AKRON – Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball coach Bill Patrick admits that his team could struggle early on this season.

He is counting though on seeing an improved version of the 2015-16 edition of the Vikings as the season progresses.

“I think that the first half of the season could be a struggle for us,” Patrick said. “But, I don’t think that there is any question that we will get better as we go along.”

Valley lost three starters from last year’s team that went 14-9 overall and 6-1 in the Three Rivers Conference to share the league title with Manchester and Southwood. Graduation took top scorer Alex Thacker (18.4 points-per-game), along with Chandler O’Connor (8.6) and Jarred Littlejohn (4.0).

“We lost a big part of our scoring from last year,” noted Patrick, who is 744-291 overall as he enters his 47th season on the sidelines and 266-111 at Valley, where this will be his 18th year. “Size is a question mark for us. We don’t really have any this year. Can we rebound and can we handle teams with size inside? Those are both concerns. We’re going to have to do an outstanding job of boxing out this year.”

Valley does return a strong duo in Neil Clampitt and Gavin Bussard, two of the four seniors on this year’s squad. The 6-2 Clampitt averaged 13.4 points-per-game a year ago and led the Vikings in both rebounding at almost five caroms per game and in 3-pointers with 47. Bussard, a 6-0 guard, averaged 7.5 ppg. a season ago.

“We are going to need both Neil and Gavin to score more for us this season,” Patrick said. “Neither of them would really prefer to be our top scoring options, but we need them to be this year. They just need to be more aggressive offensively and shoot more for us.”

The trio of seniors Brandon Webster and Trevor Neeley, along with junior Alec Craig are slated to join Clampitt and Bussard in the starting lineup come the opener versus Warsaw on Nov. 25. Craig, a three-sport athlete, averaged 4.2 ppg. last season. Webster, who played in 13 games last year, is 5-9, while Neeley, who appeared in 17 games, is 5-8 and Craig is 5-11.

“It’s a good group that has good attitudes and works hard,” said Patrick. “They play together well and are not selfish. The problem is that for different reasons, including that many of these guys play other sports, they really didn’t put the time in working on basketball in the offseason.”

Bryce Webster, the Vikings’ tallest player at 6-4, could be a key as the sophomore develops and gains varsity experience. Juniors Keith Wright and Jaren Duzenbery are expected to contribute off the bench early on. Duzenbery played in eight varsity games and Wright seven last season. Juniors DeSean Heckman and Ivan Santiago complete the varsity roster.

“I expect us to be quicker than most teams we play with our lack of size this year,” noted Patrick. “Defense is a question mark and we may not play as much man to man as we have in the past.”

Valley averaged 58 ppg. and allowed 54 ppg. last year. The Vikings earned at least a share of the TRC championship for the fourth straight season.

“I think that the TRC is going to be really strong this year,” stated Patrick. “I think that it could be one of the stronger years for our conference. Maconaquah could be the favorite this year. They have a big kid who is going to Toledo and a freshman who is really good. Southwood and Manchester are both going to be very good again. Whitko is going to be much better and I think that Wabash will be too.”

Valley hosts rival Warsaw to open the season Nov. 25. The Vikings will begin TRC action by hosting Peru on Dec. 15.