Mark Fox isn't worried.

He's lost four starters off Nevada's 29-5 team a year ago, including two players - Nick Fazekas and Ramon Sessions - who were taken in the NBA Draft.

``We've got our set of challenges," Fox said. "But I'd rather have expectations than be on the opposite side and have none."

But Fox has been through this sort of thing before. He took over the program after Kirk Snyder left and was forced to go with a young group with unknown guys like Fazekas and Sessions (then a freshman).

Fox will obviously build this team around 6-foot-5 senior Marcelus Kemp, who averaged 18.4 points, 4.6 boards and 2.4 assists last season. He'll also have senior forward Demarshay Johnson back in the fold after he redshirted last year (he was academically ineligible the first semester, so Fox decided to give him the entire year off).

The schedule isn't favorable, especially early. The Wolf Pack open Central Florida's new building on Nov. 11 and then travel back across the country and play at UC-Irvine two days later.

Fox said that Kemp has been working on his ballhandling and passing and will spend some time at the point, but with junior Lyndale Burleson out for the first semester due to academics, look for freshman Armon Johnson - a local kid who played a few miles away from campus at Hug High - to run the team.

``He's a scoring point - like I want my guys to be," Fox said of Johnson.

The 6-foot-9 Johnson should get some help up front from talented and skilled 7-foot sophomore JaVale McGee and 6-foot-8 sophomore Matt LaGrone. Fox said that McGee's upside is tremendous while LaGrone has made as much progress as anyone on the team.

Fox is excited about the future as well. For the first time in school history, Nevada has a consensus Top 100 recruit. In fact, they'll have two of them coming in next season. One is McDonald's All-American candidate Luke Babbitt (Scout.com, No. 19), a local star who originally committed to Ohio State before deciding he wanted to stay home; the other is Mark McLaughlin (Scout.com, No. 77), a 6-foot-4 wing from Washington who was previously committed to Washington State.

CLINCH RETURNS FOR TECH

Paul Hewitt lost a pair of first-round picks in Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young, but he did get one starter back in Lewis Clinch.

The 6-foot-3 Clinch led the team in scoring through the first 10 games of the year before he was ruled ineligible for the entire ACC season last year. He practiced sporadically with the team the second half of the season while sitting out.

``I have to be careful with Lewis and understand that even though he's a junior, he missed five games his freshman year and didn't play most of last season," Hewitt said.

Hewitt said that Clinch, who made 48 percent of his 3-pointers, has appeared rusty with his outside shot, but he's able to get to the basket and finish with more consistency.

Hewitt also said that senior big man Ra'Sean Dickey may have his knee drained on Wednesday. The 6-foot-10 Dickey is academically ineligible for the first semester, anyway, so the doctors decided to hold off scheduling surgery in hopes the knee will improve in the next couple of months.

CAVALIERS CONTINUE TO ROLL

Dave Leitao and the Virginia Cavaliers are quietly putting together a recruiting class that could earn a spot among the nation's best.

Leitao and his staff got the news on Tuesday that Assane Sene, a 7-footer from Senegal who is spending the year at South Kent (Conn.), had chosen the Cavaliers over Syracuse and a host of others.

Sene is one of the most improved big men in the country. He joins guard Sylven Landesberg (Scout.com, No. 39) and John Brandeburg (Scout.com, No. 82).

Sene and Brandenburg finally give UVA a couple of quality bigs that they can legitimately go to war with in the ACC.

It's already a strong class, but the icing on the cake would be if Elliott Williams opted for Virginia over Tennessee, Memphis and Duke on Nov. 2.

RANDOM NOTES: I spoke with Nate Miles yesterday, the talented Toledo native who is spending a few months at The Patterson School (N.C.) in an effort to qualify and join Jim Calhoun's UConn Huskies after the first semester. Miles is taking four classes and will also have to raise his test score. He was also suspended by head coach Chris Chaney for the team's exhibition victory over Oak Hill Academy a little more than a week ago. ... BYU coach Dave Rose got an extension through the 2010-11 campaign. He has led the Cougars to consecutive 20-win campaigns. ... The Preseason NIT will guarantee every team four games beginning in 2008. First- and second-round games will be played at four home campus sites with the winners of each site advancing to Madison Square Garden. The remaining 12 teams will play third- and fourth-round games on the three home campus sites determined by a seeding process. ... John W. Adams is the NCAA's new National Coordinator of Men's Basketball Officiating, replacing Hank Hichols, who will retire at the end of this season. ... Bob Huggins finally got some good news on the recruiting trail when Hargrave Military Academy's Roscoe Davis committed to West Virginia over Pittsburgh and Kansas State.