “At the same time we know we have to be patient, we have to build it the right way and that is going to take time to develop.”