More than any season since Kevin Johnson took over the Southern men's basketball team three years ago, there are question marks for the Jaguars as they replace nearly the entire roster.

It didn't stop the Southwestern Athletic Conference coaches and sports information directors from picking Southern to finish second in their annual preseason poll. If anything, it shows respect for Johnson and his ability to get the most out of the Jaguars, who have finished no lower than third under his leadership.

"I don't know how they picked us second," Johnson said. "We've got 14 new guys, but I'm flattered."

Nearly all of last season's team that finished 17-17 is gone. It was an experienced group that went 11-7 during the SWAC regular season and advanced to the championship game of the postseason tournament before falling 72-66 to Prairie View.

The roster attrition included senior guard Michael Jacobs, who led the team in scoring at 17.6 points per game, and leading rebounder DeMariee Jones. There were also three underclassmen who left via the transfer portal.

"We knew we were going to have a huge recruiting task when you have so many seniors," Johnson said. "A lot of those young men got degrees and some of them were in graduate school, so that's always refreshing, but we didn't know we were going to have to sign 14. The staff did a tremendous job."

The first look at the new lineup came last week when the Jaguars visited McNeese State for an exhibition. They trailed 39-37 at the half and stayed close until eight minutes were left in the second half. McNeese created the separation it needed to post a 90-76 win.

Southern used 14 players in the game, four who played more than 20 minutes. Of those four — Julian Greer, Malik Ferguson, Joseph Hunter and Daniel Dormu — only Hunter started the game. Greer led Southern with 14 points, Ferguson added 11, and Hunter and Dormu each scored 10. Greer and Ferguson combined to make 6 of 11 3-point attempts.

"The thing I'm excited about is we got a little bigger on the wing (this year)," Johnson said. "Typically we play 6-2 or 6-3 on the wing, and now we have the ability to play 6-5 or 6-6. I'm excited about how that may change our defense."

Hunter and Greer are both 6-foot-6 while Ferguson is 6-4. The Jaguars also added size on the front line with 6-10 Ibrahim Olajuwon and 7-0 Noah Boyde.

Defense was a strong suit for Southern last season. The Jaguars finished the season 11th nationally in steals with 9.3 per game and 19th in turnovers forced at 14.65.

Southern begins its pre-conference schedule this week with a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Jaguars play at SMU on Monday and at TCU on Friday. The games are part of a 14-game pre-conference schedule that features only three home games. The road games include at No. 18 Iowa State and No. 24 Vanderbilt.

Johnson said the difficulty of the schedule will help the Jaguars.

"This is the toughest nonconference schedule since I've been here," he said. "There are a lot of road games, a lot of P4 games, and we have to really be careful and use it as an opportunity to prepare for league play. That's our focus in the nonconference schedule."