College is a frightening enough transition for an 18-year-old without constant practices, heavy expectations from thousands of students and alumni and seasoned college basketball players on the opposite end of the court, ready to wipe the floor with you.

Josh Davis from Raleigh, N.C., Richard Howell from Marietta, Ga., DeShawn Painter from Norfolk, Va., Jordan Vandenberg from Melbourne, Australia and Scott Wood from Marion, Ind., the newest members of the Pack, have already discovered this – and embraced it.

In coach Sidney Lowe’s third year as head coach, he has now begun to get the type of players he wants for his program, the kind he believes can compete with the dominant level of competition in the ACC.

“We’re just starting to have the type of recruiting classes that we need to have in order to compete on that level,” Lowe said. “We are headed in that direction.”

According to junior point guard Javier Gonzales, the freshmen have a lot to learn in order to gain considerable playing time, but Gonzales and the rest of the team are excited for the freshmen’s contribution.

“We need our young guys to be helpful,” Gonzales said. “We need them to get better so they can come off the bench and help.”

During the exhibition game on Nov. 8, against St. Paul’s College, the freshmen had time to debut their skills. Scott Wood received significant playing time and has hinted he could be a standout in his class. Wood contributed 12 points, all of which were courtesy of three-pointers, during the season opener.

“He’s capable of doing that,” Lowe said of the small forward. “It’s impressive that he could come out and do that in front of a crowd and shoot the way he did.”

Wood has not let his shooting ability get to his head He sad he has continued to focus on improving.

“I’m a shooter,” Wood said. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to come in here and improve a little bit on shooting. But I want to contribute on the defensive end and rebounding—those are two things I need to improve on. I just want to keep getting better everyday.”

Forward Josh Davis also contributed three points and played a total of nine minutes against St. Paul’s College.

DeShawn Painter saw significant playing time during the opening match, and said he hopes to play aggressively at the power forward position for the Pack this season.

“I expect just to play hard,” Painter said. “My role on the team involves rebounding, running the floor—just lots of energy and hopefully this team will win games.”

The demands of playing at the division one college ball level are something most freshmen athletes don’t understand. Richard Howell was no exception.

“This is not something you do for fun,” Howell said. “It’s a job now. If you’re not producing, you’re not playing. It’s not a joke. You have to take it very seriously at this point.”

Howell injured his knee and did not play in the exhibition match, but according to Lowe he should not be out long.

“He will miss some game time,” Lowe said. “But we are counting on him to help us out this year. We hate that we’re going to miss him here early but I also hate that he’s got to deal with an injury this early in his career.”

Once Howell returns, he said he expects his position to change often and fit wherever he is needed.

“I’m versatile, so I can play any position coach wants me to play,” Howell said. “Whatever my coach wants me to do — I’m going to do it.”

Jordan Vandenberg has already showed his intensity and passion for the game. According to Gonzales, he still has room for improvement.

“He has come a long way,” Gonzales said. “He’s being more active and more aggressive and he needs to get better and stronger, but he’ll help us a lot.”

According to Wood, the youth on the team is ready to learn and contribute this season.

“There is a lot of stuff to learn, and someone’s going to have to come in and contribute,” Wood said. “Us freshman, we’re just trying to get better everyday and the veterans are helping us out. Hopefully, we can get better and step in and do work.”