Drexel appears primed to make some noise on the basketball court. Here’s why.

Entering the season, expectations vary for Drexel’s basketball programs.

On one hand, there’s the women’s team. It is picked to finish first in the Colonial Athletic Association and has the conference’s preseason player of the year. On the other, there’s the men’s team with a plethora of new faces, picked to finish seventh.

The women’s team is coming off a 28-6 (16-2 CAA) season and is the defending conference regular-season champion. The men finished 15-14 (10-8).

Since the end of last season, a lot has changed in the CAA. James Madison departed, and Hampton, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T, and Stony Brook joined the conference, now at 13 teams.

In Drexel’s case, the women start the season at home against Rider on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. For the men, it’s Nov. 11 at home against Old Dominion at 7 p.m.

Coming off its historic season, the Dragons are again seen as the team to beat in the CAA. In the preseason poll of conference coaches, Drexel received 10 of 12 first-place votes and had 142 total points, 17 more than runner-up Charleston.

Third-year coach Amy Mallon is familiar with entering the season as one of the favorites and knows what comes with it.

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“Very honored to be in that position,” Mallon said. “But at the same time, we know that puts a target on our back. [It’s] just a reminder to our staff and to our team, we have a lot of work to do.”

While the Dragons are missing a few key players from last year’s team, they’re returning 2021-22 All-CAA first-team member Keishana Washington. Last season, Washington, a 5-foot-7 guard, finished second in the CAA in scoring at 19.2 points per game.

The Pickering, Ontario, native enters her fifth and final year at Drexel as the CAA’s preseason player of the year.

“Definitely a big motivation to continue improving and doing what I can do on the court,” Washington said of the honor, “but I think it’s just more important to me to be that leader for my team and help us stay at the top.”

The big story line going into the season for Zach Spiker’s squad is the amount of production that departed. The Dragons lost four of their five leading scorers from a year ago, most notably three-time All-CAA player Camren Wynter.

In total, Drexel lost seven players and added 10, and with such a large amount of roster turnover, Spiker has prioritized becoming connected.

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“The most important thing is the connection and relationship you have with your players,” said Spiker, who is entering his seventh season as Drexel’s coach. “… I think you have to have the relationships, you have to have the connection, and I work very hard to do that. … If you’re not a connected group, the other stuff doesn’t matter as much.”

This summer, the Dragons had a unique opportunity to travel to Italy for a 10-day trip and play four games against club and professional teams. Some say the experience as a whole helped the team on and off the court.

“I thought that those four games and that trip in Italy was great from a basketball standpoint,” Spiker said, “but even better from a team-building and just a family-cohesion standpoint.”

While there certainly are a lot of new faces, the Dragons do have their share of veterans such as fifth-year guard Coletrane Washington, seniors Mate Okros and Luke House, and junior Amari Williams, the reigning CAA defensive player of the year..

Williams, a 6-10 forward, was named to the All-CAA preseason second team after averaging 9.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game last season.