WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2011-12

• Head coach Brian Jones has all five starters back from his 2011 Great West Conference Tournament championship team. The squad posted a 19-15 record and earned an automatic berth to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The sixth-year head coach only lost 9.4 percent of his team's scoring as senior captains Derek Benter (4.0 ppg) and Chris Clausen (3.1 ppg) were the only departures.

• The conference crown was the first for the Fighting Sioux at the Division I era and first overall since winning the 1994 North Central Conference tournament title (Division II).

• Junior Patrick Mitchell was named the GWC Tournament MVP after averaging averaged 13.3 ppg and 5.7 rpg during UND's run to the three-game run to the title. Mitchell scored 14 points and had four blocks in the double-overtime victory over South Dakota in the championship game.

• Mitchell's final block of the season against Air Force in the CIT moved him into sixth place on UND's single-season chart for that category with 56. He now has 114 for his career, which is the fifth highest career total in the UND record books.

• Mitchell was joined on the GWC All-Tournament team by freshman Troy Huff, who led the Sioux in scoring in each of their three tournament victories (14.3 ppg in the tourney). Both players finished the season with 25 double-digit scoring efforts.

• Huff earned second team All-Great West honors after leading the team with a 13.3 ppg average. His 452 points also broke the UND freshman scoring record held by Scott Guldseth (418, 1989-90). He finished the season with five 20-plus scoring efforts, including a career high 31-point outing in a road win at Houston Baptist.

• Two fellow classmates joined Huff on UND's top 10 list for freshman scoring last season. Point guard Jamal Webb was eighth with 316 points (9.3 ppg) and shooting guard Josh Schuler finished tenth with 300 points (8.8 ppg).

• Huff, Schuler and Webb teamed with fellow freshmen Brandon Brekke and Aaron Anderson to be the highest-producing rookie class in Division I basketball last season. The freshmen quintet accounted for 65.4 percent of UND's scoring a season ago (1,517 points). The freshmen at Memphis finished second, scoring 63.9 percent (1,615 of 2,524 points) of the Tigers' buckets and the rookies at Kentucky were third, producing 60.5 percent (1,721 of 2,845 points) of the Wildcats' scores.

• Anderson was the only freshman not in the starting lineup, but he averaged over 22 minutes a game and scored 260 points (7.6 ppg) in his first collegiate season. The 5-foot-10 point guard led the team with an 80 percent clip from the free throw line. He sank 116 freebies out of a team-high 145 attempts.

• The 11-game tournaround from an eight-win season in 2010-11 was the third best in program history.

• Juniors Spencer Goodman and Mitch Wilmer will return to the playing rotation after having their seasons prematurely cut short with injuries. Goodman started all 11 games he appeared in before suffering an injury in the opening minute of play at UMKC (Dec. 18). Wilmer appeared in nine games off the bench, but was lost for the season after suffering an injury in the second half of the North Dakota State tilt (Dec. 11).